Xiao Shenyang talks about the reasons for giving up sketches. Should sketches make the audience laugh or should they reflect reality?

Back then, the host once asked Mr. Chen Peisi a question. He said that as long as the audience laughs, is it a comedy?

Chen Peisi answered him: Can it be considered a comedy if you don’t laugh?

So for a sketch. It's okay to laugh, but reflecting reality is not the point.

1. Should all sketches make the audience laugh?

A real sketch must definitely make the audience laugh.

This is an undoubted problem. If there is no laughter, it cannot be called an excellent sketch.

However, the main problem with today's sketches is not whether they make the audience laugh, but the way they make the audience laugh is relatively low-level.

Many sketches do not rely on the plot and conflicts in the story structure to make the audience laugh, but rely on the actors' performances and some vulgar jokes.

From the plot point of view. Many of his sketches do not meet the requirements of sketches, and there is no funny point in the entire story structure. This results in many of the sketches having half-hearted laughs, making the audience unsatisfied and even feel embarrassed!

Some excellent sketches contain laughter in structure, because they contain excellent comedic contradictions. On the basis of contradiction, he put a lot of effort into the performance and lines, so that the structure of the entire sketch is full and the characters are full-fledged. Let people gain something while laughing and enjoy the beauty of life.

But when our story structure is not strong enough, there will be the so-called laugh-then-cry sketches that Xiao Shenyang said. This is a manifestation of the limited screenwriting ability. It shows that the sketch's creative ability is not enough. It can rely on other emotions to continue to move the audience, and it has achieved the comedy effect that it wanted to achieve.

2. Should the skit reflect reality?

Whether a sketch reflects reality is not a criterion for measuring a sketch, and even literary and artistic works are not the most important point for measuring any literary and artistic work.

Because the most important thing in literary and artistic works and sketches is to reflect human nature. Through the performances of actors, we should feel that they are living people, not the real world.

For example, Zhao Benshan and Song Dandan’s White Clouds and Black Earth series in the Spring Festival Gala, and Shen Teng’s Hao Jian series. The funny thing about these sketches is not whether they reflect reality, but the fullness of the entire characters!

Of course they also reflect reality, but this is not the focus of the sketch we saw. We think the sketch is good because the characters such as Hao Jian and Baiyun Heitu are relatively real and full-bodied.

For another example, "The Prince and the Postman" by Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao is basically a sketch based on ancient costumes.

Of course there is no reality in such a sketch, but we can still see the joy in it.

The reason is that the characters are fleshed out and our emotions are the same.

We can see ourselves and the friends around us in the characters. This is not a reflection of reality, but a reflection of human nature.

So the sketch should express human nature rather than reality.