The Creepy Tower with the Golden Shower was the first show that I ever had a hand in writing while studying at York St John. It was part of the Funny Words module which taught us how to understand comedy and use it in writing. Before we began devising, we wanted to look at different shows, plays and films in order to gain some inspiration. We had already gained knowledge on multiple theories in comedy that we could use or at least take inspiration from. Superiority, relief, and incongruity. However, it wasn’t those theories that gave us our biggest form of inspiration. That came from sketch shows.
From sketch comedy we knew the template we wanted to work with. We wanted to go for short and snappy scenes, which would capture an aspect of the relief theory. Relief theory is done by setting up a situation, in which it was obvious to most what was about to happen, and then fulfil that with the punch line – after an excruciating amount of time. This shows relevance in our Murders I Wrote sketch. Gabby would run on, Jamie following suit. She would hide, and Jamie would utter some slogan or song that no one could resist ‘finishing off’ and, of course, Gabby would fulfil that; alerting Jamie, the murderer, to her presence.
It wasn’t until further into our process, when we devised our Scooby-Doo-inspired parody/satire script that we gained an arc within the show. In devising a story, in which we parodied and satirised Scooby-Doo, we brought Mystery Inc. into the modern day. The predictable nature of Scooby-Doo was perfect to warp and play with. With Scooby-Doo being created in the late 60s, its formula has become somewhat dated; Daphne is portrayed as ditsy, Fred as a misogynist, Velma as your classic nerd and Shaggy as a stoner. Fitting them into our modern society and political views made for interesting and engaging comedy.
The satire ended up as something we really couldn’t escape from. Political satire, then, was an obvious step to take and gave our piece a lot more levity. General public are continuously fed horrible news in politics. Through social media and other mediums, it is then made fun of by comedians and the like. We knew that adding this political edge would further gain our audience’s attention, something they can laugh at and think ‘I know what they’re talking about!’. When you see Fred in the light of our open-minded views you can clearly link him to women’s rights, you see Daphne as a woman that needs to be enlightened about feminism and what it can do for her. And revealing Shaggy, a beloved character for many, as a full-blown stoner can be very funny audiences of multiple ages.