Ricky Babcock, a current student in the Broadcasting – Film, Television, Digital Media and Radio program wrote, directed, and edited a comedy sketch titled “No, You” that recently won Best Comedy at the Western Canadian International Film Festival.
The sketch showcases a heated conversation between two men – one is wearing a banana costume and the other is not. The viewer listens in as the man in the banana costume (which eventually turns into two men in costumes) tries to convince the other that he is the one wearing the costume when it is clear this is not true. On the surface, this comedic sketch is simply about who is wearing a banana costume, but Ricky had a deeper message in mind when creating it.
“My inspiration for the short comes from an argument I had with somebody about vaccines. We were arguing about the effectiveness of vaccines in reducing the chance of hospitalization, and every time I would present actual numbers or facts, they would completely disregard it or call it fake. It felt like arguing with someone wearing a banana suit on who’s wearing the banana suit, I told myself.”
He continues, “I love visual comedy. It’s my favourite way to make a joke; with a visual punchline. So, as soon as I visualized two people in banana suits yelling at someone else, I knew I had to write it. This sketch is actually very political. It’s a subtle jab at the ‘do your own research’ crowd.”
Ricky began writing the script while working as an assistant editor at Sinking Ship Entertainment for the show, Get Curious. With long wait periods between cuts, he says he spent time “arguing with strangers on Twitter and Facebook” which is where he found the inspiration for the plot of his sketch.
“As I was writing the script, I really wanted a second banana man to come and give the first one backup, but I already had no idea where I was going to find one banana suit, let alone a second. I had pondered this issue with my editor at the time, Nathan Martinak, and his ears instantly perked up as he exclaimed, ‘I have a banana suit!’ And just like that, the character Banana Man 2 was born,” he explains.
Ricky shares that he initially ran into location concerns, particularly because the weather did not look like it was going to cooperate on the day of the shoot. After almost deciding to reschedule filming, despite already renting out the equipment, one of the actors in the sketch sent Ricky a text explaining he booked time off work to film.
“I had to shoot on the original day, or else I was not only wasting my own money but other people’s too. I felt stuck, so I went for a walk. I live by the lakeshore and was walking beside the Gardiner Expressway when I had a ‘eureka’ moment. The Gardiner is the longest umbrella in Toronto. I quickly went home and scrolled through Google Maps until I found an area I liked that was under the Gardiner, and then frantically emailed the address to my entire crew. When the day actually came, the rain was more of a mist, but it didn’t matter because everything was covered by a concrete umbrella,” he explains.
At a young age, Ricky began making short films and has always had an interest in the editing process. “Editing was one of my favourite parts of this project. This was the first project I made after I gained some experience as an assistant editor, so I was able to implement a lot of the skills I learned from that in the editing process of No, You. To see and feel my skills grow from project to project is one of the best feelings you can have as an artist and the difference between this project and my last is astounding to me,” he says.
Ricky’s introduction to filmmaking was through a film camp that he attended from ages 10-16 years old, which later led to him creating his first film on his own. “That film ended up winning first place in the TIFF 24 Hour Film Festival. I continued to submit films of mine to TIFF Next Wave Festivals throughout high school, and was a 3-time finalist in the TIFF Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase.”
After high school, he enrolled in a university-level film production program, but quickly realized he didn’t enjoy the idea of filmmaking as result and decided university wasn’t the best fit for him. “I took the Communications and Media Fundamentals program at Centennial where I re-taught myself how to learn, and was even able to make another short sketch called Tricked Out.”
Now in the Broadcasting program, Ricky is continuously learning key lessons that apply to his work. “One thing this program really helped me with was meeting like-minded people who were just as interested in filmmaking as I am. Up until this point I had only ever worked with two to four people on a project, but because of the relationships I was able to make in this program, we had a crew of 11 people. Not to mention everyone else who helped out and couldn’t make it to set. And to all these people, I owe this whole project to.”
Ricky submitted No, You to the Western Canadian International Film Festival (WCIFF), which he found out about through a film festival website called FilmFreeway. “It’s a website that features almost every film festival in the entire world. You’re able to apply filters to find specific types of festivals, and after putting in all my relevant filters, the WCIFF was one of the first options. I’ve submitted the film to a few more festivals across Canada so hopefully, I’ll be hearing back from them soon.”
It was recently announced that No, You won Best Comedy at the festival, and Ricky says the win is validating for him. “Comedy is especially hard because you are always your hardest critic, so to have a festival reinforce the idea that this is what I’m supposed to be doing means everything to me,” he explains. “Comedy has always been my favourite genre. I truly believe laughter is the best medicine for anything, and because of it, I’ve made it my life goal to make people laugh. I find film to be one of the best outlets for comedy because of the empathy we share with characters, and comedy comes from empathy,”
As for what he’s currently working on – Ricky is the Assistant Editor on the show Hello (Again), which airs on CBC Gem this Spring.
Congratulations, Ricky on this momentous win!
Written By: Alexandra Few