"DMs are Open" Week 2 - Creating vs Consuming

In which I make rather than watch, but it feels strange. And David Lynch sorts it all out.

For further context of what I’m up to this week and next, there’s this post

"DMs are Open", and so is my writing process, heart and snack cupboard

I have literally just made my submissions for week two of “DMs are Open”, and I have to admit that it was harder this week. The themes were “Enemies” and “Holiday”, which on the surface don’t seem harder than “Help!” and “Secret”, but both myself and Katy¹ have struggled more with generating ideas for this batch.

I don’t suppose I only had five or six ideas in my head and they were all burned up last week, or that I can’t generate new ideas in the span of a week. More likely is that it’s hard work fitting this around life and work, and the adrenaline of week one has given way to the obligation and expectation of week two.

Here’s the notebook for this week, clearly showing that separate ideas were combined into the SECRET ACTUAL IDEA. I like to think of it more as extra-powerful combination comedy than thin gruels mashed together, but we’ll see.

“Enemies”

Obvious (Avoid)

1. Superheroes!²

2. Warring neighbours

3. War room

4. Blustery general

Ideas

1. Under the Sea Hip-Hop Group?

2. SECRET ACTUAL IDEA based on a recurring character from week 1 of submissions - he was a superhero.³

3. Social Network of enemies

   1. Hatebook, Loathster, Ab-hor, Repugnagram, Odium, Discussed/Disgust

   2. Have fun with the rules “No-one knows you’re following them”

   3. Punchline “How is this different to what we have?” “It’s not really”

In the end, the best bits of 1 were combined with 2, to make one of the silliest sketches I’ve ever written. And that is saying something.

“Holiday”

Obvious (Avoid)

• Beach

• Airport

• Family getting lost

• Christmas? (Happy holidays)

Ideas

1. SECRET ACTUAL IDEA

2. Recurring character (superhero, as above⁴)

   1. He wants a holiday?

   2. His “Lois Lane” wants a holiday - “It doesn’t mean anything if it’s easy, can we do a holiday like normal unpowered humans?”

      1. He keeps wanting to use his powers, in scenarios where that would really help but she won’t let him

      2. Punchline that she asks him to do it for the final obstacle

3. Packing

   1. Someone has packed for a two week trip with three items - announced in the check-in queue

      1. Underpants (it’s not just one pair, it’s three - one for a swap while we’re away, two as extra bags(ALTS⁵) if we need them)

      2. A pen

      3. Furby/Stuffed animal/Glass ballerina figure/AN OBJECT THAT IS THE PUNCHLINE FOR A SITUATION

      4. Get out of jail free for logic with what is on their person - clothes, phone (“You can get your passport as an app now”)

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So one major thing I’ve noticed is that I’m not watching as much TV as usual, and I can feel the lack in my bones. It’s fantastic to have creative drive and a reason to make comedy, but TV soothes and relaxes me and my evenings feel very different without it. I know from the earliest days of writing comedy that I work best late at night, which for a father of a four year old with a day job means staying up until 11pm sometimes⁶, giving me three potential hours of writing after bedtime of 8pm. So, TV has had to go to hit the deadlines.

The only TV I’ve vaguely consumed since last Wednesday was two episodes of The Traitors at my in-laws while I wrote and they watched with my wife. I silently judged a show that entertains millions, and even occasionally drew my attention, despite my best efforts. I hope you’re all enjoying it.

I have managed some reading, and strangely enough is related to TV. It’s the latest volume of Michael Palin’s Diaries, There and Back. He’s in the midst of filming and writing books for his travel series, and dealing with September 11th, dinner parties and Terry Gilliam.

Fortunately this reading will also further inspire some TV watching as I’d love to watch, or maybe rewatch⁷, Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure (on iPlayer) and Sahara (currently only available as a YouTube playlist as far as I can tell).

I also have a List of Entertainment What I Have Gathered (for as imminent consumption as possible)

• Saturday Morning All Star Hits - thanks to the excellent post below from The Treatment for this recommendation. I watched episode 1 in place of my Palin fix last night and I loved the subversion of early 90s Saturday morning kids TV, which I hope increases and goes bananas.

  'Y2K' (2024)

• Inside Job (Netflix) An animation recommendation from Katy during our script feedback chats, from some of the team behind Gravity Falls, which I adore.

• The Sticky (Prime Video) - thanks to the excellent post below from Beth’s TV & Film Recommendations, another tremendous Substack discovery. It’s a maple syrup heist caper. They don’t come along very often.

  January Shows I'm Watching: The Funny, the Messy, and the Criminal

• Theatre of Blood (Prime Video) - Added to the list thanks to the Inside No. 9 documentary I watched in a jetlagged state, this Vincent Price film was a major inspiration for Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

• The Giant O’Brien by Hilary Mantel - I’ve been searching every bookshop I’m near⁸ for a copy of Beyond Black as it is thematically relevant to my own writing and I loved the TV version of Wolf Hall but don’t want to read something I’ve already watched the adaptation of, and is known to be true to the books. But my mother-in-law found this novel for me instead in Keel Row Books in Whitley Bay. So I’ll take what fate throws at me⁹ !

• This arrived. It’s a reminder that not everything about the US is bad at a time when that feels quite true.

Further salve for the current depressing state of the world is this reminder from the maestro David Lynch, who left our realm last week, that all is going to be fine at the end of the story.

Footnotes

1. We met on Joel Morris’ Writer’s Room course, which I can highly recommend, not least for having found some new comedy writing friends!

2. Not to give too much away about the SECRET ACTUAL IDEA, but… oops.

3. Yep, oops. The production team mentioned in the opening webinar that they were interested in recurring characters given their consistent cast for this series. So I’m giving it a go, but making sure the sketches are standalone in an effort to multi-basket my eggs.

4. And below, i.e. in the footnotes directly above here. I think I’m getting lost in the footnote weeds a little.

5. This is code for, this isn’t funny enough but is a good enough placeholder.

6. It used to mean writing until 2am or so, THEN watching some TV to relax to sleep. Heady days.

7. I was 14 in 1999 and not very into travel documentaries, even when fronted by comedy legends.

8. When consuming time is scarce, making the gathering a little bit harder is a wise move. It’s why I have never gone in for torrents and downloads, I’d never have time to live. Buying a physical book in person means I feel more connected to it and more obligated to read it. Plus bookshops are the third best place on earth (darkened living room with the TV on, cinema, Disney theme park, bookshop. This list is variable depending on mood).

9. Translation - Add it to the increasingly ridiculous To Be Read pile.