... To my way of thinking comedy is first of all a good story. It
is a story and not merely an incident or a collection of incidents.
There must be a plot to obtain and hold the interest. This plot does
not necessarily require profound depths, but there must be a distinct
and clearly defined objective upon which the interest may be centred,
and the interest must arise from mental processes and not from mere
mechanical appeal.... Humorous action does not mean gross horseplay.
The action itself may not always be marked to be amusing. To take a
crude illustration, suppose that a character in the story is about to
thrash his ancient enemy. He feels so certain of victory that he
bribes the policeman on the beat not to interfere. Now he goes to the
field of battle and unexpectedly gets the worst of it. He is the first
to call for the police, and the scene flashes between the suborned
officer placidly smiling at the sounds of the affray and never
dreaming that it is his patron who is calling for aid. There is
nothing humorous in the spectacle of a policeman on a street corner.
In a comedy of incident he would have to suffer indignity to get a
laugh. In the comedy with a plot, the plot makes the action humorous.
We are not, in reality, laughing at the policeman. He is merely the
symbol of the idea.
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