RomCom 'buddy' question

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
I'm outlining a romantic comedy screenplay, need some thoughts about the buddy / reflection character. I know from listening to Hauge and such that romcoms invariably have the two romance characters having a buddy to serve for dialog and as a reflection character. Is this an invariable rule, should I stick to this rule no matter what? It is just not feeling right for my story idea, otherwise I would have no problem with it.

Without of course giving away too many specifics of my story, I have a machismo male hero who has a geek female best friend since childhood. He heads off to the non-ordinary world (new location) of course, but still needs her help along his journey. We root for them to connect by the end of the story. They are already buddies in a way, so it seems awkward to invent a buddy character for each of them. I would appreciate any feedback, even if it is that I had best invest a buddy character for each of the romance characters.

I suppose the 'buddy' character (reflection character) does not have to necessarily be a friend to the romance character, right? That might make this easier to figure out. For example, in Maid in Manhattan the buddy/reflection char for Christopher Marshall is his assistant, a rather unlikable buddy character. And in 13 Going on 30 the 'buddy' character to Jennifer Garner's character is a false-ally who backstabs her and is very superficial.
 
The main purpose of side characters in comedies is humor. It doesn't really matter that the character is the protagonist's best friend or anything. They could be co-workers, parents, neighbors, etc. All of the people that the protagonist interacts with on a regular basis.

It sounds like your script all ready has the buddy character you are talking about. You are just pulling the "buddy ends up as the romantic interest" card.

In that case, does your script have a distraction character, who seems like the obvious romantic interest for the protagonist, but who is really only distracting him from the real girl?
 
Always keep in mind what purpose these conventions serve.

The "buddy" is often a way to get out needed exposition. The buddy also serves as sort of an audience member, commenting on the "hero's" journey as an observer.

There are other ways to do these things.
 
Exactly ("buddy ends up as the romantic interest" ). Good suggestions, I can make sure to have other characters serve as side characters. My story is likely closest in a sense to 13 Going on 30 in that the childhood bf buddy even in the new world serves as a buddy that then ends as the romantic interest. But yeah I need other chars as reflection chars (Hauge's terms); I can probably find some other buddy archetype chars, but they won't interact so much with the hero as will the buddy that becomes the romantic interest. Good idea too on creating a char that becomes a distraction romantic char, I will work on that. Still in beat sheet outline mode so I can be pretty flexible. :beer:

agcohn said:
The main purpose of side characters in comedies is humor. It doesn't really matter that the character is the protagonist's best friend or anything. They could be co-workers, parents, neighbors, etc. All of the people that the protagonist interacts with on a regular basis.

It sounds like your script all ready has the buddy character you are talking about. You are just pulling the "buddy ends up as the romantic interest" card.

In that case, does your script have a distraction character, who seems like the obvious romantic interest for the protagonist, but who is really only distracting him from the real girl?
Click to expand...
 
Will do. Thank you David. :dankk2:

David Jimerson said:
Always keep in mind what purpose these conventions serve.

The "buddy" is often a way to get out needed exposition. The buddy also serves as sort of an audience member, commenting on the "hero's" journey as an observer.

There are other ways to do these things.
Click to expand...
 
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