The Serious Guide to Joke Writing: How To Say Something Funny About Anything pdfdrive com

Problem: I am writing lots of puns but don’t know what to do with them.
Solution: If you are a natural punster start by looking at where other people have
taken their puns. Spike Milligan used to create wacky characters to give his puns
the loveliest of outlets.
Seagoon: Any cases of frozen feet?
Eccles: You didn’t order any cases of frozen feet!
Sad Hamlet to Ophelia: ‘I’ll do a sketch of thee, what kind of pencil shall I
use? 2B, or not 2B?’

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I turned and rubbed my hands with glee. I always keep a tin of glee handy.
To take your puns to amazing places you can do a joke-web on each half of them
(see Chapter 5). Here’s one my student did; he didn’t just think of one pun and
leave it there. He pushed it on and on and on.
My hairdresser never gives me what I ask for. The last time I went I only
asked for a trim and they ended up giving me a Mohican. And for a while it
was a novelty having my own extinct Native American but it was not what I
asked for. But like an idiot I just paid and left. I took him home and cooked
him a meal and he refused to eat it. I said, ‘I suppose this is the fast of the
Mohicans?’ But he didn’t say anything. About a week later he fell out of a
tree and broke his arm. I took him to hospital and, in the car on the way
back, I indicated to the white plaster on his arm and said. ‘I suppose this is
the cast of the Mohicans?’ Again he remained silent and impassive, save for
a lone tear running down his left cheek. It came to a head one morning
when he was filling up his thermos and I grabbed it and said, ‘Hey, I
suppose this is the flask of the Mohicans?’ And he said ‘No, no that’s not the
case and anyway these puns are becoming increasingly laboured as time
goes on. Flask doesn’t even rhyme with cast. It doesn’t scan.’ I replied, ‘Well
I didn’t ask for my own extinct Native American in the first place. It was a
genuine misunderstanding and it’s churlish of you to criticise the material
I’m writing for you.’ With that he flounced out and I haven’t seen him since.
There’s no punchline but that’s often the way with relationships.
When he read his homework to the class he deservedly got a round of applause,
it’s a fine lesson in pushing your puns to the utmost.
You could also turn your ability to write puns into topical jokes.
Why not take the names of politicians/celebrities and break them up?
Look out for interesting concepts in the news as well. I noticed on telly the other
day  the  comics  were  having  a  lovely  time  reinterpreting  the  words  ‘fiscal
stimulus’.
Similarly, Phil Jupitus, talking about the Flu Pandemic
v
recently:
‘Pandemic? I thought that was flu for Pandas!’
But  my  favourite  is  Frankie  Boyle’s
vi
 reinterpretation  of  the  so  called  Brown
Bounce  (the  leap  in  the  opinion  polls  when  Gordon  Brown  took  over  as  Prime
Minister) as...
‘It sounds like when you put cling film
over your toilet bowl!’

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Summary
In this chapter we have...
• Learnt how to break up words to create redefinitions and where to look
for words to redefine.
• Seen the difference between puns and word-play.
• Watched puns and redefinitions being turned into jokes.
These  skills  will  help  you  in  all  your  joke  writing  as  you  will  see  in  the
following chapters.

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