| Dedication and Thank Yous | p. xi |
| Introduction | p. xii |
| Foreplay, Or How Tina Fey Can Kick Bruce Willis' Ass | p. xvi |
| How to Use this Book | |
| How to Bust a Gut | |
| Or Comedy College 101 | p. 1 |
| A Criminally Brief History of Film Comedy | p. 4 |
| Yes, But What Kind of Comedy? | p. 15 |
| Exercise: Beg, Steal, or Borrow | p. 26 |
| The Comedic Idea | |
| A.K.A. The Importance of Being Inappropriate A.K.A. The Blues Brothers are Not Role Models | p. 27 |
| The Inappropriate Goal | p. 28 |
| The Comedic Logline A.K.A. The Pitch | p. 31 |
| Uniquely Familiar | p. 37 |
| Exercise: Twenty Uniquely Familiar Ideas | p. 39 |
| The Fill-in-the Blanks Elevator Pitch | p. 42 |
| Exercise: The Poster | p. 43 |
| Plot Vs. Character: Who Will Win? | |
| Comedic Character | |
| A.K.A. A Fool's Journey A.K.A. I Know A Guy Just Like That | p. 47 |
| The Importance of Character | p. 47 |
| A Fool's Journey | p. 48 |
| Take Your Silliness Seriously | p. 49 |
| Characters Change | p. 51 |
| The Rock and Roll School of Screenwriting | p. 54 |
| Plot vs. Character | p. 56 |
| Building the Comic Character | p. 57 |
| Exercise: The Comedic Character Worksheet | p. 59 |
| What I Really Want To Do Is Direct | p. 66 |
| Comic Vision | p. 69 |
| Inappropriate Behavior | p. 70 |
| Inappropriate Dialogue | p. 71 |
| Unity of Opposites | p. 72 |
| Rowing a Sinking Boat | p. 74 |
| Funny People | p. 74 |
| Exercise: Character Work | p. 81 |
| Hilarity and Heart | |
| A.K.A. It's All About the Wolf Pack | p. 83 |
| The "Classic" and Still Modern Three-Act Structure | p. 86 |
| Exercise: Question Everything | p. 87 |
| The Comedic Sequence Approach | p. 88 |
| Scene Study | p. 90 |
| Putting Scenes to Work in Events | p. 98 |
| Exercise: Funny Scenes | p. 99 |
| The Secret Ingredients of Comedic Scenes | p. 100 |
| The Comedic Roadmap - The Eight Comic Sequences | |
| Comic Sequence (A) | |
| A.K.A. The Comedic World | |
| A.K.A. Well Begun is Half Done | p. 107 |
| Setting Up the Comedic World | p. 109 |
| Exercise: Comedy Calisthenics | p. 111 |
| What is the Tone of Your Story? | p. 112 |
| The Prestory | p. 113 |
| Open With a Hook - First Impressions | p. 115 |
| Denning Action | p. 120 |
| Status Quo-Something's Missing | p. 122 |
| Exposition | p. 124 |
| Point of Attack - Opportunity Knocks | p. 125 |
| Exercise: Rewrite Your Favorite Movie | p. 127 |
| Comic Sequence (B) | |
| Setting up the Inappropriate Goal A.K.A. "You're Going to Do What?" or Why Crashing A Wedding is a Good Idea | p. 128 |
| What the Hell Happened to Me? | p. 130 |
| The Buddy | p. 131 |
| Meet the Bad Guy A.K.A. The Dick | p. 132 |
| The Dramatic Question - Oh, That's What it's About | p. 134 |
| End of the First Act - Protagonist and Objective | p. 136 |
| Exercise: Change the Point of View | p. 138 |
| Act Two! | |
| A.K.A. Where Scripts Go to Die | |
| Comic Sequence (C) | |
| The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World A.K.A. Sometimes Girls Throw up on You | p. 139 |
| Oh Yes, Oh No! | p. 140 |
| Start Small and Go Big | p. 141 |
| The Promise of the Premise | p. 142 |
| The Main Events of Sequence C | p. 142 |
| The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | p. 142 |
| Establish the Initial Goal | p. 145 |
| Learning New Rules / Taking on Appearances | p. 146 |
| Friends and Enemies | p. 147 |
| Subplots | p. 149 |
| Subplots and Themes | p. 151 |
| First Attempt Fails - Maybe | p. 152 |
| Exercise in Conflict: The Agitator | p. 153 |
| Comic Sequence (D) | |
| It Just Keeps Getting Worse a.k.a. How Much Pain Can Ben Stiller Take? | p. 154 |
| Five Events to the Midpoint | p. 156 |
| Anticipation and Reaction Scenes | p. 156 |
| Reaction Scenes | p. 157 |
| Ramping Up | p. 157 |
| Backward from the Midpoint | p. 158 |
| The Midpoint Hints at the Ending | p. 158 |
| Importance of Location | p. 160 |
| Comic Sequence (E) | |
| Love in the Air A.K.A. Why Andy Chooses Love over Sex | p. 162 |
| Reaction to the Midpoint | p. 163 |
| Major Character Shift | p. 164 |
| Develop the Theme | p. 165 |
| Upping the Stakes | p. 166 |
| The Jolt | p. 167 |
| Comic Exercise: The Soundtrack | p. 168 |
| Comic Sequence (F) | |
| What Was I Thinking? a.k.a. Yes, I'm a Liar But | p. 170 |
| A Final Push | p. 171 |
| Good Times Never Last | p. 171 |
| Expose the Character's Weakness | p. 172 |
| The Calm Before the Storm | p. 173 |
| End of Act Two: Bad Things Happen | p. 173 |
| Other Ways to End Act Two | p. 175 |
| Act Three | |
| Comic Sequence (G) | |
| Time to Grow Up A.K.A. Why Are Ashton and Natalie So Sad Even Though They Said No Strings Attached? | p. 177 |
| So What Is Act Three? | p. 179 |
| What Else Should Happen In My Act Three? | p. 179 |
| Singing the Blues | p. 181 |
| Who Am I? | p. 182 |
| Help from the Mentor | p. 183 |
| The Last Great Decision | p. 183 |
| Comic Sequence (H) | |
| The New Me A.K.A. Why Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey, Hugh Grant, Natalie Portman are Running at the End of the Movie | p. 185 |
| The Battle | p. 185 |
| Convergence | p. 186 |
| Sacrifice | p. 187 |
| Resurrection | p. 187 |
| Epiphany | p. 188 |
| The Final Race | p. 189 |
| The New Me | p. 190 |
| Take a Breath at the End | p. l90 |
| A Word About Satisfying Endings | p. 191 |
| Writing the Screenplay | |
| Writing the Screenplay | p. 192 |
| Turning the Scriptment into the Script | p. 193 |
| Why Do Screenplays Fail? | p. 193 |
| The Writing Begins | p. 196 |
| Some Words about Dialogue | p. 197 |
| Trust the Work You Have Done | p. 198 |
| How Do I Know when It's Done? | p. 199 |
| The Business of Writing | p. 199 |
| Funny Is Money | p. 201 |
| Filmography | p. 203 |
| About the Author | p. 214 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
