Delivering Jokes Through Editing: BOJACK HORSEMAN

This scene from BoJack Horseman 4.05 "Thoughts and Prayers" lands its punch line through simple framing and editing.

Setup

The joke works best because it’s a natural part of blocking, shots/angles, and editing which don’t call attention to themselves.

First a Medium Wide 2 Shot of Diane and Courtney, followed by medium singles of each Diane and Courtney.

The shots flow as any ‘typical’ scene would, moving from wide, to closer in a single on the character who is speaking, and sometimes back out to the wide to show the two characters in relationship to each other.

And then as Diane starts ranting it moves into a similar shot to the previous Medium of Diane; sure it’s slightly closer, but it’s natural to move into closeups as a scene progresses. This feels like a normal shot within the flow of conversation, nice and familiar, until . . .

Punchline

BAM, Diana brings the gun into frame, before a dolly back / zoom out to a two-shot.

You could accomplish the joke with an edit, which jump back to a wider shot to reveal Diane holding the gun, but it’s funnier and more effective this way because we don’t just realise Diane is holding the gun, we realise she is realising it for the first time.

Or to put it another way: an edit here would show/tell us the audience something about the gun; letting Diane bring the gun into frame shows/tells us something about the gun and Diane.

See Also

Here’s a related joke, accomplished differently!

Ignore the live action versus animation — it’s about principles, which are the same even though techniques used are slightly different.

The immediate leadup to the joke continues similar angles to the rest of the scene, angles which feel ‘of a piece.’

The angle and blocking where the punchline is delivered — in Diane’s case a closeup, in Troy’s the way the camera is positioned behind Shirley’s bag — sits still to let the actor do their thing.

The actor, meanwhile, doesn’t tip the shift til the last possible second.

Voila! comedy magic!

Takeaways

Gun jokes are funny partly because guns are dangerous and our [read: Americans] easy access to them (waving them in a parking lot, carrying them in your purse as casually as you might have a pregnancy test) is absurd.

Part of executing these particular jokes is leaning into the casual in the leadup, playing everything from angles to performance as fine and normal until the gun is suddenly in play.

Next Up

We follow the camera and Courtney Portnoy into a surprising place . . .