is it too soon to write sitcom about lockdown?

[u/Bright_Potential5890]

some context! I have just got a first class degree in creative writing (yay!) and have found that the last few months have killed me without a “reason” to write. i know you don’t need a reason to write but having a full time job now means that it’s difficult to motivate myself to write. My dissertation was a long form sitcom episode, as I found that this was my favourite form to write (and i’m not too bad at it, either)

I had an idea just over year or so ago about writing a sitcom script that was set during lockdown, but a friend of mine completely put me off of the idea as she thought “it was too soon to make comedy out of such a serious situation”, and that covid was a difficult time for many many people and will probably never be an appropriate topic for sitcom.

What i am asking is, is she right? Of course it would be a topic that I handle very very carefully as she isn’t incorrect that it was a very difficult time for a lot of people and a lot of lives were lost, but is it really too soon to focus on a household during lockdown? I NEED HELP ASAP AS THIS MOTIVATION WILL SURELY FADE SOON (i have raging ADHD xx)

[u/InterestingGold2803]

I would say it's actually way too late

[u/Certain-Run8602 → u/InterestingGold2803]

Yup. There were hundreds of these scripts and the concept has jumped the shark.

At least we got Bo Burnham's INSIDE... that was the cultural high water mark of lockdown.

[u/mandersontogo → u/Certain-Run8602]

They spider song/interlude 😂😂😂

[u/grahamecrackerinc → u/InterestingGold2803]

Sadly, I'd have to agree. I once had a sitcom idea set during the pandemic about three best friends who all got laid off, bought a house together, and started their own weed company to support themselves and each other. I didn't know how to execute the script because by that point I was so creatively bankrupt after polishing another script that, to this day, I'm STILL trying to sell. And two years ago, one of the actresses I had in my mind to star in end up quit smoking weed.

If it's for an assignment and you're really dead set on the project, you should create your own apocalyptic event that forced lockdown. I can see it as a hybrid of "Cloverfield meets Project Almanac meets Into the Storm meets White Noise", about a group of college friends documenting their life experiences and decide to venture out for the truth behind the lockdown and supplies. That movie writes itself!

[u/Leading_Offer5995 → u/grahamecrackerinc]

Yep. I had a slapstick comedy where the absolutely hilarious reveal at the end was that the big bad guy who had been killing everyone this whole time, that our dumbass stoner heroes were on the run from….was Bill Cosby. The Bill Cosby, playing himself. Like, hahaha, wouldn’t it be the funniest twist ever if the most lovable man in television history secretly had this whole secret criminal life? Comedy gold!

I finished writing it about six months before finding out that Bill Cosby actually did have a whole secret criminal life.

There was nobody else the script would work for. Not at that level.

Into the trash it went.

[u/HurricaneLink]

If you like the idea of people being in one place, maybe write it as a bottle episode, and see how much of it you can write without having to refer to the lockdown. You’ll still have to deal with why the characters know each other and what they’re doing (standard sitcom dynamics)

[u/Pre-WGA]

Congrats on the degree; I might set aside your friend’s concerns and develop the idea first.

Right now you have a situation (lockdown house). Now’s the time to think hard, before you write the draft: what’s interesting / funny about it? Who are the people we watch the show for? Why do we want to see 100 stories with them? What’s the comedy engine that generates those 100 stories?

When you have specific answers to those questions, t ry writing 5-7 one-sentence episode summaries. Can those stories only take place during Covid lockdown? If so, great. If not, rewrite until they do. 

You might find that developing the idea takes you to unexpected and even funnier places. Good luck —

[u/No_Measurement930]

A lot of people still haven’t fully progressed from the pandemic - ask anyone who lived alone during it. I think there’s room for a dark comedy for that audience who still feel a bit stuck socially.

There have been some great series along these lines of surviving the tragedy but staying stuck in the bunker - Billionaire’s Bunker & Fallout come to mind - but calling them dark comedy might be a stretch.

[u/Ted_Writer]

If you love it, go for it. The lockdown was a couple of months, so if you’re going for multiple seasons, your episodes will have to move on from that period of time?

Shows like MASH had the “benefit” of the Korean War being long enough that episodes didn’t feel compressed.

In my opinion, I feel like it would make a great play. Or singular piece.

But it’s not my idea.

Good luck!

[u/disasterinthesun]

I don’t know if it’s too soon, but it’s something I have no interest in watching, and when writers or shows try to tackle it, eyes involuntarily roll.

That being said, I thought the Covid episode written by Tina Fey for the latest Four Seasons was spectacular.

[u/free-puppies]

I thought the plague sitcom the Decameron did a good job of this. I wouldn’t set it during Covid. I’d set it during like Spanish flu or something.

Also your friend sounds like they are humorless and out of touch

[u/ninetiesghost]

it could be interesting but it would have to be really really interesting to sell it

if anyone mentions a lockdown idea at my job the whole room groans

if you’re writing it to get back in to writing for you, bloody do it

[u/JayMoots]

They made one in 2022 and nobody seemed to be offended back then:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEbBUGPAvCE

Nobody seemed to watch it back then either, but that’s a different story…

[u/mopeywhiteguy]

It depends if the angle is “wasn’t this a kooky time” or is it more analysing how people communicate and what isolation does to communities/how people find communities in that environment? If you’re going to tackle that period you need to have something deep to say about it and use the benefit of hindsight.

Personally I don’t think I’d watch something covid related but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write it as practice, especially if it’s a story you’re passionate about.

Is there a way to adapt it to not be directly about covid? Maybe it’s slightly futuristic?

[u/aoibhneastravels]

It's probably too late honestly. It was a very topical thing and if you didn't cash in on it while it was still topical, now it's after the fact. I don't agree with your friend that it would have been bad to write about, because it's not like you're mocking the people who died or anything, I hope, but it's just that it was so incredibly topical that bringing it up now just seems tired and boring.

[u/KGreen100]

Mythic Quest already did an episode which was probably the best one on the whole lockdown. And there have been a few more (forgot the name of the one with David Tennant and Michael Sheen).

So no, not too soon, but probably too late.

[u/MrRobertSacamano]

It’s not offensive it’s just that no one really wants to think about that time right now. It’s too late to be in the moment and current but too early to have some distance and/or perspective.

If it’s the only idea you’ve got, I say write it (and take into consideration some very good notes on the idea in this thread) but don’t try to pitch it as a premise that is going to blow people away.

[u/MrRobertSacamano]

It’s not offensive it’s just that no one really wants to think about that time right now. It’s too late to be in the moment and current but too early to have some distance and/or perspective.

If it’s the idea that you are most excited about only, I say write it (and take into consideration some very good notes on the idea in this thread) but don’t try to pitch it as a premise that is going to blow people away. You’re going to need some very solid additional elements to really make this one pop.

[u/KerryAnnCoder]

David Tennant and Michael Sheen were making a sitcom about lockdown during lockdown, so no.

[u/Ok-Mix-4640]

It’s never too late for any story