No Sketch Group Is an Island

As a group we've been going on and off for a while now, but I'd probably say we've been seriously making things (like our weekly sketches) for a solid year. In a way I consider our effort to be about a year old. And that year has involved a hell of a lot of work. Getting something off the ground is extremely difficult. I always tend to correlate it to working on a band - starting a band is incredibly tough, getting other people to join your band once it's rolling is a little easier. As we've grown and developed our body of work, we now find ourselves desperately hungry for other people to work with.

These guys tried starting a sketch group for years. Genuinely found aeronautics easier

When you start making something like this, everything has to be done by you. It's like you've not earned enough credibility at this point for people to trust putting their time into the project, so at the very beginning, you have something to prove. This bit is a real uphill struggle and that hill is itself a learning curve. You want a cool design for the next transition? Cool, well I hope you can design things well, because if not, your choices are: A, it looks crappy. B. It is stolen (I mean sometimes it's both)

Even something painfully simple like this has to be designed because no program default lettering looks quiiiiiite right

Myself and Ben are ostensibly writers and performers, but in order to display those skills, we have to learn a whole host of different skills in order to get something even close to a finished product. I'll definitely have missed out some, so a small selection of what we've learned mostly through mistakes (and in no way mastered) includes: 

• Directing
• Video Editing
• Graphic Design
• Music Programs
• Lighting
• Song Writing
• Social media promotion
• Make Up
• DIY Special Effects
• Location Scouting
• Camera work
• How much of a pain literally all of this stuff is

Nothing in that list is funny. You can edit things in a certain way to emphasise timing, or an effect or a song can have a humourous outcome, but they're not jokes. Actual jokes. 99% of the work involved is just graft trying to make what you're doing even function let alone achieve the result you want. All those credits at the end of everything that is professionally made, that's because there are people, or whole teams of people, whose full time jobs it is to oversee even just one of these roles. And here we are just trying to sling it all together on the fly. I'm alright on the guitar. And I mean okay. But I knew exactly zero about music production, recording or the programs you use to create it all, and what you end up with is incredibly rough as a result.

When this was finished I was like. "Ah, it's perfect." The next day I listened again, and was like, no wait, wtf, of course it isn't

This now sounds a little bit like I'm complaining, but I'm not. (well maybe a bit). But a lot of that graft is actually really exciting and fun. It's a case of constantly encountering new challenges and going, oh man, how do we achieve that? Well let's find out quickly, cause it's literally just us doing it, and the deadline is in two days. But even when we do manage to work though a problem we've never encountered before, the result is usually less than perfect just because the given task is outside of our skill-set. So if you're reading this right now. We want you. Badly.

If you're somebody who likes making things, get in touch with us! We're actively looking for different people to collaborate with. 

Do you perform: "Finally sketches with more than 3 characters!"

Do you make music: "How well do you know the 5 chords?"

Know anything about film: You can definitely help us. Even if you just want to lend a hand.

Can you draw/design: We're honestly constantly looking for logos and funny transition stuff

Do you make balloon animals: I guarantee we will need something like this at one point

Honestly, whatever you do. If you're another sketch group up for a collab, a creative looking for other artists, or just a person who likes our stuff and wants to be involved at all; we are always looking for other people to work with. I can't count the amount of times I've needed a voice over for a sketch (and it can't be one of us) and I've had to just rope in my housemates to record something.

BUT WAIT WHAT ABOUT....

"Pay artists who do things for you." ~ Artists everywhere

Good point. 

We're looking for people at a similar level to us. We don't make any money from WMD and can't afford to pay anyone. One thing we can offer is a work exchange. We have a pretty decent camera/sound set up and are competent at using it. So in the past we have worked with other performers and in return come to their gigs and filmed their material for showreels or just to playback and learn. We also would be happy to lend a hand in any project you might have going on, that you think we would be useful for.

This for us is day one. Collaborating with other people is just yet another skill we are trying our hardest to get our heads around and this is the first step. An open call to anyone that is interested in doing stuff with us. Send us a message on facebook: Facebook(dot)com/wmdcomedy or an email: WMDcomedy(AT)gmail.com.

Here's an example of some work we did with our friend Jak from University last week. He just happened to be up, he's a comedian and writer and was well up for being involved in something very stupid:

Even if you just have a home, or office, or cool location and would happily invite us into it in exchange for beer/food/gratitude. I'm so so sick of filming in my damn living room.

Thank you

Weekly Write Up: It's Jak! and Impersonating Robert Smith

So last week we put up a sketch simply entitled "It's Jak!"

This was a sketch that we shot at very short notice, which wasn't too much to our detriment, given the fact it is a very low tech sketch. In fact, we shot it at such short notice it was literally a case of Tom walking through my door and saying "Right, since we've got Jak, here's a sketch about him".

Unfortunately Ryan was unable to film this one with us, which would have made things even weirder, but we made sure to get Ryan in some of the flashbacks to compensate. We also worried that it would look silly having Jak blatantly in different rooms during the flashbacks, but then realised that the idea of him being there all along is stupid enough to carry through, and is in fact amplified by him being in different places. Also, fun fact; Jak bought that t-shirt specifically for this sketch! Well, sort of.

In terms of structure, "It's Jak" has some very silly jokes, but if we had spent more time on the script might have some more solid lines. I think the idea and the execution are solid, but the dialogue is sometimes a little functional. The lack of a proper punchline (settling for the ridiculous anti joke "He's gone bowling") does let the sketch down a bit, though I think the twist of having Jak's name appear at the end instead of the usual WMD sting is nice.

Ultimately I think this is a sketch that is funny if you watch a lot of our sketches, particularly if you go back as far as "Moustache Intervention", but isn't the most welcoming sketch for newcomers. Thankfully, I think we will balance that out with our next sketch, which is our first proper holiday special sketch. We decided to shoot a Halloween sketch about a goth in a graveyard, which I think will go down well for this time of the year. It's one of our most visually distinct sketches and features Tom doing his best Robert Smith. In the meantime, here is the only other time-dependent sketch we did, this one being about the referendum:

- Ben

Weekly Write Up: Skype Etiquette and Upcoming Guest Star

So last week we released one of more "internet culture"-based sketches, focusing on how people interact on Skype, as well as how people probably don't interact on Skype. If you haven't seen it, it can be found here:

I hope this is a sketch people can identify with. We have been toying for a while with the idea of doing a sketch base d around a phonecall, but we felt there was more that could be done with Skype due to the character s  being able to interact visually. I also think there is something funny about characters speaking over video but still treating it as if it's over the phone, hence the joke about being on hold. I always imagine when I am put on hold the person I am speaking to is just having a break from talking to me to do something more interesting for a few minutes. To be honest, I wish we could introduce a face to face variant (actually, I've remembered that we already have smart phones).


It's probably also telling that at the moment I spend a lot of time dealing with external phonecalls, and that may have influenced the topic of needlessly bad customer service. I also know that if I were to encounter anything like that I would respond exactly how Ryan's character does and go along with it out of politeness, as I would sooner suffer in silence that challenge someone. Britishness for the win.


The ending was an example of "hmm, this sketch doesn't have a particularly funny ending". We often joke about how incongruous some of our sketch endings are, and whilst this isn't the worst offender I'd probably put it in the top 5. The most ridiculous by far is in "Subliminal Swearing":

Coming up this Friday we have a very exciting special guest star. I can't really say more without giving away too much of the sketch, but let's just say it'll change your entire perception of WMD this far.

- Ben

Weekly Write Up: Weirdest Ever Gumtree Ad and Komedy Kulcha

So last week (and indeed last month) was a busy one for WMD, Last Friday saw the release of our most recent sketch, Weirdest Ever Gumtree Ad, which if you missed can be found here:

This one was I found very funny from the start. Originally the sketch took place in a fridge shop, and featured copious amounts of gurning from the salesman, which was replaced with him being a much more pathetic and less openly perverted figure. Due to us being unable to shoot on location it needed tweaking slightly, and we thought the idea of doing a sketch about Gumtree and it's ilk would be fun.

A couple of little references are in this one. Firstly, the high-pitched "Will just stop it!?" was a callback to an outro I made for our sketch about the Hokey Cokey:

There is also a moment I particularly like, what I call the "fastest fridge close in the west" at around 2 minutes. Finally, the "aw, pwease" line is from an anecdote Ryan is fond of telling that I regrettably cannot do justice in a blog post.

Last we also travelled across to sunny Wakefield to play Komedy Kulcha, an arty night in a suitably arty town. It was a strange night where it quickly became apparent that all bets were off, not least after the first act was awarded a pack of "scurrilous greeting cards" as a reward for performing.

Me and Tom decided to play things fast and loose, trying a whole bunch of new lines and ad-libs (and in the process forgetting several scripted lines too). Mike the unswayed, our current closer, went down very well, despite being adapted from a 3 man version into a 2 hander.

Tomorrow night is Friday, and sees another sketch (closing in on a year now). I've got plenty to say about it, but that's a story for next week.

- Ben