He is in a good mood when he writes them, usually in the 'happy' mood though even when he writes in a playful mood, they come out with poor quality. The quality only improves from poor after refining several times.
Hi @EllieDidAThing - You'll have the best chance of writing better quality comedy routines by being "Very Playful". When I leveled my comedian, I set up a room with a bunch of playful paintings and those trophy statues. Have your sim watch a comedy on tv and enable the emotional auras in the room, make some gummy bear pancakes and eat them while watching a comedy - there are tons of ways to get playful. Just be very careful, if they get TOO playful they can become hysterical and die from laughter. 😮
Checking with some other helpers, the routines usually start out poor, and you have to refine them to get better results. Here's an excellent guide on leveling a comedian: http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/skills/comedy/
Also be aware that there is a limit on how many of each routine can be written. I think it's 8 or 10 of each; once you've written all the short routines, for instance, the only thing you can do is refine.
