SO MANY LEVELS?

When I was much younger than I am today, it was not really unusual for me to be found watching kids TV shows of any and all genres and flavours. Now the fact that I did shouldn’t be that much of a shock as I was, indeed, a child, but a lesser known fact of kids TV was brought home now that I am an uncle.

Kids shows are clearly designed to appeal to the children but very often, an effort has been made by the production teams to add something just for the adults.

Now these added extras aren’t just slapped in there with a sweary addition or a blast of violence that wasn’t expected, rather they find themselves disguised as harmless little one liners, or innocent images which the little ‘un’s can all laugh along with but only the grown ups really get. Shrek’s comment about Lord Farquad’s castle being so large as a way of compensating for something, wink, wink.

And that can’t be an easy thing to manage.

Can you imagine trying to hide ‘naughtiness’ in plain site? Getting a potentially inappropriate comment or idea under the noses of the audience?

Layers of the story have to add to the whole. They have to be seamlessly part of the tale so as not to draw any unwanted attention but still add to the overall of what’s going on. If you notice them, then you get the added glow of sniggering at the joke but without the knowledge then you can still get value from what’s going on.

All stories have a multitude of layers which are stitched together to create the symphony of what the tale is and in the same way an orchestra as a whole delivers the complete performance, should you notice the specific work of one instrument over the others you’re treated to a more pinpoint fact of the collection.

Be it innuendos, or layered sub-text, stories have more than just the tale buried within the words. There are subtle waves and patterns woven through every story as the writer puts nuance and ‘meat’ onto the bones of what’s going on. Always make sure you notice all of the little bits and pieces that fit together to create the whole.

Just to highlight the way an amazing joke can be tossed into the wider story, thanks to Gheorghe Lazarof on You Tube, I present to you a first class joke that will always make me laugh from the cartoon Animaniacs. Please take a look and believe me, it’s well worth a look.