Informasi Istimewa untuk Saudara: Andy's Comedy Tips #1

ANDY'S TIPS

Specific Writing Tips

Whenever most people write jokes, they come up with a single punchline and then think all the work is done.

Write several punch lines:

A great idea is to try to come up with 3 or 4 additional punchlines. Number one, it forces you to push yourself to your limits. But more importantly the later punchlines are not as obvious and will often be the smarter ones. Always try to come up with the least likely punch line.

Low hanging fruit:

Certain news headlines are very often unintentionally funny. The headline can function as a set up for a joke and can even get you a laugh before you write a punchline. That is a gift you don't want to pass up. The punchline is like icing on the cake- it's a double joke- you get a laugh on the set up and the punchline. A good source to find these "funny headlines" is DrudgeReport.com, CNN, Huff Post. But I think DrudgeReport really has a plethora of funny headlines.

However, you don't want get lazy and just rely on easy set ups that you didn't write.

Mix & Match:

Many of the late night monologue jokes are simply two current hot news stories married together. I like to take a piece of paper and write down ten hot stories and split them up into two columns and see which ones look easy to combine. Or just one column and pair them up.

Unpopular view:

Another method to help stretch your comedic writing is to take the opposite view than the majority of the public and write jokes with a viewpoint most people don't subscribe to. It's easy to write a joke that the majority of your audience will give you a "Jay Leno" laugh. I think Leno sometimes stopped writing jokes and just made popular statements to get a classic positive " We support you cheer". Push yourself to think differently and more creatively. Don't say something contrarion just for the sake of being contrarion or you can lose the audience. Find a niche and interesting perspective that you own.

Takeaway: Practice different writing exercises and techniques to find what you like the best and what helps you grow.