Where do toon writers come from?

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Dan Sulyman

New member
Man, I'm bummed. I just watched a new episode of World of Quest on the WB, a show I was initially hopeful about, mostly because its character design is such a treat compared to crude junk like on Phineas and Ferb. I mean it's eye candy. But oh, what an assault it is on the ears! This ep, as my nephew Bobby declared, "bit". Full of cliches, non-jokes, non-setups for non-jokes, constant attempts at unearned laughs, the characters are either empty or obnoxious, and the one character I kind of liked, Nestor the mouthy prince (who nonetheless had a certain poignancy), was a total brat. And did that make him funnier? Uh, no. Cartman, now THERE'S a brat that's funny. And occasional profanity has nothing to do with it. Jeez, no wonder little kids like South Park even though probably a lot of it goes over their heads! At least it's funny and doesn't treat its viewers like they're total idiots who don't deserve any better!

And what's to blame? The writing (yeah, the main thing we all gripe about here. For good reason). So where do these toon writers come from? Are they actually educated in writing in any way, shape or form? Are they some producer's girlfriend who wants to get her name on a "real, live TV show!" Or somebody's unemployed brother-in-law? Or if they are "professionals", what class or school that teaches writing is giving them the idea that kids don't like stories with a little heart, a little solid and affecting character interaction, a little originality, AND A FEW LAUGHS?

Man, it's not like they don't have signposts to guide them. Looney Tunes. Doug. Spongebob. And a few others. Great stuff that includes lessons that far too many toon writers totally ignore when they craft their scripts. I realize that 98% of anything is generally crap, but must toon writers add to the pile?

Sorry for the rant. It just kills me when a show with potential goes straight down the tubes all because toon producers think the scripts don't matter. Well, I imagine ratings matter to those producers, and the ratings for World of Quest (according to Cynopsis) have sunk since its premiere. So there you have it. Another possibly good show screwed. Makes me mad. And sad. That is all.
 
I think people are too hard on the writers. It takes a team to make an episode, and even though the writers are responsible for a lot of the stuff, I think it’s unfair to throw them under the bus each time an episode fails to entertain. Besides, scripts have to be approved before they are turned into an episode, and in many animated programs, the storyboard phase is far more important than the script phase. Once the writer finishes the script, (s)he has little control over what happens to it. It gets edited; things get added, things get removed. It’s complicating.

The writers are important, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t magicians who can pull quality from their hat. There are inevitably going to be some bad episodes, but when push comes to shove, it’s impossible to blame those misses solely on the writers.
 
Some come from sitcoms, come from other tv drama/action shows, and some are just flat out comedians or come from writing other mediums. I think because most toons are deemed for kids there are writers that feel they can just write crap and it won't matter.
 
I think writers should watch some really funny cartoons before getting into the toon writing bizwizniz.

My friend is an amazingly funny writer and he managed to develope this ability by watching Family Guy, Futurama, South Park, Drawn Together, old Simpsons, American Dad, Scrubs (Live-action, but at times, can act very toony), Space Ghost, The Brak Show, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Invader ZIM, aaannnnnnnnddd JesusChrist, I don't know all the shows he watches. That's probably most of them though. But anyway, he's able to write really funny scripts and jokes and he never went to Harvard for writing or any advanced writers college. He just learned from watching funny stuff over time and realizing what's funny and what's not.

Funny:
- Exaggeration
- Role Reversals

Not Funny:
- Fart jokes
- Overusing gags to death.

(That's just an idea, not the whole list of what is and isn't funny).
 
"Pus". Yes. But I'm not singling out the bodily excretions alone for bashing. FWIW my nephews, supposedly at the age cartoon producers aim for, were unimpressed by the pus and apparently everything else. I did not influence them in any way, although they're sharp little guys and might have read something into my total silence during the duration of the episode...which they were bound to notice because THEY were silent during the duration of the episode.

Really, and some people wonder why Spongebob keeps going and going and going. Some people even complain about it. Not me. Thank god there's at least one toon I can watch with my nephews and enjoy. One of them wants to be an animator when he grows up. He'll get something of an education from "Quest", I suppose...on what NOT to do. And he'll hopefully be inspired by good stuff like SB and Avatar. Oh thank god for the return of Avatar. It'll remind me why sometimes sticking with a toon that has a shaky start can sometimes pay off.
 
It takes high school and collage education to be a cartoon and/or anime writer.


also gay overtones and males bad, females good stereotypes.
 
I tend to bash writers. They do have a excuse. They are trying to create something new (which is why I can't figure out why so much comedy and shows sound the same) And the Management is always sending down "Ideas" that appeal to sponsors. In reality, if the original base story is solid, more freedom is given to writers to create.

(I rather like World of Quest in an offbeat way. I can't really explain it. But I know why I don't like South Park) Good humour, not everyone will understand. That's why it's called wit. The trend to be simple, has been usurped by "edgy". Which is basically "show them a pile of poo, then stick nose in it,,, twice.
 
It's no joke that several cartoons are being written by those who can't draw, or have no idea how to visualize the situation. The art of Cartoon writing has been criticized by many old animation fans because they lack the emotion and energy of the old cartoons, and the fact that the dialog is just bad and cliche.

I'm going to take both sides though.

People like John K. tend to think that all animation should be written by people who can draw. I can understand his point of view, but the problem is that not all animators can write, which even he admitted. Many people believe "ooh storyboards and animators are running the show it's going to be automatically good", but if you have people who can only draw good and can't establish a good story and write funny jokes, you'll get crap like Camp Lazlo (Which is written by the same people who storyboard it). You need people who can write AND storyboard if you're going to use this method.

However, there are shows with talented writers that don't work on the storyboarding or animation at all. Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends and Ed, Edd n Edd are good examples, even though the Eds are primarily storyboard driven.

So there are good animation writers, and bad ones, however good one are hard to come by, but people shouldn't criticize all of them just because theres a bunch of writers who write animation with primarily focusing on dialog instead of actions. Seriously, anyone can write for Family Guy. Anyone. You just need to remember a bunch of stuff you knew when growing up, and put them as references in the script and people will enjoy it because of nostalgia and it makes them think they're smart for knowing an obvious joke.
 
That's what I'm talking about. You need people who can write and storyboard for the method to work. If you get people who can storyboard but can't write, you end up with Camp Lazlo.
 
Only the later seasons were badly written...or were they the most badly written. :shrug: Eh, what's the difference. The later seasons were still worse.
 
Any writer, even the bests, can write a bad episode, but it takes a daft story editor to allow that bad script to proceed further down the production chain.
 
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