Gilbert's creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, and numerous short stories, poems and lyrics, both comic and serious. After brief careers as a government clerk and a lawyer, Gilbert began to focus, in the 1860s, on writing light verse, including his "Bab Ballads", short stories, theatre reviews and illustrations, often for "Fun" magazine. He also began to write burlesques and his first comic plays, developing a unique absurdist, inverted style that would later be known as his "topsy-turvy" style. He also developed a realistic method of stage direction and a reputation as a strict theatre director. In the 1870s, Gilbert wrote 40 plays and libretti, including his German Reed Entertainments, several blank-verse "fairy comedies", some serious plays, and his first five collaborations with Sullivan: "Thespis", "Trial by Jury", "The Sorcerer", "H.M.S. Pinafore" and "The Pirates of Penzance". In the 1880s, Gilbert focused on the Savoy operas, including "Patience", "Iolanthe", "The Mikado", "The Yeomen of the Guard" and "The Gondoliers".