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| Dedication and Thank Yous | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Foreplay, Or How Tina Fey Can Kick Bruce Willis' Ass | |
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| How to Use this Book | |
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| How to Bust a Gut | |
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| Or Comedy College 101 | |
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| A Criminally Brief History of Film Comedy | |
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| Yes, But What Kind of Comedy? | |
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| Exercise: Beg, Steal, or Borrow | |
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| The Comedic Idea | |
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| A.K.A. The Importance of Being Inappropriate A.K.A. The Blues Brothers are Not Role Models | |
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| The Inappropriate Goal | |
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| The Comedic Logline A.K.A. The Pitch | |
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| Uniquely Familiar | |
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| Exercise: Twenty Uniquely Familiar Ideas | |
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| The Fill-in-the Blanks Elevator Pitch | |
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| Exercise: The Poster | |
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| Plot Vs. Character: Who Will Win? | |
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| Comedic Character | |
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| A.K.A. A Fool's Journey A.K.A. I Know A Guy Just Like That | |
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| The Importance of Character | |
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| A Fool's Journey | |
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| Take Your Silliness Seriously | |
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| Characters Change | |
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| The Rock and Roll School of Screenwriting | |
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| Plot vs. Character | |
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| Building the Comic Character | |
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| Exercise: The Comedic Character Worksheet | |
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| What I Really Want To Do Is Direct | |
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| Comic Vision | |
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| Inappropriate Behavior | |
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| Inappropriate Dialogue | |
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| Unity of Opposites | |
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| Rowing a Sinking Boat | |
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| Funny People | |
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| Exercise: Character Work | |
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| Hilarity and Heart | |
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| A.K.A. It's All About the Wolf Pack | |
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| The "Classic" and Still Modern Three-Act Structure | |
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| Exercise: Question Everything | |
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| The Comedic Sequence Approach | |
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| Scene Study | |
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| Putting Scenes to Work in Events | |
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| Exercise: Funny Scenes | |
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| The Secret Ingredients of Comedic Scenes | |
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| The Comedic Roadmap - The Eight Comic Sequences | |
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| Comic Sequence (A) | |
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| A.K.A. The Comedic World | |
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| A.K.A. Well Begun is Half Done | |
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| Setting Up the Comedic World | |
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| Exercise: Comedy Calisthenics | |
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| What is the Tone of Your Story? | |
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| The Prestory | |
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| Open With a Hook - First Impressions | |
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| Denning Action | |
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| Status Quo-Something's Missing | |
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| Exposition | |
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| Point of Attack - Opportunity Knocks | |
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| Exercise: Rewrite Your Favorite Movie | |
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| Comic Sequence (B) | |
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| Setting up the Inappropriate Goal A.K.A. "You're Going to Do What?" or Why Crashing A Wedding is a Good Idea | |
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| What the Hell Happened to Me? | |
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| The Buddy | |
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| Meet the Bad Guy A.K.A. The Dick | |
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| The Dramatic Question - Oh, That's What it's About | |
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| End of the First Act - Protagonist and Objective | |
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| Exercise: Change the Point of View | |
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| Act Two! | |
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| A.K.A. Where Scripts Go to Die | |
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| Comic Sequence (C) | |
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| The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World A.K.A. Sometimes Girls Throw up on You | |
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| Oh Yes, Oh No! | |
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| Start Small and Go Big | |
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| The Promise of the Premise | |
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| The Main Events of Sequence C | |
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| The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | |
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| Establish the Initial Goal | |
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| Learning New Rules / Taking on Appearances | |
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| Friends and Enemies | |
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| Subplots | |
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| Subplots and Themes | |
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| First Attempt Fails - Maybe | |
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| Exercise in Conflict: The Agitator | |
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| Comic Sequence (D) | |
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| It Just Keeps Getting Worse a.k.a. How Much Pain Can Ben Stiller Take? | |
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| Five Events to the Midpoint | |
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| Anticipation and Reaction Scenes | |
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| Reaction Scenes | |
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| Ramping Up | |
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| Backward from the Midpoint | |
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| The Midpoint Hints at the Ending | |
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| Importance of Location | |
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| Comic Sequence (E) | |
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| Love in the Air A.K.A. Why Andy Chooses Love over Sex | |
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| Reaction to the Midpoint | |
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| Major Character Shift | |
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| Develop the Theme | |
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| Upping the Stakes | |
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| The Jolt | |
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| Comic Exercise: The Soundtrack | |
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| Comic Sequence (F) | |
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| What Was I Thinking? a.k.a. Yes, I'm a Liar But | |
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| A Final Push | |
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| Good Times Never Last | |
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| Expose the Character's Weakness | |
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| The Calm Before the Storm | |
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| End of Act Two: Bad Things Happen | |
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| Other Ways to End Act Two | |
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| Act Three | |
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| Comic Sequence (G) | |
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| Time to Grow Up A.K.A. Why Are Ashton and Natalie So Sad Even Though They Said No Strings Attached? | |
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| So What Is Act Three? | |
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| What Else Should Happen In My Act Three? | |
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| Singing the Blues | |
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| Who Am I? | |
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| Help from the Mentor | |
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| The Last Great Decision | |
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| Comic Sequence (H) | |
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| The New Me A.K.A. Why Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey, Hugh Grant, Natalie Portman are Running at the End of the Movie | |
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| The Battle | |
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| Convergence | |
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| Sacrifice | |
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| Resurrection | |
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| Epiphany | |
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| The Final Race | |
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| The New Me | |
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| Take a Breath at the End | |
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| A Word About Satisfying Endings | |
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| Writing the Screenplay | |
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| Writing the Screenplay | |
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| Turning the Scriptment into the Script | |
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| Why Do Screenplays Fail? | |
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| The Writing Begins | |
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| Some Words about Dialogue | |
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| Trust the Work You Have Done | |
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| How Do I Know when It's Done? | |
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| The Business of Writing | |
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| Funny Is Money | |
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| Filmography | |
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| About the Author | |