The play's the thing. And the comedy shorts from six of the remaining 12 filmmakers of On The Lot were a lot better this week. But before that, Jessica of The Orchard fame was told that she had the least number of votes and would not be making a film that week. Zach, still the one to beat, screened a near-perfect comedy short, Die Hardly Working. It had a beginning, middle, and end that were clear, very funny, and well-paced. It also had a common theme everyone could relate to: boredom in an office. Again, the judges' favorite. 

Adam chose to use the red convertible Ford Mustang in his film. It provided increased cinematographic interest, as predicted. He, along with the other filmmakers, used more technology, good idea. It helped to center the films around normality — a necessary ingredient in good comedy.Three of the comedies chose medical settings: One in a surgical suite, one at a doctor’s office visit, and the other at a sperm bank. The brain surgery was over the top because it was not grounded enough in reality. If you listen to stand up comedians, the funniest are always the ones with the simplest re-tellings of ordinary events that go awry. That's why the doctor's visit was the best of the medical ones. Things are always funnier after some time has passed. 

Hillary’s film Under the Gun suffered a little from the fact that there was not enough urgency built into it. A little research, like watching 60 Minutes, would have told her that sperm donors are only paid about 50 dollars per donation. And that the users of the bank pay a mere 350 dollars for the sperm. So, there is no real comedy in trying to steal something that is not dear. When I saw the blue cooler I was prepared to laugh, but didn’t. Why? Because I thought that they were going to rob an organ bank of, say, a heart or a lung. Now, that’s funny. Everything is relative. That catapults the conflict into the realm of something that is really dear: organs. Here is an item that people would die for because the demand is so great and the cost as well.Adam’s film would have been perfect if he had done one thing — remained true to his title Discovering the Wheels. Instead he ventured off into physics and brought in time and space. He could have easily resolved that by keeping everything the same, except having it end with the caveman waking from a dream — with a eureka smile on his face! You would then have the caveman discovering “the wheel” by fast forwarding himself, through a dream, into the future. Then he would have awakened, tweaked his square wheel, and rolled down the hill with it. Thus you would have resolved the conflict and remained true to the theme.