The “Game of the Scene”: A Basic explanation

The “Game of the Scene” is a core concept in long form improv comedy. This concept has a reputation for being difficult to grasp initially, but once it clicks for you, you’ll find it to be the key to improvising tight and unique scenes.

At its core, the Game of the Scene refers to an unusual and funny thing that is turned into an escalating pattern.

To give you a sense of where this term comes from, consider a classic “short-form” improv performance. A “short-form” improv comedy performance, such as on you’d see on Whose Line is it Anyway or Theatresports or Comedy Sportz, consists of a series of theater games and acting challenges, and the rules of each game are communicated to the audience to the point that they are part of the show.

In long form improv, we play “games” as well, but we find them in our scenes. We don’t necessarily go into a scene knowing that we’re going to play the game of “apathetic superhero” or “librarian who treats their job like a TV police officer,” but once we arrive at that type of clear unusual and funny thing, we turn it into a game by making an escalating pattern out of it. We don’t play predetermined games, we play the game of each scene.

Playing the game of the scene involves identifying something fun and unusual in a scene, and then working with your scene partner(s) to turn that fun and unusual thing into an escalating pattern. We say “X is funny. Let’s keep doing X, and do it bigger each time.”

A two-step process

For performers, playing the game of the scene is essentially a two-step process.

The first step involves answering the question “what is funny about this scene?” Every scene eventually arrives at something that is fun. Identifying something funny and fun in a scene is the first step in playing the game of that scene.

The second step in playing the game of the scene is to turn that funny thing into a pattern, ideally one that heightens or escalates. So, instead of doing scenes that meander, or go off on tangents, or where there are a bunch of different things going on, a tight game-based improv comedy scene is focused around one funny idea that we turn into a pattern. We call this process playing the game of the scene.

You can think of playing the game of the scene as saying: “X is funny. Let’s do X, and do it bigger each time.” This will be our template for this article. “X is funny. Let’s keep doing X, and do it bigger each time.”

Step one: What is funny about this scene?

In order to know what is funny about a scene, we first need to know the general context in which a scene is occurring: the who, what and where of the scene. This is an element of improv that is often skipped over, especially by people who are just starting out, but a clear game-based improv scene is next to impossible without knowing the who, what, and where of a scene.

For example: imagine a scene where a character enters carrying a big fish. There’s no way to know if that’s funny or not without knowing the context in which the fish is being carried. There are contexts in which a person carrying a big fish is expected and normal. There are contexts in which a person walking in carrying a big fish would be hilarious. We can’t know if the fish is funny or not without knowing the context. So, before we start playing the game of the scene, the scene needs to be a clear, identifiable who, what and where.

Once you’ve yes-anded yourself to a strong who what and where, you can be on the lookout for things that are unusual and funny. This can happen in as little as one line of dialogue, or it can take several moments to materialize. There’s no need to rush!

A funny pattern that escalates

Once you’ve found something unusual and funny, the job switches from saying “yes, and” to exploring the unusual and funny thing, turning it into a pattern that escalates. We can say “X is funny. Let’s keep doing X, and do it bigger each time.”

Let’s look at some examples. The Game of the Scene is a concept that applies to both scripted comedy and improv comedy, so we’ll use sketches as our examples. This first example has a clear funny thing that is turned into a pattern that escalates. Do you see it?

The funny thing in this scene is Scott Sterling getting hit in the face with the volleyball. More specifically: what’s funny here is the fact that Scott Sterling is essentially carrying his team to victory by being repeatedly and incidentally hit in the face with the ball.

The first time Scott Sterling scores a point by being hit in the face by the volleyball, it is almost believable, the kind of thing that would be shared around social media if it were real. But this is a comedy sketch, and the comedy in this scene is driven by an escalating pattern of Scott Sterling being hit in the face with the ball in ways that are amazing for his team. As the scene progresses, Scott Sterling gets more and more battered and the circumstances of the scene get more and more absurd and heightened as Sterling’s team mounts a dramatic comeback.

If we plug this scene into “X is funny. Let’s keep doing X, and do it bigger each time,” we get Scott Sterling carrying his team by just getting hit in the face is funny. Let’s keep hitting Scott Sterling in the face with the volleyball and do it bigger each time.

There might be other possible sources of comedy in that scene, but the scene is focused on one funny thing that is turned into a pattern that escalates as the scene progresses. That keeps the scene tight and focused, and is the essence of game of the scene-based comedy.

tip: Look for the unusual

This funny thing that we turn into a game is almost always something that stands out as being unusual in an otherwise usual situation.

As an example: picture your average office meeting. What is usual or expected in an office meeting? Here are some things I would consider usual for an office meeting: A meeting room. Chairs. People assembled talking about office stuff. Coffee and some pastries on the table. Take a moment and list in your mind some other things that would be considered normal or expected or usual for an office meeting. These can be objects, behaviors, events, etc.

The following sketch takes place at an office meeting. You’ll notice a lot of normal things happening that we might associate with an office meeting. You’ll also notice that there is something very unusual happening within the context of this otherwise usual office meeting. What stands out to you as unusual?

This starts out relatively normal-seeming office meeting, but there’s a clear unusual thing happening: everyone in the office is devouring plates of nectarines without restraint. Things escalate as the eating gets more and more voracious.

If we plug this scene into “X is funny. Let’s keep doing X, and do it more each time,” we get Eating in a wild way in an unexpected place is funny. Let’s keep eating in a wild way and do it bigger each time.

This is the essence of the game of the scene: a fun and unusual thing that we turn into an escalating pattern.

tip: Give the game a name

It’s often helpful to give a name to the game of a comedy scene. Naming the game of the scene gives you a mental “anchor” you can use while you’re improvising. To practice naming the game of a comedy scene, let’s watch this sketch from Key and Peele. This sketch has a clear game. See if you can give a name to the game they’re playing in this scene.

Did you get it?

I would call the game of this scene absurd one-upping. You might have come up with an equally good way to name the game of this scene, and that’s fine. The exact wording is not what’s important.

The scene starts more or less normal — two guys meeting up, and one has a fresh hat that makes the other jealous — but it heightens into absurdity as each tries to have a fresher hat than the other.

To plug it into the template: One-upping each other absurdly is funny. Let’s keep one-upping each other in absurd ways and do it more bigger time.

same game, different scene

Here is an example of another sketch that uses the same basic game as one of the sketches we’ve already seen. See if you can identify it.

Did you get it?

I would also call the game this scene absurd one-upping. Of course, the setting, context, and presentation are all different! The scene starts more or less normal — a group of old timers discussing how hard they had it growing up — but their stories get more and more impossibly absurd as each of them tries to make their own childhoods seem harder than the others. By the end of it, the stories defy the limits of time and human existence.

Even though the setting and all of that are different, this sketch plugs into our template the same way as the previous sketch: One-upping each other in absurd ways is funny. Let’s keep one-upping each other in absurd ways and do it bigger each time.

can you do the same game?

Do you think you could do an improv scene that plays the absurd one-upping game? You most definitely can. It doesn’t have to be four old timers talking about their childhoods or rivals trying to be more fashionable than each other. It can be any number of people trying to one-up one another about any specific thing. The healthiness of their lunch. Their kid’s extracurricular activities. The size of the fish they caught that one time.

If you want a challenge, get together with your improv comedy group and improvise your own scene using the absurd one-upping game! Or, write your own version of it as a sketch right now!

This is the essence of what is meant by “the game” or “the game of the scene” in long form improv comedy. We find something funny in our scene, and we turn it into a pattern that heightens or escalates. We say “X is funny. Let’s keep doing X, and do it bigger each time.” This idea is sometimes difficult to grasp at first, but it absolutely makes things easier once you’re in the groove.