View sketch comedy, either alone or with other improvisers. (Some shows you could use for this exercise are Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, The Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, and Upright Citizens Brigade.) Identify the Game by summing up what is funny about each sketch. Describe the Game in a few sentences or less. Then try to describe it in one sentence. Then distill the Game into five words or less.
In distilling the Game of each sketch, don’t use specifics or create a plot synopsis.
Examples: The Game of Monty Python’s “Cheese Shop” is “specialty shop that does not sell what it claims to specialize in.” The Game of Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot” is “refusal to acknowledge an irrefutable fact.”
Once you have identified the Game, imagine it existing in another situation with different specifics. (Example: A sketch where a husband refuses to admit he has been cheating as his wife catches him in bed with two women would have the same basic Game as “Dead Parrot.” A sketch about a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop that has no ice cream would have the same Game as “Cheese Shop.”)
Another level you could add to this exercise would be to try and write out a new sketch using the Game of a classic sketch. Here is the start of a sketch using the Game from the “Cheese Shop” sketch:
PRIEST: “Welcome, my son. How long has it been since your last confession?”
PARISHONER: “Six months, Father.”
PRIEST: “Very well.”
PARISHIONER: “I disobeyed my parents.”
PRIEST: “Not a sin.”
PARISHIONER: “Oh…I thought I had failed to honor thy father and mother. I took the Lord’s name in vain.”
PRIEST: “Nope. Not a sin.”
PARISHIONER: “Really? I’m pretty sure that’s one of the Ten Commandments.”
PRIEST: “I’m sorry, I don’t consider everything a sin.”
PARISHIONER: “But I’m here for confession.”
PRIEST: “Yes, that’s right. We’re in a confessional, I’m a priest; confess away.”
PARISHIONER: “I thought impure thoughts about a girl in my class.”
PRIEST: “Sorry, can’t forgive that one.”
PARISHIONER: “Why not?”
PRIEST: “No way for me to be sure you did that.” The parishioner pulls money out of his pocket.
PARISHIONER: “Look! This is money I stole from a classmate!”
PRIEST: “Hmm, did you steal it or did you borrow it?”
PARISHIONER: “I stole it! I have no intention of returning it!”
PRIEST: “Sorry, I’m still gonna give you
a pass on that one.”PURPOSE