Would this be a good idea for a comedic play?

Do you reall yknow what you're doing here? Seems like you just want to write about the sociopath seducing old people for their money.

Already been done. That's what Tom Riddle did.

>A manipulative playboy who goes around befriending miserable, lonely old people so they write him into their wills, then he collects inheritance when they die and that's how he makes his living
it's a very valid game plan too. if you're gonna be hot and charming, then why not use it?
make him almost get "caught" (like a jealous ex-heir frames him for murdering his latest catch) but he wins in the end anyway. The whole thing would be a fucking amazing Tom Sharpe novel, actually, and I'm kind of sad I won't get to read it.

Read "The Great Pursuit" from him to get a feel how you should write it. It's kind of the reverse of your idea.

This is a very good setup, but the play can't revolve around this, it must revolve around a situation arising from this, i.e. a bad-tempered invalid that ends up killing him on accident or something like that.

Too basic; needs something more.

How about, the reason he needs all that money is that he's an extreme zoophiliac who desires to have sex with exotic animals. This gives his character a comic strangeness and presents a more interesting mystery at the beginning of the play. Have a sort of audience-surrogate character investigating him.

It was a common thing in Rome too. Martial wrote an epigram about it.

...

yes.

Fuck all the butt hurt faggots in here saying it's a tragedy. Sounds like a perfect dark satirical premise op, a la Dead Souls but I assume you're not trying to answer the National question, and instead you are looking to critique the commodification of human relations and to suggest that a truly authentic relation may not be possible at all in a performative society. Go nuts and don't let these sad faggots get you down. I'm looking forward to reading it.

The problem is that OP just doesn't have any comedy and so far has demonstrated no attempt at adding it. His bare-bones premise only shows us a guy being a psychopath.

You could certainly make a black comedy from it.

It reminds me a bit of a very good film called Kind Hearts And Coronets, about a young man who is a very minor member of a noble family, but they have rejected him, so he murders all the relatives that stand between him and inheriting the dukedom.

A must-watch.

>tfw no noble relatives to kill.

Like in The Producers?