The serious guide to joke writing how to be funny even if you are not

1) Redefinitions and Puns (warm up to wordplay)

- If you wont write a bad joke, you wont write a good one
- Take a word apart and redefine or reinterpret it

e.g two fish are in a tank- one says to the other, do you know hw to drive this thing?

Do a joke web on either half of a pun

e.g

e.g a bi-product

factory goods bi-sexuals

2) Single Joke Webs

Unions

Thatcher STRIKES Hits

Walkouts flounce out

W alk in mince out coming out

Clamp down over STRIKES and think of words in own right- to find the connections

Ways to think about words

Break up words
Can you replace either one of them
Can you pun on it or half of it
Take words out of their usual context
Do the words have another meaning
See the words historically and socially
Is there a sound alike
Can you think of an opposite
Are there any clichés to do with the word

SUBJECT ASSOCIATION take word/phrase from context and apply nu meaning

KEY IS TO APPLY BACK TO MAIN SUBJECT

e.g the human tree- he found it very easy when his parents told him to leave.but he got the wrong end
of the stick.

Think of big things to do with the subject as well as small things.

3) Double Joke Webs
Loads of jokes are links between two unrelated subjects

e.g
politicians- democratus bi-sexual- gay

-swing states swing both ways curious killed the

u used to swing at playground cat/pusy

The good thing about bi politicians is that now swingometer swings both ways

That link was waiting to be spotted

However other links are more nuanced and need to be pushed

4 ) The Hadron joke collider
First get two subjects to bash together

ART –reproduction,faking it RELATIONSHIPS-nude,faking it

-nude -reprodcution-oils
Coinnesuer break up

Apply every sub-topic of one web to the main topic of another

e.g apply dating to art
e.g Experts are re- dating the mona lisa
Apparently last time she was dated wrongly- it was just some pervert who took it out
for a picnic and jerked off over her face.

Crash the ideas together!!!!

Try to random topics
Stories in the news are ripe for double joke webs
Popular sayings eg general hospital
Find contradictions in own life eg want to go to heaven don’t want to give to charity
5) Writing jokes from the news
Don’t focus on the story but on the wording of the story
Pick out the sentences and used them as set ups

SET UP – THE QUEEN ROLLED OUT THE RED CARPET TODAY

PUNCH- ………………………………………………………………….

Read the newspaper (outloud) line by line and see them as separate phrases not
sentences.
But if you have emotional reaction to newsstory use stream of conciousness or
surrealist inquisitions

Its about ruthless objectivity,spotting lines and working them to the max

6) Stream of consciousness writing

If you care about a subject its fantastic for comedy
i.e if something irritates you it probably irritates others
you speak about a subject without stopping for a seet amount of time pushing
thoughts into no mans land (10MINS)

I hate people who…………………………..

They must think……………………………
If I were god………………………………..
Its just like………………………………….
Ina parallel universe……………………….
What really gets me………………………..
The next thing they will be doing is……….
It would be poetic justice if………………..
If I could change just one thing……………
Whats really ridiculous is………………….
The one thing I want to say to them is……
If they were members of my family……….

Focus on the thing behind what it is that you hate

Write for ten minutes then use prompts can you use lines as set ups- or joke web
anything?
Things you secretly love or hate
I secretly love/hate………………………………..
It makes me feel………………………………….
Its really good/bad because……………………….
I don’t want people to know because…………….
People who do this are…………………………….
When im pretending the opposite I feel………….

Reverse stream of conciousness (Is basically advanced sarcasm)

Whatever you love you pretend to hate etc

I love / hate when cars splash me………………..

... It makes me feel ..................................................
It’s really good /bad because .................................
People who do this are ...........................................
The best / worst thing about it is ..........................
Without it we’d be .................................................
In a parallel universe ............................................

Key is to keep writing/speaking and use prompts and answer them!!

7) Surrealist Inquisition

-Describe zoos to aliens…………………………… (apply aliens way to here)

-How is it different in other countries…………… (apply the idea to here)
-Describe the situation to a child in terms they can understand. Put yourself in
their place and imagine how they would respond?....................................
-Find an analogy……………………………………………… (this is tough)
-Think about it from the point of view of any objects, places or people that are
directly or indirectly involved.’ ‘
Exercise 13: The Surrealist Inquisition Question Sheet Think really hard about each
question. If you find yourself going off at a tangent, that’s good. Just remember to
apply the ideas back to the main subject.

Describe the situation to aliens... Don’t say ‘lotion’, say ‘white sticky stuff’ – talk in
alien speak, then think about the same situation from the alien point of view, looking
down on what is happening.
How is this situation different in other countries? Think of the most extreme
opposite practice of another country that you can.
Describe the situation to a young child... Put it in terms they can understand. Put
yourself in the place of the child and imagine how they would respond to what’s
being said.

See if you can find an analogy? Break the situation down to its basics and think of
other things that are the same. If you’re stuck try finding an analogy in how tribal
societies do things or in the animal world.
Think about it from the point of view of any objects or things or people that are
directly or indirectly involved...

-Imagine being interview and your trying to drop the joke in- the words the interview
use are what you need to fill out the gag.
-Try saying joke to one person instead of whole audience
-Improvise around the joke add things to it
-Try performing joke in foreign accent
-Add attitude to it

Jokes are exaggeration, lateral thinking, twisting words, applying one situation to
another, taking things out of context, mimicking, slapstick, observation and any
combination of the above.