How I came up with the sketch show

I have always been a fan of comedy and for many years have been making silly videos with friends. I first came across sketch shows when I was a Kid watching children’s sketch show “sorry I’ve got no head”, show like these sparked my curiosity for comedy’s and sketch shows. In a few years I have seen a vast amount of sketch comedies ranging from the film parodies of French and Saunders too the dark and macabre humour of The League of Gentlemen.

I’ve always had ideas for sketch shows, constantly changing over the years as I grow and watch a wider range of comedy. My latest ideas for a sketch show often require a budget I certainly cannot afford so for my project I had to focus on words and basic visuals to create my desired comedic affect. This meant writing a lot of monologues that require little in production and to set the various sketches in places that were easy to obtain and film in. E.G: Outside in public and inside my flat.

For my fmp I took direct influence from shows like “Fleabag”, “Saturday Night Live”, “A Bit Of Fry and Laurine” and “The League Of Gentlemen”.

The titles from Fleabag help me divide and pace the show.

The character inspiration from SNL helped develop the styling of the sketches. For example the character of Oil Barron as a old evil like character with his mad cap stories and random shouting, helped me to create my version of the oil Barron. Link to snl sketch: here

The One-liners from A Bit Of Fry and Laurie inspired my own one-liners for the video. There out of context random lines that take apart modern ideas in a single line. For example “oh god I left the cooker on”

And the quirky dark humour from The League Of Gentlemen, a comedy foursome of writers/performers, influenced the subjects of the comedy. For example they have a running sketch where a couple of local people of the fictional town of Royston Vassey whom are inbred and fearful of outsiders to the point they torture and kill them. Mixed with repetitive lines and misunderstandings this becomes one of the most funniest and iconic sketches from the league of gentlemen.