Trey grabbed the marker with a white board right next to him and proceeds to write on an imaginary board. But, he still captivated the students attention. Therfore, he is an amazing teacher.
I did not notice your creative use of "but" and "therefore", and was going to pass by. But then I noticed it and found it amusing. Therefore, I am writing this comment now to give you recognition.
@Stéphane Mallette I know they poke fun of them on South Park but do they really not like Family Guy? I would have to hear them say it outside of their comedy show in order to buy that.
@@frightenedsoul ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lwSaVK1PvEg.html Listen to this, they specifically say "We don't respect it (Family Guy) in terms of writing" They do not like the show.
If you’re just a fan of comedy and love to laugh you can respect both groups FG and SP. They’re (Matt and Trey + Seth) more alike than any of them would admit even though they hate each other now..
@@marginis "Gonna" is actually an accepted term by modern standards because it's a shorthand term to define certain dialects and forms of speech. Please stop pretending to be knowledgeable, it's making me cringe.
@@StudioMod ...says the one explaining to me the proper use of a dash ...after not capitalizing the first letter of a sentence ...and having what I said completely go over their head. Talk about cringe. Calm down. I was agreeing with your original comment, not making a personal attack against you.
I think the best example of this is the Casa Bonita episode (which is probably my favorite South Park Episode). First Act - 1. Kyle Has a Birthday party which is scheduled to take place at Casa Bonita. Which is Cartman's favorite restaurant. 2. But, because Cartman constantly rips in Kyle, Cartman isn't invited and Butters is invited instead. Second Act - 3. Therefore, Cartman devises a multilayered plan in order to go to Casa Bonita instead of Butters. First, he tricks Kyle into making him think that he's changed for the better. Then, he traps Butters in a bomb shelter until the day arrives. 4. But, the town becomes worried and everyone starts to look for Butters. 5. Therefore, Cartman decides to take Butters out of the bomb shelter, and stick him in a fridge, then break the handle off so that Butters can't escape. 6. But, Butters is transported into a garbage dump and breaks out of the fridge, mistakenly assuming civilization is over. Third Act - 7. Butters is eventually found by a garbage lady, who tells him that not only is civilization fine, but the entire town was searching for him (oof). Butters then makes a phone call to let his parents know what happened. 8. Therefore, just as Cartman is about to go into Casa Bonita, he is found out and the police are called to take him to Juvi. Cartman decides to make a break for it and enjoy Casa Bonita, as his plan crumbles around him. Resolution - When asked if everything he did was worth it, Cartman gives the simple response, "Totally". EDIT: Thanks for all the nice comments guys! Also to the people who still don't get it, either you're too young, or you come from a family that has made it so that you don't have to worry about not getting what you want (neither is a bad thing). The reason "and then this happens" is stupid, is because, for most people in the world, accidents, unforeseen circumstances, and hardships are commonplace. A good story doesn't just hand its protagonist new events, happy circumstances, and a free out to their problems (anime does this shit a lot nowadays which is why I'm starting to not watch it anymore). I don't wish hardships on anyone, but it's through hardship that you can really see what type of person you are. Literally, "but therefore" is - but then this hardship got in the way, therefore the protagonist adapted to the situation like a boss and did this. If you still don't understand, good luck in life buddy.
Guess they have such a shitload of money that the masterclasses would be too much effort for the drop its adding to their net worth. That said they deserve every penny they make, south park is a masterpiece.
@@billyalarie929 is there anything close to a Master’s degree in storytelling? (Genuinely curious because I want to start a career in writing that isint novelist, or copy writer, or write brochures etc. But more for multi digital media, like video games, TV shows, and possibly movies.)
A lot of teachers and professors I've had have brought up southpark for a number of irreverent reasons. Mostly white male transplants from the upper midwest.
I hate when people do that. It's all "yeah South Park is just fart jokes and toilet humour". And i can't even start to describe their genius without the doofus going "grow up, man." And ofc when i ask "have you watched it?" the answer is always "no, it's childish". And then i go home and watch South Park to calm down.@@johnindigo5477
i like how he has a marker in his hand. and there's a whiteboard right next to him. he UNCAPS THE MARKER. and then instead decides to write on an imaginary board.
i hate shows books movies anything that has an then and then and then plots and it just keeps going that by the end you learn nothing and its just exciting things happening that people remember and will summarize but not get anything from ..basically smashing action figures together lets say as an example.....nothing is gained its just me using a story and characters to have stuff happen and pretend like i made art ...smdh..i am not invested in stuff happening for the plot to occur....i could care less about stuff just happening like thats not story thats just events or plot..as a writer i can writer anything happening if i really wanted to..even if it makes no sense..thats not interesting or hard and it eventually becomes cliche and lame.....thats not what makes people care...writing themes characters story is hard..anyone can write plot and have events occur
It's so simple yet true... and highly effective. Any time I'm writing (just for fun), I get really bored if I don't have some sort of conflict in almost every paragraph or throughout the entire chapter. Thanks to their advice, I'm no longer bored with my work.
They don't hate Family Guy. They hate having their show be constantly described as though it was just like Family Guy when they put a huge effort into making a show they believe to be unique and only superficially like Family Guy at best. Family Guy is pure comedy. That's all it is. It might occasionally have a deep message or something important to say about our culture, national/world politics, etc., but that's incidental to making you laugh. South Park consistently makes such messages a good chunk of each show (couched in comedy of course) and that means going the extra mile in terms of preparing the show. It's kind of like when you're an artist and you put your painting on display and it's something you put your heart and soul into and it's your best work and someone says, "I really like your painting. You're obviously a good artist." And you say, "Thanks, I really appreciate that!" And then they say very seriously, not joking at all, "You know who else is a good artist? My dog! We dip his feet in paint and let him walk on stuff. He's really gifted . . . just like you. You both have the same level of talent. You two should be friends, maybe give each other art tips." And that's what it feels like when someone says your show is just like Family Guy.
Family guy has the same story pattern has what trey just explained. Apart from the cutaways which I find hilarious. Never understood the beef. Btw southpark and comedy central was nothing until chappelle show. So all u fans can suck on that lol.
I love this alongside Gary Kurtz's writing advice too: "I took a master class with Billy Wilder once and he said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree and the second act you set the tree on fire and then in the third you get him down."
This was incredibly helpful. I was in a class where the teacher emphasized that each scene in a script needed "stand on it's own, like a sketch" and it confused me because then how is it a cohesive story? But this makes perfect sense! Thank you!!!
Yeah I think that's bad advice. A lot of great movies have scenes of setup, scenes that connect to other scenes. They may be good in themselves but holding attention for 90minutes plus is a much harder task than making a small good scene.
i just tested this on a Curb episode and hell yes, wow. gotta say though this makes writing that much more difficult. It’s not a hack. It’s more of a bar.
It'd be *soooo satisfying* passing on your knowledge and wisdom like this! This is what life is about when you get older (I'm 61 now) - trying to pass on to younger people what you've learned about various things.
“And then” could still work. However, the reason why the “but-therefore” method works so well is because it shifts the perspective of story structure. “And then” could be random events where as “but-therefore” gives purpose to the event beforehand, which makes sense in storytelling
This. I didn't get it until he said each scene has to work as a sketch otherwise why is it in there. Family guy did the opposite. The cutaways were always random
I mentioned this in my own comment sort of.. but the Novel *I am Legend* for the first half of the story follows story beats that are along the lines of “and then” which isn’t a bad thing - but you need to make those moments profoundly interesting (which the novel does) because like they said - if you’re just leading the reader on with the promise of nothing.. what’s the point?
I see the "but-therefore" as like a fool proof way of building a story. "And then" can work very well, it just requires more thought and focus. I would say that the majority of tv and movies nowadays are all "and then" with little to no thought.
@@TheDaxynn1 I think the trap with "And then" is that you might think you would have captivated the consumer enough for him to reach the "But" if there is one, this can be dangerous because what if it doesn't make any senses and what if the payoff was not worth the whole "And then" train. "Therefore" and "But" already ties the story logically plus has a lot of back and forth leading to a more dynamic experience instead of sitting through and mindlessly observing.
Trey looks more enthused and happy to be here than he does in any other "behind the scenes" thing they've done. It would have been so cool to hear these guys speak in school.
This has to be one of the greatest golden nuggets of advice. I’ve tried writing scripts myself, but always struggled with plots. This advice would seem to make complete sense.
Whether you like South Park or not, there's no denying that these two are masters of their craft. I can't count the number of great movies, tv shows, etc. that I've watched and looked for the points laid out in this lesson. Spoiler alert: All of them do exactly this.
@@evoxghiretti those morons chose to end it in 6 episodes though(13 if we count S7 which was also a pile of shit). they had every opportunity to make more episodes or even more season. by not doing that, they basiacally scammed all their loyal fans
What’s funny to me is how they explained in a minute and a half what makes them stick out amount their competition. I could tell you fairly straight how some of my favorite episodes of South Park pan out because of the coherent story telling; where as, Family Guy loses me about 4 minutes in because of the “cut-away” and plot that’s all over the place. Sorry I’ve been getting into storyboarding and writing for game development. It’s just so amazing to me.
This is great advice for writers. Like Matt said, there are so many boring movies and TV shows that use the this happened and then this happened and then this happened outline. It makes you wonder how those movies and show got greenlit.
That’s a very intelligent way of approaching writing structure and especially with Matt added about the “this happened and this happened and this happened...wtf am I watching this for?”
omfg that tip is so good!! “if you can put, and then, it’s probably boring” woah!!! although come to think of it, it also makes it that much more difficult or probably time consuming to write anything hahaha.
Holy shit this was enlightening. I've been trying to explain to some students that they have been writing shopping lists of events, not a story, but could never really explain why or what to do. Matt and Trey just explained it.
Gentle reminder that no writing tip is 100% always correct. Another famous one is "dont start your script with a character waking up", but sometimes that's genuinely how the film should start.
I watched Showgirls for the first time yesterday, and that is a perfect example of an unsuccessful film that follows a "...and then this happens" format instead of the "but/therefore, this happens" format.
It's weird, being someone who wants to write comedy professionally, finding shit like this "but, therefore" idea and Harmon's story circle. They're unpublished (although, in the case of Harmon's circle well publicized) ideas that may make all the difference in my writing. And I just stumbled upon it. Fucking awesome.
@@TimothyPingus exactly. There is more than one way to be “successful” but I can’t consider Family Guy a success because of how bad it is. Popularity alone isn’t my idea of success, the quality has to be good at least generally.
Jesus fucking christ they just actually revolutionized the way I think about writing in 2 minutes and 14 seconds. True, living legends. I wish them 20 more seasons.
They would make great teachers, maybe one day they will train some young writers. I don't think anybody will step up to do what they do for a while after they're gone.
*NGL I interpreted this as a little different* than some people in the comments… I saw it as, the story beats should have “therefore” “however” and “but” between each of them.. to help carry the character’s progression and conflict.. like for example, *Robert Neville, in I Am Legend* builds a relationship with a stray dog on the street.. he’s given a reason to live again *BUT* the dog gets sick and he has to throw away the weeks of trust he’s built with the dog - by picking it up and dragging it into his house to “cure” it.. he tried his best *BUT* the dog dies a week later. He’s lost the only thing he’s loved for three years. *HOWEVER* months later - a woman appears across his street.. he wonders if he can love again - - and realises his own loneliness terrifies people as he forces them to keep him company. *GREAT WRITING ADVICE* .
I don't know if I could even sit through this lecture; I just keep hearing Randy and other characters and it's too awkward to focus on the genuinely great advice they're giving. Really simple formula and works so well, it's kinda like Music Theory. Great for comedy because of the element of surprise but also for writing in general.