Writing Lessons & Advice: Skits and Scripts
As a kid, I dabbled in writing Scooby-Doo fanfiction--before fanfiction blew up in popularity, might I add. As a teenager, I dabbled in writing skits that were performed by my church’s puppet team to an audience in the children’s program. Like the Scooby-Doo stories though, those skits may be lost to time as well, but the experience was still pretty awesome!
Skits, a synonym of sketches, are typically just small-scale or abbreviated acting projects. The most defining characteristics of skits and sketches include short scenes, humor and entertainment, and sometimes even a nod to current topics. Skits can be improvised, scripted, or a little bit of both. They’re cornerstones and centerpieces of pop culture if you think about it. They’re a big part of variety show entertainment, like Saturday Night Live, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, All That, or Key & Peele. They’re also well-suited for short-form content platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. The combined elements of brevity, relevance, and entertainment value help skits—from big and small screens alike—stick with us.
If scripting a skit, those characteristics are things to keep in mind. In about ten minutes or less, you’ll want to hit your key plot points: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution--or the punchline in comedy terms. Timing and pacing are significant to a good sketch so consider a pace that reaches the punchline in a reasonable amount of time. Make sure your dialogue, as well as any action, propels the scene or story forward.
Skits are short and sweet but get to the point in amusing ways. Yet how might humor be conveyed through written word? Many sketches lean into satire or parody. Satire presents criticism in a comical or enjoyable way while parody mimics in either a mocking or entertaining way. Another technique plays with words or language, much like Abbot and Costello do in their famous “Who’s on First?” bit. In other instances, characters with quirky or obnoxious names or traits could contribute to the tone or momentum, which I see in Key and Peele’s “Substitute Teacher” and Chris Farley’s Matt Foley motivational speaker character. Skits also have the benefit of being seen and heard, so the writer and/or actor(s) could incorporate audio-visual elements like physical actions; unique tones of voice; sound effects, funny appearances, sets, or props; or maybe even running gags. Examining a slew of skit segments can help one learn the good (or bad) ways these techniques and others get implemented.
Keeping the audience in mind is important too. Things that are entertaining or appropriate for the children’s church program will be different than what would fly with the teenaged youth group. A skit that’s family-friendly enough potentially resonates with the Sunday morning crowd, but I might need some completely different content if I was planning skits for a less-spiritual setting. To drive this home with something more “real world”, one might look at ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. One of his puppet characters is a skeleton with an exaggerated middle eastern accent and terrorizing profession. However, on an international tour, he had to tweak some aspects of this character to appease a sensitive regional culture--or at least the region's leadership. In a similar vein, Dunham briefly showcased or retired a few other characters with consideration to social vibes of the time.
Are you wondering how a script should “look” on paper? To emulate the professionals, the industry-standard format uses courier font size twelve. The title, any slug lines--or scene headings, and character names are typed in all caps. Any stage directions are given in parentheses. Words that the character(s) speak start with character cues, which are usually their name either before or over their lines. Those are some of the basics. The sources give more details into particular specifications for certain sections of the script or document. Additionally, the internet or even some word processors offer helpful software, apps, templates, or classes on scriptwriting at length.
What do you do with a developed script? The first important thing to do is proofread it; revise any content that’s weak or flat. Edit errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting--adhering to the industry standard does not seem easy to do on a first draft. Fine-tune it with feedback, be it from a service, workshop, or just supportive people in your life.
When you have a polished script, you could perform or present it as desire, ability, and opportunity allow. Formal, competitive, renowned outlets like contests and competitions exist. Maybe a publisher or company might consider it. Or perhaps you might find something like I had as a teenager--small-scale, casual occasions for school, social groups, or special events. You might even share the script online or perform it for social media. If nothing else, you might save your work for something like a potential portfolio/collection for publication down the road--something I wish my teenage self had been better to do. (In all fairness though, Google Docs/Drive was a few years away.) But besides that, that’s a wrap on skits and scripts! Hope you appreciate and know a little more about this kind of writing!
Which skits or scriptwriters are your favorite? Feel free to use the comments, chat feature or socials to discuss them or other ideas you want me to cover!
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