David Zucker, one of the co-creators of “The Naked Gun” comedy franchise, is branching out into teaching ― no joke!
But the subject Zucker is teaching isn’t chemistry, math or English. It’s comedy.
Zucker is now offering a Master Class program that teaches the fundamentals of spoof comedy, of which the man who co-directed and wrote films like “Airplane,” “Scary Movie 3,” and “Top Secret” is an acknowledged master.
The program offers aspiring parodists a chance to learn what he calls the 15 essential rules for writing, directing and editing comedy that he created with his brother, Jerry, and longtime collaborator Jim Abrahams.
Zucker admits it’s hard to teach someone to be funny, but the 15 rules he and his colleagues devised cracked a comedy code that turned deadpan exchanges like, “‘Surely, you can’t be serious?’ ‘I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley,’” into classic film hilarity.
