Hard Comedy

Maybe now’s the time for it, once you’ve figured out what it is.

If you want to write situation comedy but are worried that no-one wants to watch it, let alone commission it, I have good news for you: ‘hard comedy’ is back in demand in 2024.

‘Hard comedy’ is not a phrase I’d heard before but TV fanboy-turned-statesman Richard Osman used it in the last five minutes of The Rest is Entertainment podcast (below). He explains why shows get cancelled, how they have three metrics – and why there might be a demand for ‘hard comedy’. By that, he means proper, laugh-out-loud, full-fat, long-running comedy.

TV takes a while to write, commission and make. There is a lot of comedy-drama already on the way. They talk about what’s coming this year on The Rest is Entertainment podcast. British Comedy Guide have helpfully put together a list of 24 shows that technically qualify as comedy. Four of them are panel games or comedy retrospective docs. If we exclude those, plus the comedy dramas, the novel adaptations, the ‘darkly comic’ and the ‘horror satire’, 9 shows are left that might fall under the category of ‘comedy’, if not ‘hard comedy’. That’s more many.

How about anything there you could watch with your kids or your parents? It’s pretty slim pickings on that score, but maybe there are some mainstream hits being made right now. I’m not so sure, not least because this is not something that writers want to write. Osman quotes one American exec who said his writers didn’t want to write Two and Half Men. They wanted to write Barry. “And you know who watched Barry? No-one.” (I tried it. It’s not for me.)

I agree with Richard Osman. There is an appetite out there for hard comedy - the sort that Osman grew up and made him want to work in TV (and mean he could become a wildly successful novelist, ironically). I’ve spoken to numerous people outside the industry who ‘just want something funny to watch’. There’s plenty of exciting, thrilling and challenging TV out there. There’s some compelling reality TV too if you like that sort of thing. (And I love Bake Off)

But Britain needs another Del Boy. It may not be a good international bet, but good comedy is repeatable domestically. Freeview channels are awash with ‘hard comedies’ from yesteryear. If I were talking to TV investors – rather than commissioners and controllers - I would say to put your money into ‘hard comedy’ because, as Del Boy would say, “you know it makes sense”.

If you want to throw your hat into the ring and write a proper sitcom script, I’ve put together a comprehensive course that will help you get from a basic idea to a completed sitcom script in twelve steps (and a few months). Maybe 2024 is the year to crack that script. More information here:

And here’s that episode of The Rest is Entertainment. Go to 31m20. Well worth five minutes of your time.