Comedy screenwriting and mental health

This article examines how comedy screenwriting offers a distinctive, though under-analysed, lens for representing mental health with nuance, empathy and authenticity. While dominant screen genres, particularly drama, often frame mental illness as an individual obstacle to be overcome, comedy’s tonal flexibility, structural playfulness and character-driven humour create opportunities to challenge stigma, normalize psychological complexity and foster audience identification. Drawing on humour theory, screenwriting research and mental health scholarship, this article explores how specific comedic strategies – including narrative fragmentation, unreliable narration, meta-commentary and the integration of humour as a coping mechanism – expand the possibilities for portraying psychological struggle in long-form television. Through close analysis of five contemporary series – BoJack Horseman , Fleabag , Ted Lasso , Pose and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – it demonstrates how comedy can destabilize reductive portrayals, resist simplistic recovery narratives and promote more compassionate, socially embedded engagement with mental health. Particular attention is given to how screenwriting structures shape audience alignment and how intersectional, culturally specific narratives challenge exclusionary models of well-being. The article also addresses the ethical complexities of humorous mental health representation, arguing that comedy’s potential to reduce stigma depends not on its presence alone, but on deliberate creative choices grounded in psychological nuance and ethical care.