Why I won't see Norbit, part 2

The short script I'm filming is based largely on the principal that cokeheads are hilarious when contrasted with people of opposing personalities. Trainer has seen too many cokeheads. He says coke addiction is not funny.

Writing Partner, on the other hand, who has also seen cokeheads, thinks it's hilarious. It's the absurdity that interests him. The sex, the drugs, the board game gone horribly wrong.

Last weekend I thought up a new short idea involving drug addiction and slight insanity. Trainer thinks it's hilarious. Partner thinks emotional disorders and drug and alcohol abuse aren't funny. Go figure.

I say it's all about the subtext and the message we want to send. In Game Night, Partner and I are showing bored people all trying to entertain themselves through drugs, sex and the emotional games they play with each other. In the new script I want to show how the people we show the most disdain for are often the things we fear the most about ourselves. If I know what I'm doing that will come across.

It's all about the message.

Take Office Space, my personal favorite comedy of all time. It's a story about embezzlement, layoffs and burning down your office building. One character attempts suicide. But the absurdity of it all is what makes it funny, and everybody ends up coming through much improved in the end. The message: Do what you love. Stop torturing yourself in a cubicle if you'd rather be outside shoveling dirt.

Comedy has to have something serious at its core to ring true. But I guess what's true for one person isn't true for everybody.