Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Although Mindy Kaling is a well-known actress, her career roots are in writing. Kaling gained a reputation as a comedic actress and writer when she and Brenda Withers, Kaling’s friend from college, developed a play about actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who wrote the film Good Will Hunting. Kaling and Withers capitalized on a pervasive joke in pop culture that the film was too good to have been written by the two men. In the play Matt & Ben, Matt Damon, portrayed by Kaling, and Ben Affleck receive the script for Good Will Hunting from a divine power. Like Kaling’s memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) and her writing for television and film, the play utilizes several important techniques in comedy writing.

Kaling uses numerous techniques, including pop culture references, satire, and juxtaposition to make the play and her other comedic endeavors work. By developing Matt & Ben around two famous actors, Kaling and Withers increased audience engagement by playing on their viewers' prior knowledge. Pop culture references work well in comedic writing because they draw on shared experience.