Painting With Jokes
I’m always hearing people say .. .
“wow, you’re a comedian? I just heard a really funny comedian. Let’s seeee, what was his name. . can’t remember, but he was so funny. He joked about his kid riding a bicycle for the first time, and. . . “ That’ right, people don’t remember us not-so-big-name comedians, but they do remember the jokes because, among other things, the jokes paint a picture, and we all know that pictures are worth a thousand words.
So remember
when you’re writing a joke, you want to use the most descriptive words you can to paint that picture – if people can see the funny incident in their heads, they’re more likely to laugh. I recently wrote a joke today about smashing up a guy’s Harley motorcycle in the parking lot. I could say I’m driving really fast through the parking lot, but instead I’m using the words “zooming through the parking lot.” Zooming is a more descriptive word than “driving really fast.”
So when writing a joke
for a speech or memo, go through the adjectives and verbs that you are using, and then make a list of adjectives and verbs that would paint the best visual for your audience. Don’t waste words. . . make sure every word is there for a reason, and it’s doing what it should.
And speaking of motorcycles. . .
I just passed the motorcycle DMV written test today. I passed the motorcycle class for the driving part last week, AND I bought a motorcycle. . .I’ll be zooming through parking lots (carefully) very soon. Yipee!
Jan
Using the Question WHO
I’ve talked about
. . asking questions to come up with great punch lines. And one of those questions is WHO? Who would do this? Who does this remind you of? Who else should be here, who who who!
If you’re trying to make a joke
about a cold room for example, ask WHO is cold? You’ll come up with all sorts of creative answers, such as. . .my ex-spouse, my mother-in-law, Hilary Clinton . . .which might lead you to. . .this room is colder than the Clinton bedroom or this room is almost as cold as my ex-spouse. The same for if the room is hot (the sun, J-Lo,), or the ceilings are high (Paula Abdule, Ozzy Osbourne). You can take any element in the environment and ask WHO to get to the funny. The more extreme you can get, the funnier it’ll be.
Why you ask?
Because, as I pointed out in an earlier post, giving human traits to things is, well, just funny. Matching the coldness in the room to Hiliary Clinton. . .just HILlarious . . get it. Okay, we’ll talk about puns later.
For the moment,
make sure you’re asking WHO when you’re trying to come up with a great joke punch line.
Jan
The Moral of the Story is. . .
So you want to come up
with a killer punch line for your joke? Ask the question – “what is the moral of this story” and/or use the starter phrase. . . “in other words.” As I’ve mentioned before, what you’re trying to do with humor is to say something without saying it. So if you look at the joke punch line as something you’re trying to wrap up the joke by saying it another way. You don’t have to actually say “this is the moral of the story,” just think of it that way to get to the funny.
For example,
in my joke about gifts for my dad, I say “I can’t believe my dad survived us growing because every gift we gave him was deadly. We gave him cigars, razors, ashtrays; we even gave him a radar detector. Hey dad, smoke, drink, drive fast, we love you!” I used the “in other words/moral of the story” idea to come up with. . . in other words. . . “smoke, drink, drive fast, we love you!”
Sooooo,
the moral of the story in joke writing is to ask these questions to come up with the funny! In other words. . be funnier by asking these questions. Okay, enough said!
Jan
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