The Simple Formula for Witty Dialogue

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Wit! You can't describe it but you know wit when you see it. It's coming up with the perfect quip at the right moment, but how does one master the art of being witty? As Humphrey Bogart said in "The Barefoot Contessa", there's more to talking than just words (that's a paradox).
What do William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder, Peter Greenaway, Groucho Marx and you two hours too late have in common? We'll go through some of the wittiest movies ever written like "Ridicule", "All About Eve", "The Thin Man", "His Girl Friday", "Casablanca", "The Belly of an Architect", "The Lion in Winter", "Closer", "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "Sweet Smell of Success" to find out.
This video essay will reveal the simple formula that can make you a master of wordplay, repartee, paradox, quipping or what you will. I know you're already a master of double entendre.
00:00 Ridicule
00:57 Wit
01:50 Wordplay
02:58 Double entendre
03:38 "Misinterpretation"
04:09 Thinking Wit
06:11 Sweet Smell of Success
07:00 Specificity
08:30 Esprit d'escalier
#videoessay #dialogue #screenwriting #cinema #screenwritingtips #film #witty
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21 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 76

@mayorofohio Год назад

this is such a great channel i’m so glad i found it

@Moviewise Год назад

And I’m glad you’re here, Mister Mayor

@grindelston5968 11 месяцев назад

Massively underrated, I think your channel will be big someday

@lunarmodule6419 10 месяцев назад

And he makes more points for referecing non-american movies - older at that

@BOBMAN1980 10 месяцев назад

"Dammmit. I keep getting my skis stuck in these fucking weeds!" "How do you know they're FUCKING weeds?" "Because there'll be more of them in the springtime." True story, abbreviated.

@AxelQC 8 месяцев назад

"Ridicule" is a fantastic film. I highly recommend.

@LukeRanieri 11 месяцев назад

Wonderful! and George Costanza at the end was pure poetry

@totallyfrozen 10 месяцев назад

We’ve all felt it

@ronmackinnon9374 6 месяцев назад

'The jerk store called, and they're out of you!!' 'But George...they don't *have* jerk stores.'

@AWinkAndASmile 6 месяцев назад

One reason that I enjoy your videos is your own mastery of wit: "Now, go and wit away." A clever use of catachresis.

@postmodernrecycler Год назад

Somehow you uncanned 3000 years of philosophy and 100 years of film in 10 minutes. That is wit. RIDICULE ends with the Englishman, "Screw wit. We have humour." Your analysis teaches and delights.

@Moviewise Год назад

Thank you, as ever, for the comment, Postmodern Recycler!

@deborahrose8621 6 месяцев назад

Such charming wit!

@abrahemsamander3967 6 месяцев назад

I’ve wanted a video like this for a long time.

@RavensOsFan89 Год назад

Wonderful video essay Movie wise.

@Moviewise Год назад

Thank you for watching, Ryan

@curtisnixon5313 9 месяцев назад

At the start of the movie 'Blind Flight' Brian Keenan writes on the blackboard in his English language classroom: "the Englishman is funny, he makes me laugh. The Irishman is witty, he makes me think." Always stuck with me.

@acriticwithoutacause8983 Год назад

learned a lot as always. I hope your videos will make the audience smarter & smarter. One day they will start demanding better script over the silly popcorn movies that make millions.

@Moviewise Год назад

Hope springs eternal, my friend

@ronmackinnon9374 6 месяцев назад

I completely agree that 'Sweet Smell of Success' has some of the best dialogue ever written. 👍 (Edit:) BTW (for anyone who doesn't know), the screenplay for that film was co-written by the New York playwright Clifford Odets, who was the basis for the title character from the Coen brothers' 'Barton Fink.'

@Selrisitai 10 месяцев назад

For years I've been saying, from the perspective of a novelist, that specificity lends authority and wit, which can in turn create humor. I'd always use the example of someone cutting you off while you're driving along, and saying, "This car cut me off!" versus saying, "This yellow Prius cut me off!" For some reason, just being specific about it being a yellow Prius makes the phrase far more interesting, which isn't saying much. Your example of the fifty-yard dash is far better in every way. Still, it's good to know that I've been ahead of the curve all this time, though I kind of wouldn't mind a video on this topic that goes into even more depth. I feel like there's really something here that I could learn from. This reminds me of the figures of rhetoric. They weren't invented, they were _observed._ People would probably just intuit them, but once they were written down, defined, others could intentionally use them, learn them, develop them with understanding. Polyptoton, synechdoche, alliteration, the list of course goes on and on.

@jayallman 3 месяца назад

See also "There's a spider in your bathroom the size of a Buick." (Annie Hall). It's the specificity of "Buick" that makes it funny.

@N_Loco_Parenthesis 4 месяца назад

Nice witticism of your own (04:54), punning on "the wit" and the image of DeWitt.

@harrycahill2140 9 месяцев назад

Great! Now we can all be Coen brothers and Tarantino after watching this video.

@Kathy_Loves_Physics 11 месяцев назад

I loved ridicule (the movie) and was delighted to see it (as well as Ninotchka my favorite)

@multipass113 11 месяцев назад

Such an enjoyable video. I still struggle to define wit but often it’s dialogues that make me simultaneously chuckle and feel smart. I feel that way every time I watch a Lubitsch and the most recent example I can think of is FRASIER.

@Zed-fq3lj 10 месяцев назад

This video is pure joy! 🤩

@spinneyavant 7 месяцев назад

0:58 you cannot describe it, but you knoWIT when you see it sorry

@angelonintendo 8 месяцев назад

What's the name of "fool me once, shame on you, you fool me... you can't get fooled again"

@ronmackinnon9374 6 месяцев назад

Aphasia.

@CarlOttersen 11 месяцев назад

I absolutely loved Ridicule!

@Jukeboksi 11 месяцев назад

If everybody is speaking metaphorically, then it becomes witty to state the obvious. Without a baseline or a foundation there can hardly be any wit to be had.

@ronmackinnon9374 6 месяцев назад

No need to sound apologetic about discussing the film 'Ridicule.' I'm one of those who saw it when it had its US release. I'll always remember the part where the protagonist realizes he's been double-crossed and gets up from the table, and as he's walking away, someone puts him down by saying, 'You can always judge a man by the company he keeps!' And he comes right back with: 'Not at all - Judas Iscariot kept excellent company.'

@BradleySmithYoutube 8 месяцев назад

Excellent video

@erinaltstadt4234 10 месяцев назад

Thank you

@philipobrien7155 8 месяцев назад

Why do we only think of better retorts later?

@fhujf 3 месяца назад

While our conscious mind quickly moves on to other topics, our unconscius keeps plugging away without us being aware of it. When finally comes up with something worthy, up it pops into our conscious with with the response that makes us wish time travel was possible. It's the same mechanic of mind that makes you suddenly remember where you'd put that item which you failed to find an hour earlier.

@sleepinggorilla 8 месяцев назад

I once had an hour long debate about wit, humor, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We were walking home from the movie and I was trying to explain that “wit is humorous, and not all humor is witty.”

@southlondon86 7 месяцев назад

The 1990 film?

@Clubsandwichchav 11 месяцев назад

Thx for this video.

@liltick102 9 месяцев назад

0:43 Wellll, Considering that Kubrick was praised for his candlelight in Barry Lyndon.. This is heavily on par... Now idk how they made this versus his method, or if this was the same... Either way, looks pretty good to me. That pan in reminds me of 2020’s stuff a lil, but it feels genuine.

@southlondon86 7 месяцев назад

Sir you are doing God’s work.

@LordBaktor 10 месяцев назад

I think slower than the average person so I've fallen prey of being witty a tad to late more times than I can count. And I can count pretty far up.

@animelvr99 8 месяцев назад

you would be the champion of the counting bee lol

@edithweil1647 11 месяцев назад

Brian Dennehy?!? That was unexpected.

@ronmackinnon9374 6 месяцев назад

To play the lead in 'Belly of an Architect,' he had the girth they were looking for.

@ronmackinnon9374 6 месяцев назад

(5:36) From 'The Barefoot Contessa.'

@lunarmodule6419 10 месяцев назад

Fun and... witty thx

@MrWinstonSmith 10 месяцев назад

I liked this

@liltick102 9 месяцев назад

1:27 what film is this? “If I were you I wouldn’t pay it” .. Gonna use that lmao

@Moviewise 9 месяцев назад

A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935) I use that joke so often it’s become second nature to me when the bill arrives.

@liltick102 9 месяцев назад

@@Moviewise I’m still in the opening scene, but man oh man I love this so much already.

@Saturn2888 9 месяцев назад

Where should I start when watching Woody Allen? I got intrigued by one of your videos, but I don't know where to begin :/.

@anonygent 9 месяцев назад

Hannah and Her Sisters is considered the masterpiece, but really you can start anywhere. You can even watch some of his early standup... "They have these cruises now where you can pick the kind of women you want to meet. So I signed up for a tramp steamer."

@ronmackinnon9374 6 месяцев назад

@@anonygent 'It turns out it's against the law in New York state to be driving with a live moose strapped to the back of your truck, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.'

@itzakpoelzig330 4 дня назад

Anyone what know what movie the shot of Oscar Wilde wearing a green carnation is from, at 5:28?

@Moviewise 3 дня назад

The Trials of Oscar Wilde (Ken Hughes, 1960), starring Peter Finch.

@VideotecaNaturista 10 месяцев назад

A Gigi D'Agostino reference? Ha!

@riadanc 7 месяцев назад

Would be grateful if anyone would say which movie is depicted around 3:30 "a drink at 5 o'clock in the morning"?

@Moviewise 7 месяцев назад

The Reluctant Debutante (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)

@riadanc 7 месяцев назад

Thank you! I've been enjoying your videos, and learning what absent techniques lead to so many new movies feeling unsatisfying and bland. An added bonus is being introduced to older films of quality I was unfamiliar with.@@Moviewise

@PiggyVanHausen 8 месяцев назад

What's the song at 6:18? I definitely heard it before and it's killing me

@Moviewise 8 месяцев назад

It's called The Moon Drops. A nice, dark, jazzy tune I thought went well with Sweet Smell of Success

@PiggyVanHausen 8 месяцев назад

@@Moviewise thanks so much! I would also like to take the opportunity and thank you for your content. It's certainly the best content about filmmaking there is on youtube. You are unabashedly honest and very knowledgeable. While I do disagree on some of your takes, you still have very good reasons to think that way and are very substantiated in your opinions. Massive respect to you and your work, please keep it coming.

@Moviewise 8 месяцев назад

And thank you for the kind words!

@TheArdipithecus 11 месяцев назад

Werde ich be witty in 10 minutes or nein?

@krustyknight2943 Год назад

Why do you sound like Duffman? 😅

@biancastephanie8830 8 месяцев назад

I’ve been struggling writing witty dialogue and trying to make it sound cheesy 😭

@brandontownsend6955 8 месяцев назад

It’s called a treppen witz in German.

@bfkc111 11 месяцев назад

I think everyone is just too ashamed to admit that Shakespeare's wordplays on "lie" are the worst thing they ever heard. (Not saying it's all as bad as that. E.g. the psychological and existential writing in Macbeth does not get any better.)

@roundninja 9 месяцев назад

I feel like there are RU-vid comments wittier than most of these lines. I mean, not most RU-vid comments, certainly not this RU-vid comment, but still a surprising amount of them.

@johnczuill1344 10 месяцев назад

You don't understand Oscar Wilde at all. The closer you look the better he gets. In fact I don't think you understand wit. His ironies are not only trenchant, they structure whole poems, plays and essays. I think you've missed the point completely.

@anonygent 9 месяцев назад

I think he understood perfectly. Oscar Wilde's wit is of the urbane but essentially meaningless type that leaves you still hungry. It's clever but vapid.