“Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith.“

-Christopher Fry

…

Last week I caught up with a friend of mine who knows more about American TV than is probably healthy. She is what you might call an ‘expert’. We ended having something of a tepid debate about The West Wing.

I mentioned in passing that I always thought of it as, basically, a comedy series with a soul and a message. She was having none of it: it was a drama, with funny bits. Annoyingly, a bottle of Pinot Noir in, I couldn’t recall a single one of my favourite West Wing gags to prove my point that, if it’s not a comedy, nothing is.

But this evening, in a break from writing The Book (I’ve actually done something today. And I ate sushi for lunch. My end of year resolutions have started well), I decided to spend a few minutes sending her an email proving my point.

To do that, I employed what I call ‘The Scrubs Test’. The methodology is simple:

1) First, accept that, having been nominated for six *comedy-related* Emmys, Scrubs is unarguably a comedy series. (And yet, like The West Wing, it has no laugh track so you have to figure that out for yourself. The presence of Zach Braff doesn’t help).

2) Having accepted this, hand-pick (Google) a range of exchanges between major characters in your test show (in this case, The West Wing).

3) Next, mentally recast each exchange from your target show so that instead of being between the original show’s characters, it is now between *either* JD and Dr Cox OR Elliot and Carla in Scrubs.

4) If the exchanges from your target show could *easily* pass in a Scrubs script without looking out of place then target show is – indisputably – as much of a comedy as Scrubs. Everything else is window dressing.

Got it? Ok! Let’s go…! Recast the following in your head and see how they hold up…

…

SAM: About a week ago I accidentally slept with a prostitute.
TOBY: [pause] Really?
SAM: Yes.
TOBY: A prostitute?
SAM: A call girl.
TOBY: Accidentally?
SAM: Yes.
TOBY: I don’t understand. Did you *trip* over something?

…

NURSE: I need to ask you some questions, sir. Do you have any medical conditions?
BARTLET: Well… I’ve been shot.

…

ABBEY : “You really planned this all yourself?”
BARTLET : “I’m like Gatsby, but without the problems.”

[Ok, granted this one's borderline. Maybe it's more Spin City. But that's still Bill Lawrence so it counts]

…

GINGER : “You ate a moose?”
SAM : “No. I don’t like eating things where the cartoon character can talk – and, you know, hatch a plan.”

…

JOSH: You like winning, don’t you?
TOBY: Saves you from having to say the word please.

…

JOSH : We think if we hit the ground hard enough, we can make it to the center of the planet and find water?
TOBY : Yeah.
JOSH : That’s not a theory of physics pretty much disproved by Wile E. Coyote?

…

And finally, a bonus one that fails the Scrubs Test but passes the Frasier Test…

Bartlet (Daphne): You know what you are? You are the Charlie Brown of missile defense. The Pentagon is Lucy.
Leo (Niles): I’m not familiar with the reference.
Bartlet (Daphne): Peanuts. Charlie Brown.
Leo (Niles): I’ve heard of them. I’m just not conversant in them.
Bartlet (Daphne): Why?
Leo (Niles): I’ve never read the comics.
Bartlet (Daphne): Leo [Niles], were you born at age 55?
Leo (Niles): I know there’s a dog…

….

Undeniable.

Right! Back to work!