Live From Athens
Inside the writers' room of OU's sketch comedy show
By Layne Rey | Photos by Shelby Gibson and Provided by Friday's Live | Design By Ally parker
(Bottom) Olivia Freeland at her final show with Friday's Live on Nov. 22, 2024. Photo provided by Friday's Live.
Ohio University’s longest-running sketch comedy show, Friday’s Live, showcases students’ abilities to execute Saturday Night Live-inspired performances every other week. The School of Media Arts and Studies group hosts a range of talents whether that is in acting, producing, editing, art direction or videography.
Behind the scenes, the writers of Friday’s Live are busy collaborating throughout the tightly scheduled week to ensure the actors have the show day holy grail: a script.
Each Sunday preceding a Friday show, writers gather in the writers’ room to begin the pitching process. Head Writer Lydia Smith, a senior studying media and social change, kicks things off by introducing the host for the week and their interests, as well as any timely holidays, events or seasons she hopes to incorporate into the sketches.
“Timing is important,” Smith says. “As a general rule of thumb, we don't do much direct political satire. We don't like impersonating politicians. My general philosophy is we probably lack the nuance to do these parodies in a way that people will find respectful and also that won't be inflammatory. That's not to say we don't want to push buttons from time to time. Comedy is all about that.”
Following that inspiration, the writers share ideas with the group that align with the values and comedy style of Friday’s Live. Jack Linscott, a sophomore studying game design, is a cast member and writer. He believes that the writers’ room is the ideal place to develop ideas.
“A lot of people can just pitch a simple gag, and then they can really rack their brains and write a whole sketch that's centered around or dedicated to a gag or a funny idea,” Linscott says. “I myself am a bit different. I'm prone to writing parody sketches that use characters from other media character archetypes that I'm familiar with.”
Next, the team collaborates to categorize the ideas into two main groups: live sketches and digital content. Live sketches are typically more straightforward, focusing on the writers’ comedic talents without relying on complex techniques such as perfectly timed camera blocking or after-effects. Digital content, on the other hand, is broken down into three formats: a four-to-five-minute digital short, a TikTok-style “mini-digi” or an improvised commercial. These shorter sketches rely on the writers’ abilities to communicate a concept quickly and creatively, which they have certainly leaned into.
“The vibe of the show these days, I would say, is a lot more surrealist,” Smith says. “Especially with the digital content, we have this interesting team of underclassmen who are really trying new stuff. And I think that's great.”
HR and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director Hiley Kresse, a senior studying communication studies, notices the positive impact of the writers’ room including, “drawing on inspiration from so many outside things and being able to bounce ideas off of other people,” Kresse says. “Sometimes people will come into the writers’ room with an idea, and then they'll leave, and it's an entirely different idea.”
The colorful array of clothes and accessories for actors to wear during Friday’s Live skits
Besides Smith’s other numerous responsibilities throughout show week, she writes three key segments: the cold open, banter and A News. She describes entering a “flow state” writing these segments, gathering inspiration and ideas from Sunday’s writers’ room before beginning the writing process. As for the cold open, Smith writes more adventurously and enjoys taking on bigger ideas since it is digital and can be edited.
Banter is the segment where the host introduces themselves and checks in mid-show in a comedic manner. After viewing the host’s LinkedIn and conversing with them, Smith’s approach to writing banter is to essentially have the host say: “Hi, this is an exaggerated version of myself."
As the writers' room concludes on Sunday evening, the team spends Monday and Tuesday writing their respective sketches. On Tuesday, Smith hosts office hours to offer a second opinion on sketches – whether it is to help with a tricky ending, refining a punchline or overcoming writer’s block.
“The hard thing about this is you can't tell how a sketch will read, necessarily, every time,” Smith says. “So, you can have a great concept for a sketch, and it just might not hit on the actual read-through. So, what I try to do is ensure that even if a sketch is pretty simple in concept, that there are some good zingers here and there that can ensure: OK, that will get a chuckle even if it's not the main body.”
Combined with zingers and a solid structure, Smith works with writers to refine their sketches – emphasizing that bouncing ideas off of another person is a crucial aspect of successful comedy writing.
During her office hours, Smith also works with A News Host Chance Lane to write the Weekend Update-inspired segment. The pair write multiple punchlines for news stories they find will ultimately be easily communicated and tasteful.
“We narrow down which one is the most accessible, which one is the most – if we’re shooting for cleverness – which one will get people going, ‘oh,’” Smith says. “That little reaction of inspiration – if that was possible with every joke, send me to Hollywood.”
Keeping in mind that the host of the show also serves as the co-host of A News for their episode, Smith emphasizes “cross-referencing” with the host to ensure they are comfortable with the jokes.
“As for A News, sometimes we have to cut jokes last minute,” Smith says. “It just happens. There are instances where we want to be kind of relevant to things happening at the school, and then we decide this might not be in the best judgment right now. It might isolate people more than it invites them to laugh. You see that on Weekend Update a lot – some people groan and some laugh – and sometimes those jokes are really funny, but you just hit a nerve. I try to avoid hitting nerves with the broader population. If I hit a nerve, it's gonna be with the person reading the joke because we're all friends here.”
On Wednesday, writers reconvene along with the executive board and cast members to read through the sketches that they have been working on over the past few days. Cast members who signed up for the week’s episode read the sketches out loud in order to bring the writers’ visions to life.
Read-throughs are a way for the group to gauge how a sketch will be perceived by the audience, particularly as they explore the randomness and absurdity they have embraced in recent seasons, Smith says.
“There’s often a concern for broad appeal when it comes to sketches, but if it makes us all laugh in the read-through, people tend to really enjoy it,” Linscott says.
Typically, writers list the characters in their sketches with short descriptions, which sometimes can lead to typecasting. Regardless, writers will typically work in tandem with producers to decide which cast members will read each sketch during read-throughs. Linscott noted that he does not often write his sketches with specific actors in mind and that cast members are happy to help out and adjust to different personas.
However, Linscott recently wrote a sketch following a character that he was extremely passionate about.
“There's this recent digital short I wrote that was for a little bit of self-enjoyment, where I envisioned a character for myself that was this flamboyant, energetic detective character,” Linscott says. “And I got to, luckily, perform that for myself, and I got to help out with the production.”
As the DEI and HR director, Kresse is present at read-throughs to ensure all sketches align with the group’s core values.
“My first job is to content check everything and if rewrites need to happen, being at the read-throughs to see all the content before it gets voted on,” Kresse says. “I'm there to gauge everything.”
After all content is read through and approved, a Google form is sent out to vote on which live and digital sketches will be in the show. Giving every member a voice, read-throughs are an exciting sneak peek at the show to follow.
“I think, generally speaking, it's an important process that it's both democratic and anonymous,” Smith says.
On an extremely busy Wednesday night, Smith organizes the winning sketches into a logical script for the Friday show.
Houston Boxler and Bre Reidle in their sketch "Hot Topic", written by Lydia Smith on Nov. 22, 2024. Photo provided by Friday's Live.
Once a season, Friday’s Live holds an after-dark show, which Smith describes as “not quite rated R, but mature audience episode.” During these shows, the writers explore darker humor and can be more scandalous as opposed to their typical scripts.
“I love a good sex joke,” Smith says. “I love innuendo – I live for that kind of stuff.”
During these episodes, Smith and Kresse work closely to ensure that everyone is comfortable with the jokes, no one in the organization is upset and everyone is aware that the episode will be posted on YouTube.
Although it is one of Friday’s Live’s most popular episodes each season, dark and scandalous humor can create awkward moments.
“This is true for any single organization, but I think comedy is one of the most – it can produce a lot of strain,” Smith says. “It can produce moments of [discomfort]. So, it's important to be very careful about it.”
Although Friday’s Live writers generally follow a shared style and understand the organization’s role within the School of Media Arts and Studies, each writer has their own inspirations and writing techniques.
“We try to push things that are going to be funny no matter what the context or situation is,” Kresse says. “So, things that you don't really need to have social media or understand a certain reference to make it funny – so a lot of physical comedy.”
Kresse adds, “It's also fun to see people kind of grow throughout the semester. You'll see freshmen come in and be pretty timid with their writing style, and then it gets more outrageous over time, or they just get into the groove of it a little bit more.”
The Friday’s Live writing team carefully balances comedic writing while maintaining the show’s standards of responsibility and inclusivity. Whether in the group or a fan of the Friday evening performances, there is a joke for everyone – from physical comedy and self-deprecating banter to news-related zingers and every punchline in between.
“That’s why people love the org so much,” Kresse says, “They can come into the room with crazy ideas that somewhere else would get shot down, but then they come here, and everyone is building it up and listening to it.” b
