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In Praise of Jeffrey Cranor
🕑 Added 2023-05-17 17:57:46 +0000 UTCIn the last Director's Notes (available to all patron members above the free level), Jeffrey said some very nice things about funny jokes I've added to his scripts. So I would like to take this second to talk about the comedy writing of Jeffrey Cranor. And I'll use a paragraph from one of our very first episodes, The Shape in Grove Park. (I actually was the primary writer of that episode, but our process was different back then. Instead of writing full drafts and giving them to the other writer to edit, we banked Night Vale paragraphs in a shared doc which we would both grab from when writing an episode.)
Here is the paragraph:
Friends, listeners, there's a real tarantula problem here in Night Vale. Many residents have called in to report that illiteracy, unwanted pregnancy and violent crime are on the rise in the tarantula communities. Animal control is addressing these concerns through after-school programs called “Teach a spider to read: Stop the madness.” Those interested in volunteering should stand in their bathtubs and weep until it is all gone. Nothing left. You can let go now. Let go. Sssh. Let go.
There is so much going on here, but what I love most about this paragraph is that every single sentence is a surprise. There is no way to predict where it is going, not just on a big picture level, but almost on a word to word level.
We start simply enough with "Friends, listeners, there's a real tarantula problem here in Night Vale." Now, we have enough life experience to know where this is going. There's a spider problem. Creepy! Let's get the pest people in here.
But then we get the next sentence: "Many residents have called in to report that illiteracy, unwanted pregnancy and violent crime are on the rise in the tarantula communities." Now we have completely pivoted into a parody of right wing news reporting. And in that pivot, we, as listeners, have to completely reconceive of our imagination of the tarantulas in the story.
So now we're on to the next line: "Animal control is addressing these concerns through after-school programs called 'Teach a spider to read: Stop the madness.'" Our brains are having to race to keep up with the way this narrative is shifting on us. We have gone from a pest problem to a right wing screed to a reading campaign. But it feels like we might be reaching a stable point. It's a reading program, there will be call for volunteers.
And sure enough, that call for volunteers comes, but, it's once again not what we expected. "Those interested in volunteering should stand in their bathtubs and weep until it is all gone. Nothing left. You can let go now. Let go. Sssh. Let go." Now we're in a different place, a personal place. Yes, on one hand this is just a funny twist, but it's also an image that might be very familiar to us. Who hasn't stood in the shower crying, contemplating things we've done wrong, or things that were done wrong to us?
What started with us thinking about spiders crawling around our house has ended with us standing in warm water, crying. It's a brilliant efficient piece of comedy writing. If anyone is interested in the kind of writing we do, a lot can be learned from just this paragraph alone.
-Joseph Fink
Comments
WhenTheFoxGrins
Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm still learning both of your writing styles, particularly as a new Patreon member, and it's so fun and fascinating to listen to episodes now, thinking in the back of my mind "I bet xyz wrote that line." I especially love seeing examples from such early episodes. Super nostalgic! The way Jeffrey wrote this bit strongly reminds me of Night Vale's propensity to go from something completely normal (or relatively normal, considering this is NV) to something completely absurd, occasionally even within the same sentence. This scene especially – as you mentioned, the jerky ride the listener is put on, all in a single paragraph, is just so... just so NIGHT VALE. And I love it! I can never get bored listening to NV, because you really can never know what to expect next... I'll think I'm listening to one thing, and that one thing will turn into some other thing, which will eventually become something else, and then it'll have evolved into something ENTIRELY different by the end. And then Cecil will say something like, "this has been traffic." And I'm just flummoxed because... just, what... HOW? I complimented Joseph on his creativity in that last post, but I truly hope it didn't come off as me saying that Jeffrey wasn't creative, or AS creative or something like that. Cuz I'd feel like a real dick. 🤦🏼 Rather, both of you are immensely creative, and hilarious, and thought-provoking, but in your own ways that, when put together, become something truly beautiful. And there's certainly no denying that Night Vale is truly beautiful.
Kellie Linda
I love seeing you two praise each other! I’d read a whole series like this.
Arline Babka
Having personally stood in my shower crying over the tarantula problem I too must praise Jeffrey's insightful writing!
