John and Craig talk romantic comedies with screenwriter Tess Morris, whose film Man Up is unapologetically part of the genre.

We discuss what distinguishes rom-coms from other comedies, and why they get singled out for disdain and death-of articles.

Also this week: Amazon Storywriter, overused dicks, and follow-up on Whiplash.

This episode originally aired on November 24, 2015.

Links:

• Amazon Storywriter and Fountain
• Scriptnotes, 224: Whiplash, on paper and on screen
• Tess Morris on IMDb and Twitter, and Man Up on Wikipedia and Rotten Tomatoes
• Why Are Romantic Comedies So Bad? by Christopher Orr
• CinemaBlend’s 30 Best Romantic Comedies Of All-Time
• The New Yorker on Nick Bostrom
• Wait But Why on The Fermi Paradox
• Fallout 4, and on Amazon
• The Vista Theatre
• T-shirts are available here! We’ve got new designs, including Colored Revisions, Karateka, and Highland2.
• The USB drives!
• John August on Twitter
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Find past episodes
• Scriptnotes Digital Seasons are also now available!
• Outro by Jon Spurney (send us yours!)

Email us at [email protected]

You can download the episode here.