Comedy is much more difficult to write and to play in films, theaters and games. This is what actor Being Ron saying: Having been a stage actor, people sometimes ask me if it’s harder to perform comedy or drama? And honestly, I must say that even though it’s my forte, comedy is harder. Mainly, because you can’t fake funny. If you don’t believe me, try making yourself produced a laugh, and then try making yourself produce tears. I think you’ll find it much more challenging to make yourself genuinely laugh, than you will tears. I once heard Bette Davis share in an interview, that she had great difficultly making herself laugh on cue in a scene. I have found that most comedic actors can easily shift into drama, yet not all dramatic actors can make the shift into comedy. Comedy is demanding because it’s all about having a keen sixth sense of timing. You have to feel when to pause for the laughs; sensing when to continue. Also, comedy must start with truth and seriousness in order for it to be genuinely funny. A comedic actor must be aware of the humor, but play against it. In addition, stage comedy relies much on the participation of the audiences audible reaction. So, if you have a dead audience some nights, you have to learn how to rise above it and not permit them to affect your performance. And in film, comedy is even harder. Because there is no live audience. Allow me to interject here, that whether it be comedy or drama, I truly believe you cannot be taught how to act. Acting is a gift. Sure, you can be taught a ‘technique’, but unless that technique is invisible to the audience, your acting will register as mechanical. Many times I’ve watched an actor onstage or on the screen trying to use a particular technique, and to me it’s very obvious. Obvious, because I see them thinking about it, rather than trusting that the technique has become second nature. A true artist knows how to take a technique, and then infuse it with their own natural talent; making it naked to the eye. I have always found it frustrating to work with other actors who like to talk about and analyze a scene incessantly before rehearsing it. I guess you could call me an 'organic actor' because I don’t act by thinking about it. I act by throwing myself into a scene and then seeing what happens. I let my intuition lead the way. I started out being a comedic actor because comedy came natural to me. I honestly didn’t think I could ever perform drama because I somehow thought I would over-blow it - and was scared shitless to try it. However, I soon discovered that if I took my understanding of comedy and then applied it to drama, I could do it. Starting with the truth. Believing in what I’m doing. And then just surrendering to the dialogue. Strangely enough, because of my background in comedy, I was able to uncover the humorous levels in a dramatic character. I mean after all, a human being is not all one thing. I’ve played some not-very-nice characters in my career, and was able to find bits of humor in them so that the audience didn’t end up totally hating them. Yes, comedy will always be my favorite. It’s both easy, yet very challenging. However, dabbling in drama opened my eyes to portraying the truth in all characters. Finding the comedy in the drama. And the drama in the comedy. As in life….it is all blended together!

http://www.triloquist.net/2011/06/comedy-or-drama-which-is-harder.html

This it what Steve Liskow is saying: I've often been accused of being funny, except by my former students. I've directed comedy in theater, too, both contemporary (Christopher Durang) and classical (Several Shakespeare including The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night), and my stories and novels always include some humor. A few years ago, someone suggested I add another workshop to my repertoire: writing humor. I hedged. Then I visited libraries, bookstores and the Internet to find books on writing comedy. I found only a few, and none of them helped me. Drama is easy. Melodrama is easy. Comedy is eff-ing hard. Comedy comes from two sources. One is the situation, the basis of slapstick humor. Shakespeare's drunks and fools usually followed this tradition, which goes back to the Greek and Roman playwrights (Remember, Will lifted The Comedy of Errors wholesale from Plautus). This often becomes farce, where the characters become puppets in service to the plot. The other source is more intellectual or verbal. Puns, wordplay and irony replace the pratfalls, and some people appreciate this more than others. If you tell the same joke to ten people, a few will roar, some will chuck, a couple will smile, and at least one will say, "Oh, that's it?" Like American English, comedy relies on rhythm. Years ago, I attended a one-day workshop on directing comedy, and the instructor stressed "The Machine," the progression and rhythm that make a scene or play "funny." He said if you change the order or any component, you'll kill the joke. I agree. Years ago, my wife played the fussy roommate in the female version of The Odd Couple, and the other actress insisted on adding "uh-huh, oh really" and other ad libs to the famous exchange about "It's not spaghetti, it's linguini." She never got a laugh. Ever. Not one single night. The only other specific hint I remember about directing comedy came from my directing mentor in grad school: Gorgeous is not funny...unless she slips on a banana peel. My first drafts aren't funny. Humor grows out of revision, usually from a character's reaction to the situation, more ironic than slapstick. If it doesn't feel like part of the character and the whole milieu, it doesn't work for me. I try not to reach for it because if it emerges, it's a pleasant surprise for me, too, and that's how punchlines work. They deliver what the audience expects, but not the way they expect it. My favorite authors write humor better than I do. Maybe that's one reason I like them. Louise Penny uses twisted literary allusions and puns, usually as responses from the residents of Three Pines, whom we've grown to know and love over the course of her Armand Gamache series. Dennis Lehane's irony--karma comes to town--often involves character, too. Don Winslow can use irony, but he can also go slapstick. His recent novella "The San Diego Zoo" builds on an outrageous situation seen through the eyes of a cop who becomes a laughingstock on social media. The opening line is "Nobody knows how the chimp got the revolver," and the story races to the logically absurd conclusion from that premise. Elvis Cole, the PI of many Robert Crais novels, loves self-deprecating throw-aways. Several romance authors write great comedy, too. Look at Jennifer Crusie's dialogue, especially late in a book where her characters paraphrase earlier speeches and turn them on their heads. None of these writers could steal another's joke and make it work in their own stories. Comedy is personal, and that's what makes it so hard. 28.10.25

https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2020/08/comedy-is-hard.html

Caimh McDonnell: Have you ever noticed how people react differently to a new TV drama than a new sitcom? It is a widely held belief among comedy writers that sitcoms get dumped on way harder by critics than other types of shows. Leaving aside the fact that ironically, comedy writers are much bigger drama queens than drama writers, they do have a point. The theory goes, that if someone feels like you’ve tried to tell them a joke and they don’t get it, they will actively start to dislike you for it. Either they will think you’re an idiot or they will think that you think they are. People take comedy personally. 28.10.25

https://www.writing.ie/resources/the-golden-rules-of-writing-comedy-by-caimh-mcdonnell/

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