Joel Cohen Writer and Co-Executive Producer of The Simpsons
Every scene of most comedies end with a joke that transitions audience to next scene in a light manner. That joke is called a "blow".
How to engage an audience
FYI: Kathy Griffin got Joel a job on Suddenly Susan and then he got to The Simpsons
Simpsons--digital storytelling with personal start (named after someone's family members)
"D'oh" is now in the Dictionary
Homer voted most famous American!
4 fingers implies Japanese maffia
Simpsons--hopefully by offending everyone we're offending no one
Joke is innovation on expectations. A twist at the end from something relatable at the beginning.
Find the human emotion that people connect to. Emotional core=relatability
Bad idea is an opportunity in a collective supportive group
Working with a diverse group provides different, varied perspectives, and individual ideas open up the spectrum from which we can draw from
Tips:
Like a puzzle there are different ways to find the answer to the problem
Try and look at the problem from different angles
Find a surprising different way to go
Look for combinations of "things" you don't think go together.
Not screwing up innovation when you have something good
Remember the context--don't ruin something great by trying to make it better
Think about taking yourself out of the decision and use a filter to decide what will be successful.
Pitched
I will not hide the teacher's flask
A boger is not a bookmark
WW2 was not just a lousy sequel
A hall pass is not a "liscense to kill"
Environment
Relatiablily
Group work-diverse
Fight your first instinct
Novel combinations
Context is this great idea the best gerat idea
a humble filter
Improvement on innovation
On where is "Springfield" ? "We try and screw with our fans as much as possible...Springfield is everywhere man!"
From KyleMackie on Twitter:
creativity is not coming up with a finite number of answers from an infinite number of choices...
...but rather coming up with an infinite number of answers from a finite number of choices.
9 months to make an episode
Favorite episode for Joel "Before the Laughter".
Proudest Moment: Meeting celebrities and fans.
Episode is driven by a theme
In response is "what is it teaching us? I know there is probably something there but I just can't find it." One of the few shows that family's can watch together.
There are things there that can bring us together. It shows us that how much they are messed up, the family stays together.
We are a group we ebb and flow. So hopefully when I'm ebbing someone else is flowing.
You get energized by a good joke.
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