Music in scripts - "The Proposal"

Yesterday I mentioned a lazy and not so good way to include music in your script.  In general, I think dictating the moments where music isn’t in the world of the characters (they can’t hear it) can be dangerous because it’s a crutch for using the song to tell your story instead of actually WRITING it yourself.  Conversely, I think good uses of music are often ones where the music interacts directly with characters.

One example that comes to mind is from the hit rom com The Proposal where Betty White and Sandra Bullock's characters sing and dance to Lil’ Jon's "Get Low."

Betty White knows how to get low.

While attention is obviously paid to the song, the scene isn’t funny because the song itself is funny and the writer was counting on the song alone to make the audience laugh.  The scene is funny because the characters (a sweet Grandma and an uptight control freak) singing and dancing to a song with dirty lyrics is a funny contradiction.  One other good thing about this use of music is that if I read it in a script and I thought it was funny, I know the movie could use a similar song if they couldn't get the rights to this one. That's because the CHARACTERS are the star of this scene NOT the song itself.