Can sitcom writing be taught?
Well, yes and no. I stress that what I am teaching is the method that works best for me. It’s certainly not the only way. Graham Linehan, for instance, who is in my opinion the best comedy writer we’ve seen for 25 years, has a completely different approach. And ‘Seinfeld’, one of my favourite sitcoms of all time, hardly follows any of the ‘rules’ I talk about. I think ‘tools’ is maybe a better word than rules, it rhymes and it’s funnier. The more you know, the easier it should be to break the rules. (Apart from the one that it has to be funny!).
