in Ten Easy Steps. The tutorial, care of Uproxx.
From the piece...
STEP THREE: KOOKY FRIENDS
The basic rom-com formula requires boiling all men and women down into fairly narrow archetypes — the career woman who’s not ready for love, the chauvinist who’s not ready to commit, etc. Since the audience might find this sort of insulting, you must have supporting characters, the kooky friends whose extreme examples of male and female stereotypes (women be shoppin! men be watchin the game!) will give your leads the illusion of depth. Often, this will be a talented but underutilized comedian or character actor slumming in your crappy rom-com because they need the paycheck. See: Philip Seymour Hoffman in Along Came Polly, Judy Greer in 27 Dresses (and Elizabethtown and 13 Going on 30…), Rob Corddry in Heartbreak Kid (and What Happens in Vegas and Failure to Launch…), Jason Sudeikis in The Bounty Hunter, and Jon Favreau in The Breakup. Which brings me to my next sub-point, bonus points if the kooky friend and the lead are actually friends in real life (like Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn). Reference your audience’s knowledge of Us Weekly whenever possible, it makes them feel smart.
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