Monday

COMEDY WRITING STEP BY STEP: How to Write and Sell Your Sense of Humor



I’m reading Comedy Writing Step by Step by Gene Perret and he says getting the wit out is just a matter of discipline. Wonderful! Sure, I’ll buy that, so much possibilities, I can learn and acquire comedic skills? ‘Soo, happy.

According to Gene, he used to get about 60 jokes a day, now, he turns out 120 gags no problem. And as I’ve learned from watching Situation Comedy, writing is rewriting.
(I’ve heard that before but didn’t believe it and preferred instead to get it done the first time, but after reading/mastering :P Self Editing for Fiction Writers, I’m having lots of fun editing and my manuscript is improving at least a million fold. Amazing, I thought it was great the first time, now it’s rocking! And I’m still working on it—so fun! Why do I wake up, without alarms, at 3AM, pumped up to write? It’s sooo fun!)


“… all of us—beginners and veterans—can improve.” Cool!


The Skills You’ll Need

“Having been faced with many difficult assignments with distressing pressing deadlines, I’ve learned one thing: get them done quickly so that I can get back to relaxing.” My kind of writer… Ain’t that the truth? Right-on. (‘scuse me, characters in my head giving input)

Gene Perret’s other suggestions:

Spend time preparing – makes the job easier and results, better (check out chapter on skills necessary for comedy writing)

Patience, Study and Diligent Practice (until I can ad-lib and improvise) “…gradually, almost unwittingly, you will absorb what you learn and it will become part of your writing arsenal.” Well, since you put it that way :) I’m improving my writing arsenal—here, I can imagine myself strapped with weapons, BANG! BANG! YAH!, delivering rounds of perfect dialogue, imagery, syntax, word choices, blowing everyone away with highly sophisticated entertainment, full of wit, seething of charm, depth, and unique, award-winning writing style and voice.


Skills Necessary to Write Humor

What is a sense of humor?

A. to see things as they are (audience/reader should have had the experience in their own lives, remind them)

B. to recognize things as they are (past being offended when they accept what’s happening)

C. to accept things as they are
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Kid the audience/reader only with topics that they see, recognize and accept

Make sure the joke has all 3
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How to develop a sense of humor?

Learn to see, recognize and accept reality. Ie. Step back, look at an experience (see), figure out possible reactions (recognize), now from that, what’s the final result (accept)
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2 Thought Processes In Writing Jokes

distinct idea + distinct idea = joke

or

joke = 2 ideas tied together in a funny way

Ideas can be: strikingly similar; intriguingly opposite; totally nonsensical; simply ironic

(look at favorite one-liners and find there are two jokes there)

Here’s the Mind forming a Joke

IDEA >>> (with faster than super computer-speed generates & appraises other ideas) IDEA WITH HUMOROUS CONNECTION

Or

IDEA (humorous connection) IDEA

This can happen by accident or a slow, methodical process that prepares the mind to go thru forming a joke

Ie. Generate more IDEAs and get more, better jokes

The methodical process of creating jokes is rearranging, judging, rejecting, accepting, dissecting etc.

“As a humorist, you will want to be able to thoroughly dissect a topic and prepare a list of relationships before getting around the actual joke creation.”

So:

Topic > DISECT > List Relationships > (go thru joke creation)

Dissecting Ideas:

Find words, phrases, events, people, facts, things, and symbolisms similar or opposite Topic

See Non-Standard Meanings

“A good humorist must learn to go beyond the obvious.”

Topic/Relationships (picture, word, phrase) have standard meanings, go beyond that

Eg.

Man in tuxedo = Man in tuxedo but, he can also be a penguin

Man in white dinner jacket = Good Humor man or doctor

E.g. Bob Hope:

“My wife watched the game on television and said, ‘These players can’t be too old. Some of them haven’t been unwrapped yet.’”

Ie. “players” = athletes = playing cards
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posted by Shalla at 11:37 AM