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

Problem: It seems a lot of effort to go to for a joke that might be irrelevant in a
week’s time.
Solution:  That  is,  my  dear,  both  the  joy  and  the  tragedy  of  the  topical  joke
writer. So it’s your decision about whether they’re worth it. If you are writing for
topical shows and sketches it’s a no-brainer, you have to do it. But also topical
gags are brilliant for putting you in the here and now. How clever do you think it
looks  when  something  happens  in  the  news  at  lunchtime  and  you  have  a  gag,
cartoon or sketch about it by that evening? I can tell you it’s stunning, but you
have to have a basic interest in the news and want to do it. If you are a stand-up
you’ll find that, although topical jokes have a short shelf life, a lot of them are

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recyclable.  So  it’s  hard  at  first  to  drop  a  gag  that  you  have  written  about  the
World  Cup,  but  four  years  later  you  can  dust  it  off  and  update  it  with  the
minimum of effort. Also, if you write a joke about a politician having an affair,
there’s  bound  to  be  another  politician  another  time  doing  the  same  thing,  and
you’ll be ready. You can build up a bank of jokes you can dip into. You will have
a  job  writing  an  interesting  set  that  is  all  topical  material  (although  it  has  been
done  when  the  personality  and  attitude  of  the  comedian  is  strong  enough).  The
other drawback is when lots of writers are all concentrating on the latest twist of
a news story, there’s a greater likelihood that they’ll come out with a similar joke
to you. (the joke writer’s equivalent of two women wearing the same outfit to a