"Day Of" Jokes

To my understanding, an honest-to-God film production doesn't have changes made the day of filming. The risk of continuity errors, etc. is just too much to handle. Once a script is written, it'll be used in rehearsals, screen tests, and otherwise edited probably a ton before the final version is ultimately settled, but come filming day nobody's throwing out new ideas or coming up with new dialog.

At least, that's my understanding of it. Don't take my word for it.

In ASSIST ME! things are a lot different. I usually write scripts well before we're ready to film, and send them out to the cast for feedback. Due to our conflicting schedules and travel distance, we can't get together for a bunch of rehearsals and discussions. So everybody reads it, sends me any feedback they might have, and I'll make some changes. Usually my second or third draft is what I call the "final" draft, but that doesn't mean that the script is scripture when it comes time to film.

A lot of the rest f the crew doesn't pay much mind to a particular episode until filming day. And since we don't get together for rehearsal not even I can be sure what the flow and feel of the episode will be like until we're in character, bouncing lines off each other and the camera's rolling.

To somebody used to professional procedure, this is probably an enormous headache. But to those of us just doing it for fun, it's kind of a blast. Everybody gets to toss in ideas, and what we agree works best is what we go with. A prime example is "magic hood" gag, where Doom pulls random plot devices or other props out of his hood.

Back when we were filming Ultimate ASSIST ME!, Max had written the script for the first episode and  if memory serves me correctly, the script just called for "Doom pulls out a copy of Ultimate Marvel 3." When it came time to film, Max realized there needed to be some kind of interesting reveal. We didn't just want to have Doom snap it into existence because we had done that for mundane props before - the early copy of UMvC3 was a big deal in the plot, so we needed something new. After we all thought on it for a few seconds, I said "Just have him pull it out of his hood."

Doom's hood is friggin' huge. So we stuck the game up in there and had him pull it out like there was some mystical pocket. It was a bit of a pain to make it work, because with his gloves on Simmons couldn't even feel the case, but after a few tries we got it down, and magic was born.

Since then, Doom's "magic hood pocket" has been iconic in the series. We made a throwback to the gag in the Deadpool episode. When Max wants to show Deadpool a change from the vanilla version, he reaches into Doom's hood (notice how he reaches into the opposite end that Doom pulled Ultimate from - aw, shit!) and pulls out the game to Doom's surprise. As Max and Deadpool play, Doom pulls an assortment of random crap from his hood, surprised at everything he finds.

The inside of Doom's hood, probably.

We used the joke again in Retro ASSIST ME! when Doom sticks old games into one side of hood, and after horrible grinding noises pulls Infinity gems from the other side. (And also plutonium, because comics are stupid.) It's one of the seemingly intentional iconic pieces of ASSIST ME! lore that was literally thought up on the fly during filming.

And that's just one thing. The amount of jokes and gags in the show that we come up with day of is ridiculous. This is why even though I'm often credited as the main writer, I've said before at pretty much every panel we've done that nobody can really take full credit for any particular episode. The whole process is so organic and involves a lot more heads than one.

Sometimes it works out really well. Other times not as much. But really, it's a fundamental part of the show. I wouldn't have it any other way.