Technique: Decrying the "Pregnant Pause"""

[Greg Stephens]

OK, today I've seen the use of the "pregnant pause" just once too often. You know how it goes- panel one sets the situation, panel two introduces the setup to the punchline, panel three is a silent panel involving only the most minial actions from any characters and not advancing the plot one bit then panel four contains the punchline (a note on punchlines: my use of this term does not automatically mean I'm only talking about jokes and funny comcs. I try to always include a punchline in Zwol even though Zwol involves fewer and fewer gags as time goes on- Serious comics also need a punch). Eliminate panel one, and you've streamlined it slightly.

The problem, as I see it, is that third panel. The "pregnant pause". The problem with that third panel is that it is often entirely expendable and yet, time and again, I see comics (both on the web and in print) that waste valuable space showing us... nothing.

Now, there are certainly examples where a silent panel with minimal plot/character action is absolutely required to establish a mood or indicate a passage of time, but more often than not, the "pregnant pause" panel could be removed with absolutely no damage done to the comic in question.

I think- and this is only my opinion (but I feel it stong enough to say it here)- that if you generally draw a four-panel comic and you only have a three-panel idea, then inserting a "pregnant pause" panel is the last thing you should consider. Much better ways of approaching this would be to write more action, dialogue or both so that you now have an entire four-panel comic or to only draw the required three panels for that comic (resizing each panel as appropriate, of course).

I've gone through my archive and uncovered a handful of examples where I left a speechless panel where very little happened, but I like to think that these panels do show something integral to the comics in which they reside. Though not always.

Everything's debatable, and this may only be a pet peeve of mine, but use of the "pregnant pause" seems more and more like a waste of a panel and a technique which reveals an inexperienced comic author.

[Adam]

Gee, I never thought of the pause as being disposable. I think the point of having it there is, for funny strips anyways, comedic timing. Timing is everything, right? Personally, I find it very effective. It tends to provide a little halt before the punchline comes in and does it's thing, an increase or prolonging of the "tension" to make the "release" that much more effective.
Sometimes I think it's necessary for a joke, so people don't read right over the <a href="http://www.nooutlet.org/archive/arch219.html">indended humor</a>. That pause gives them time to process what they read, so the punchline makes sense when it comes. Though mostly I think it just helps a joke out.

Now, all that said, I agree that it's overused, and I also think it shows an inexperienced comic writer because it's a bit of an easy out, to boost up the comedy without much effort (looking back at my recent archive I see I used it several times... uh heh heh... inexperienced writers such as myself, that is.)

-Adam
<a href="http://www.nooutlet.org">No Outlet</a>

[Jack Masters]

Speaking as an overuser of pregnant pauses, I empathise with your feelings towards them. I openly admit I often use them because my action and dialog does not fill the panel structure, and I don't have enough energy/time before the deadline to shoot that panel from a different camera angle, insert more story before or after, or in some other way alter the comic to remove the pause.

If I had more skill, or more time, or more energy, I would probably use much less pauses then I do. But I would still use them, reasonably frequently.

The four panels of my comic arrange in a square, and sometimes I just have a three panel joke. Changing formats back and forth constantly irritates the readers, or at least, when the comics I read change format constantly it at least slightly irritates me. Consistant and recognisable form help make a daily comic into a cohesive whole.

Fourthly, or thirdly, or whatever point this is, real life has pauses. Lots of them. Lots and lots and lots of them. I won't speak for others, but my comic, at least in part, immitates real life to some degree. In this aspect I feel the pauses help make it more realistic.

To sum up my point of view:
While many people (myself included) use too many panels which contain only a pause, I think pauses have important and reasonable uses as well.

[Doc MacDougal]

I don't want to retread a lot of what's been said here, but imagine removing all the rests from a piece of music because they're just dead time. Or imagine how the character of a scene from a Beckett or a Stoppard play would be changed if the pauses in the dialogue were removed. Anything can be over-used to death, but in the right hands it can be absolutely essential to the work.

Doc.

[Greg Stephens]

Good points, all! However, there is one key difference between pauses in real life, music and drama, and pauses in a comic-- Real life, music and drama all unfold in real time and pauses are essential; Comics don't work this way at all-- Real time is no object to understanding and real time can't heighten any impact.

Going back to my first post, I'm not advocating abolition of pauses in comics, but rather making people think about why they're using them in the first place. I think thinking about making comics makes making comics worth thinking about possible.

[Murak]

While I can see Greg's point about the pause being a waste of essential space in a four-panel (or less) comic strip, I disagree about it's use in longer book formats. The pause can be essential in emphasizing the previous panels emotional or psychological impact, not to mention being a simple way to reveal a characters thoughts without the obvious 'thought balloons'.

Murak
Edmonton, AB

[Jack Masters]

I never use thought balloons in Spongy. Now that I think about it, that probably contributes to the "pregnant pauses".

[Max Leibman]

For some reason, I always, always associate the pregnant pause (as a comedic device, at least) with <i>The Simpsons</i>.

Anyhow.

A necessary device for effect or pacing? Absolutely. Useful to emphasize a character's state? (e.g. concentrating, thougtful, stupid, surprised, grasping, nonchalant) Sure.

But overused? Oh, hell yeah. Picture this: two characters spend panel one discussing something that irks them (say, Brittney Spiers, for example), panel two has a third character showing up and embodying that which irks them (a friend of theirs wearing a Brittney T-shirt), panel three has the two staring at the newly arrived character, silently and posed exactly as they were in panel two, and panel four has the new character saying, "What?" I've seen a dozen variations of this gag across fewer than two dozen strips (<i>Dilbert</i>, <i>Garfield</i> and <i>Nukees</i> have all used it in some form), and that's just obscene.

So, I'll second the view that the pregnant pause has its place, but I'll echo Greg's view that creators need to think about <i>why</i> they're making use of it in the first place.

And (just so I'm not retreading ground), I'll expand on that sentiment: Don't just think about why you're doing it. If your gag is ANYTHING like the archetypal one described above, or any other commonly used pattern that involves that third-panel (or wherever) pregnant pause, ask yourself WHY you would do that. Why retread that ground? What are value are you adding by re-using someone else's tired joke? The pregnant pause is a particularly contagious meme -- most artists probably don't even realize how many others they're aping when they pick in up. Stop the meme. Find a new way to frame the punchline.

The pregnant pause: the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" of comic strip illustration.

Peace out,

Max Leibman

[<i>Edited to make sense. May not have succeeded. Hrmm.</i>]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Max Leibman on 2001-08-11 21:44 ]</font>

[shadefell]

Good points, all! However, there is one key difference between pauses in real life, music and drama, and pauses in a comic-- Real life, music and drama all unfold in real time and pauses are essential; Comics don't work this way at all-- Real time is no object to understanding and real time can't heighten any impact.

i beg to differ.

a comic exists on a linear plane. your eye travels over it, just as it travels over the words in a book, or the lines of a poem. by inserting a "pregnant pause," the eye does linger, because that's one more image it has to process. when the eye lingers, comprehension also lingers. we don't see and comprehend all four panels in a single instance. rather, we see each one seperatly, and process it before moving on to the next.

the "pregnant pause," while often over used, does serve a purpose.

and please. let's drop all "ayb" references. by all that's good and holy, there are STILL web comics out there making jokes about it. it scares me.

[Max Leibman]

Sorry. I tried to think of something completely rotten and unlikeable that is oft-copied without adding any value, and that was the most vile, yet repeated, thing I could think of.

-Max

[Greg Stephens]

OK, I agree that it takes longer to read a panel-- even a silent panel-- than not to read a panel, but I think that most people simply skip over the silent panel without much regard if that panel does not convey any significant information, which "pregnant pause" panels (heretoforward known as 3P) don't.

Example time! (And I know that I'm ALWAYS going to get in trouble when I start using other people's comics as examples for my own pet peeves, so Michael (if you're reading)-- I apologize in advance for using your comic in this way, and I urge anybody who likes to read well-done comics to check out Alice.)

As I see it, this is not a 3P situation:



While this is:



The difference? In the first strip, the silent panel cannot be removed without damaging the integrity of the strip. In the second case, it can be cleanly removed with no ill effect. Now one can argue that Dot's frustration in panel 3 of our second example is integral to the strip, but one could easily combine her panel 3 reaction with either Alice's reply in panel 2 or Dot's own retort in panel 4, in either case avoiding a potential 3P situation.

Side comment: I'm sure there's now mandatory prison time for any comics using the punchline "All your pregnant chads are belong to us."

[buzzard]

I think pregnant pauses work and work well if the reader really stops and absorbs the image... but I suspect the reader rarely does, and authoring the comic with the expectation that the reader will do so misses the reality of the experience of most readers.

In screenplays (movie scripts), one can write a little parenthetical "(beat)" in the middle of a character's dialogue to indicate a place where the character should pause--obvious for comedic punchlines, but just as useful in drama.

Yet "(beat)" is reviled in some circles (and rightly, I think, much like Greg's complaint is on the mark): an actor can usually infer it from context without needing it spelled out, and despite providing the appropriate timing, it breaks the rhythm of the reading process...

As to "all your pregnant chads...", are you sure you don't want to write a gag-a-day comic, Greg?

[Jack Masters]

On 2001-08-11 21:37, Max Leibman wrote:
The pregnant pause: the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" of comic strip illustration.

I disagree. Pregnant pauses, while a meme (and a non-usefull one at that) started a long time ago and have remained with us forever since with very little publicity. The AYBABTU meme, by contrast, appeared suddenly, broadcast its existance extreemly loudly, and then died.

I guess you could say someone set it up the bomb.

[Guest]

I just meant that it was equally vile as AYB. Yes, 3P took longer to spread, and has legitimate uses, but an extraneous pregnant pause is just as pointless.

-Max

[Jack Masters]

You could say the same about two people talking and then another one coming along, or about word balloons containing the word "what". While I agree wholeheartedly that we should avoid clich?s, and that pauses can often get used as elements of clich?s, decrying the elements of clich?s rather then the clich?s themselves seems slightly misplaced.

I like Greg's definition of the 3P. Decrying pauses in general and saying that we should use them "only when necessary" implies that there is some correct amount of pauses that everyone should adhere to, which in my opinion would only homogenize the feel of comics in general.

_________________
<a href="Http://CastleZZT.net/Spongy/">Spongy</a>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jack Masters on 2001-08-12 14:14 ]</font>

[Greg Stephens]

More examples! This time from my own comic:

3P-- Yes:



and 3P-- No:



As to playwrites and screenwriters using "beat" to denote a pause-- In my experience on and around the stage, actors and directors usually feel they understand the material far better than any writer and so tend to ignore any written stage directions that aren't integral to the action. A notation of "beat" may be useful in an initial reading of a script, but after that point it's usually forgotten. Shakespeare, to use one obscure example, was not known for writing "beats" into his work.

_________________
Greg

edited because I don't even know which of my own comics is which!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Greg Stephens on 2001-08-12 14:54 ]</font>

[Tim Mallos]

"Shakespeare [pause] to use one obscure example [pause] was not known for writing "beats" into his work."

Pause panels are visual commas.

Comma placement in writing is an element of style.

I think this is a discussion of style [pause] not mechanics.

I don't have a strong point to make here. If nothing else, the pause panels in the strips you show as illustrations of disposable pauses communicate that the character had to think about their response, which may not advance the story, but does tell us something about the character.

[Greg Stephens]

Not a bad point about commas, but I think there's a world of difference between using a comma and indicating a "beat". There's a misconception about the humble comma in that many people assume that a comma always indicates a pause, which it does not. There are strict grammatical rules govorning commas and how they are used to separate sentences into descrete components. Commas are not used to indicate rhythm where none would otherwise exist, they simply make clear the meaning of the sentence. Lists, compound sentences, etc. Indicating a "beat" is quite different from a simple comma, just as leaving a silent, contemplative panel is quite different from leaving a wide panel gutter, or separating one bit of dialogue into separate word balloons, or using a very large balloon with very small lettering.

A side comment about punctuation and actors- Christopher Walken has said in at least one interview that when he learns a role, the first thing he does is to write out all of his lines without any punctuation and memorizes them that way. The rhythm of the scene is then informed by what is happening on the stage at that moment rather then by anything that may have been written down beforehand.

[buzzard]

Boy this is getting off topic, but in response to the actors and punctuation comment, on the Boogie Nights DVD commentary track, PTAndreson commnts about one of the actors--I think it's William Macy--that he really uses the entire text as written, every comma, semicolon, whatever; if something's in quotation marks, he says it "in" quotation marks, and I don't mean Victor Borge-esquely.

[Tim Mallos]

"There are strict grammatical rules governing commas and how they are used to separate sentences into descrete components. Commas are not used to indicate rhythm where none would otherwise exist, they simply make clear the meaning of the sentence. "

I tend to be a bit of a grammatical anarchist, but that aside...

I submit that the strict grammatical rules you refer to have, almost universally, evolved from patterns of speech and commas ARE, in fact, very nearly equivalent to a beat or a pause.

Commas do indicate a pause when used in a list. There is all the difference in the world between a lunchbox for the Dog Cat Show

Dog Cat Lunchbox

and a list of items in your school desk

Dog, Cat, Lunchbox

And the only difference, when spoken, is the beat of the delivery of the words. Which is WHY the list, when written, is annotated with the pauses.

I'm not a linguist, but it just seems to me to be clearly the case.

[Greg Stephens]

When used in a list, commas denote separations between items because there is a difference between ham turkey and bacon sandwiches and ham, turkey and bacon sandwiches. This does not mean that anybody will ever speak or infer a real-time pause. They simply know that in the first case there are sandwiches which each contain three types of meat and in the second case there are three types of sandwiches. For another example of the same situation, consider this: Most people would say "peanut-butter and jelly sandwich" at the exact same rate and with a very similar rhythm as they would say "bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich." (I say similar rhythm rather than the same only because of the differing syllable count of "tomato" and "jelly".)

Another dramaturgical anecdote concerning punctuation (and related to William H. Macy, sort of) would be the Coen brothers' scripts, which are meticulously written exactly as they wish the actors to speak them. Every single "Oh, yah" in Fargo was written out.

[Jack Masters]

What can we use besides still panels to indicate a pause? A "..." at the end of a word balloon sort of works, but readers skip over those even faster then empty panels, and they tend to indicate a pause in speech rather then a pause in the whole enviorment.

I would still argue that in some situations 3Ps communicate a pause the best, like the one on page 111 of Reinventing Comics, but the more options we have to work with, the better!

[Greg Stephens]

As I've said before-- Not all pauses are bad! I'm not out to eliminate all pauses, just to make people think about how they're using them and hopefully reduce some of the hackneyed 3P situations that we see proliferating ad infinitum throughout modern comics.

[Tim Mallos]

Ok. I'm tired of the comma thing. All I know is that the little voice in my head that reads the written word out loud to me pauses at commas, even if only slightly. That one voice (although there are many ohters in my head) is all I have experience with. So, I deliver the following, indisputable bumper sticker:

<B>I</B> brake for commas.

T

Edit: Changed my italic 'I' to bold because it looked like a forward slash.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Tim Mallos on 2001-08-14 12:56 ]</font>