- Metamorphosis
In animation someone or something can totally change physically into someone or
something entirely different. - Shell Game
People, props, or animals shuffle, hide, and pop up where they’re least expected. - Funny Chase
Chases right out of the Keystone Cops. - Food Is Fun
Characters can have food fights. Food can be gross or crazy like fried bugs or purple
ice cream with green spots. - Rube Goldberg Inventions
Kids love fantastic machines, devices, and contraptions—the more complex and sillier,
the better. - Try-Fails
Kids love a character who keeps trying and goofing up. They can relate. Build this
series of failures so that each failure is bigger than the one before. - Action Gag
Based on action rather than a funny situation. Action gags are very visual and depend
on timing and the funny way in which the action is performed. - The Running Gag
Keeps repeating during the course of the story or series. It’s funnier as it goes along.
Often has a twist each time it repeats. Bugs Bunny’s “What’s up, Doc?” - Gag Series
All based on a single situation or prop. This series builds and gets funnier and wilder
with each new gag topping the one before. Here you’re milking one basic idea for all
it’s worth: A cat watches a goldfish in a bowl. The fish peeks out, and you see two
huge, cat eyes magnified by the bowl. The goldfish dives and flips a piece of seaweed
onto the cat’s nose. The cat reacts and leaps for the bowl. In the next shot we see the
bowl on top of the cat’s head. The fish blows a huge bubble. It lands on the cat’s tail.
The cat turns around and bats at the bowl, flipping the goldfish up into the air. By the
end of the gag series, the whole room is in a shambles, with the fish playing a victory
song on its own scales. - Artist Gags
The artists devise these. They involve funny drawings, the use of funny staging, design,
animation, effects, and color. The writer may try to describe them, but it’s really up
to the artists to make them funny.188 Animation Writing and Development