After another class at DSI Comedy Theater focused on game of the scene, I’m inspired to write about the most classic comedy prop, the banana peel. My students learn about comedy and “game” in terms of stimulus & response. So, the banana peel. We know what it represents. We imagine comedic potential. We daydream possible outcomes. Even though we ALREADY know what happens. We look forward to the inevitable. But WHY? And who do we thank? The person who left our banana peel on the street or the poor sap who takes the spill? The stimulus or the response? You tell me. And now that we’ve started to diagnose game, WHEN someone falls on a banana peel how are they likely to interact with the rest of the world?
Repeatedly exploring that character quality while contrasting the ways it manifests = COMEDY!
Sidebar: Has ANYONE ever really truly fallen on a banana peel? (Our answer should be a resounding “No” — Myth Busters). But then, what does that mean about people who do? They project ignorance about the presence of a banana peel to exploit the peel, to achieve the comedic payoff of slipping on one.
Now you, slow down the thought process of a comic right up to her slip and FALL for comedy.
Sidebar: Some students have a hard time with the simple gag of FALLING on the banana peel because it’s what “the audience” expects to happen, and it may not feel like an Artistic choice. But in comedy what might be unexpected does not matter if what the audience wants trumps those unexpected choices.
What are your improv questions? I want to answer them.
Tags: banana peel, Comedy, DSI Comedy Theater, game, game of the scene, IMPROV 201, improv questions, Myth Busters, repetition & contrast, stimulus & reponse
Awesome post! Great to see a comedy man attack a classic comedy question. I like the idea of what the audience wants trumping what might be unexpected. And that you used a female pronoun for a banana peel slip – hooary for lady comedians.
Do you think this idea of unexpected v. audience desire is more applicable to short form or long form?
Thanks Alyssa!
You know how I feel about shortform versus longform. I only see improv. In longform we may have more opportunity to execute on the “slip and FALL” But ultimately we still need to do what the audience wants. Only sometimes THE AUDIENCE might not know what it wants and when a smart performer delivers something that the audience wanted without them realizing that’s what they wanted it can be incredibly powerful.
Imagine: Three beats of banana peel scenes in Longform.
We could have just had the “Character slip on a banana peel Blackout” in the third beat (and it would have been funny and definitely would have satisfied the audience), but here we see her barely avoid her fate, barely avoid her fate, then FINALLY take control of her fate only to have her THEN slip and fall, which has a greater payoff. Why? Because we got to see her FALL (what we wanted the whole time) AND we deliver a potential message about how society can still “FALL” even when we appear to be in control.
Oh, I love lady comedians.
I love it. Thanks for such a great answer
Good post!
I actually DID slip on a banana peel once, though I didn’t fall down.
I saw the banana peel ahead of time and arrogantly stepped on it anyway, and it slid a few inches under my feet.
It was both sobering and almost funny.
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