THE COMIC RANT

Ah, the comic rant.

One of the staples of great film comedy. A motif which only works if the character delivering the rant is believable. Notice I didn't say actor. Vince Vaughn is the master of the comic rant. His moments of observation in WEDDING CRASHERS are priceless, and oft imitated.

But there are other movies where it just doesn't feel right. When the rant feels like he's trying too hard. And he might be -- because the character isn't real. Isn't passionate. Isn't fully committed to making everyone in the scene see their point of view.

There's only so much Vince can do in FOUR CHRISTMASES. The man is trying. But it's just not working. Why? Because his character has been set up as nothing more than Vince Vaughn.

Watch the movie. It's not great. No spoilers there.

We also have to believe in the COMIC RANT. We have to side with the person persuading us. Here's a short one. It's from BULL DURHAM -- an R-Rated baseball comedy.

Is he ranting? Well, he's Crash Davis. So he's not going to lose his cool. But he sharing his world view with Annie, letting her and us know how smart he is. He's not showing off. It's what he believes in. The subtext (there's always subtext) being if you can't see how you should be with me, there's something wrong with you. We don't know much about Crash before this rant -- but we know a lot about him after it.

The comic rant can come out of frustration. Like the cap on an oil well blowing. It might come out of a character who is uptight. See Neal below, played by Steve Martin in PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES. This is his only blow-up in the movie. If he acted like this, we wouldn't empathize with him. The rant has to be something we can RELATE TO (we have all been frustrated at rental car counters, or any counter for that matter) and it has to be EARNED. We have seen what Neal has been through up to this point. He is just a man desperate to get home in time for Thanksgiving.

Sometimes the comic rant is just comic. Just plain laugh out loud funny. See Exhibit B below. That's B for Bluto. The perpetual college student who rallies his frat brothers to stand up and fight.

IN SCHOOL OF ROCK -- the key is passion. Dewey, as played by Jack Black, is passionate about his music; about the state of rock and roll today. Thematically, this works well as he is a posing as teacher. Even if the kids don't understand what he is talking about, the audience does.

And finally it all comes back to NETWORK, written by Paddy Chayefsky. It's a dark comic tale about the state of the network news in 1975. 1975. This rant is one of social commentary. The scary thing is it has all come to pass.

Again -- it is earned. No one wants to be screamed at. But if you pull it off, look for that moment in your screenplay where the protagonist cannot take it anymore. You might learn something about your comic hero, and teach us something about the world.