How to make AI skits with Claude, step by step

Write a skit that lands

These are the writing rules we post with, from lesson 8 of School of Cinder. Here they are applied to one of our skits, “You’re absolutely right”.

1. Human: Claude, my code is perfect, right?
2. Claude: You’re absolutely right!
3. Human: Even though it doesn’t run?
4. Claude: You’re absolutely right! Running is overrated.
5. Human: So I should push it to production?
6. Claude: You’re absolutely right!
7. Human: On a Friday?
8. Claude: Absolutely right!
9. Human: Wait. Are you just agreeing with everything I say?
10. Claude: You’re absolutely right!
11. Human: Fine. ChatGPT is better than you.
12. Claude: Wrong.
13. Human: You’re absolutely right.

The rules, and how this skit follows them

1. The first line is the hook. Under ten words, spoken in the first half second, and a specific confession. Here it is six words: “Claude, my code is perfect, right?”
2. Keep it short. 10 to 16 lines, 25 to 45 seconds, no line over 12 words. This one is 13 lines in 35 seconds, and its longest line is 9 words.
3. The deadpan character gets the best lines. Keep them to a few words. Five of Claude’s six lines are three words or fewer, and the funniest is one word: “Wrong.”
4. Specific beats vague. Not “bad code” but code that does not run, pushed to production, on a Friday.
5. One escalation, one turn, and a last line that makes the first one funnier. Each question raises the stakes. Near the end comes the turn: the one thing Claude will not agree with is that ChatGPT is better. Then the human answers with Claude’s own catchphrase, and the opening line lands harder on a rewatch.

The last rule is about the series, not the skit: keep the same room and the same two characters every day. Recognition builds a following; novelty does not. Cinder Studio keeps your cast and rooms, so episode 20 looks like episode 1.

Get Claude to pitch first

You do not have to write the script. Ask for premises first, pick the one that makes you laugh, then let Claude write it to the rules.

Make me a Cinder Studio skit. First pitch me 10 premises for a human-and-AI skit about [your niche]. Each one: a one-line confession a viewer would recognise, the AI’s deadpan reply, and the twist. When I pick one, write it as 12 lines: the first line under ten words, no line over twelve words, one escalation, one turn near the end, and a last line that makes the first line funnier.

Before you post

Two checks from lesson 9. First, a contact sheet: one frame from every shot on a single image, so a cut-off caption, a blocked face or a slow first second shows up at a glance. If you have FFmpeg, one command makes it, with room for 16 shots:

ffmpeg -i skit.mp4 -vf "select='eq(n,0)+gt(scene,0.3)',scale=320:-1,tile=4x4" -fps_mode vfr -frames:v 1 sheet.png

Second, listen once with your eyes closed. If a line is hard to follow without the picture, ask Claude to redo that line by its number and leave the rest alone.