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

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1
TOTP2 Captions by Steve Wright (BBC2)
2
Robert Leahy, Anxiety Free. Unravel your fears before they unravel you. Published by Hay House
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Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont
4
The News Quiz 9
th
May 09
i
See
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/frankie-boyle-mock-the-
week/id323684930

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ii
Unless stated all the puns are from anonymous sources.
iii
Allen,  Tony  Attitude  -  Wanna  Make  Something  of  it?  (Gothic  Image
Publications) 2002 p40
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More Viz Crap Jokes. John Brown Publishing Ltd. 1999
v
The News Quiz BBC Radio 4 2009
vi
Mock The Week BBC Television 2008
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speaking on BBC Radio 4, Front Row 12/6/09
viii
 This  is  from  Nudgeblog
http://nudges.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/jerry-
seinfelds-commitment-strategy-for-joke-writing/
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See Chapter 10 for more on this.
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 I  haven’t  always  recommended  using  the  backs  of  envelopes  but  so  many
students come in with their homework done this way I know it must work!
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Chapter 7 deals with this method of writing topical jokes in detail.
xii
See Logan Murray’s book Be How to be a Great Stand-up (Hodder) 2010 for
more about great improv games to play.
xiii
We liked the ideas that different types of art could represent different types of
family relationships and bashed around several ideas before this one stuck.
xiv
 This  was  a  double  joke-web  working  like  a  single  one,  which  of  course
happens and is a lovely bonus.
xv
One of the students came out with this joke fully formed, when we looked at
Still  Life.  This  student  does  a  lot  of  jokes  about  eating.  This  would  fit  in
perfectly with her act, I tell her to write it down and use it.
xvi
 For  overseas  readers  the  FTSE  (pronounced  Footsie)  is  the  Financial  Times
Stock Exchange Index.
xvii
This  is  interesting  because  from  six  words  ‘the  Queen  rolled  out  the  red
carpet,’  we’ve  got  four  different  jokes.  1)  plays  off  the  stereotype  of  Arabs,  2)
takes the sentence literally that the Queen rolled out of the red carpet, 3) gives an
alternative for carpet 4) looks at other things you can roll. Not a bad haul.
xviii
1) and 2) work on the fact that it is a question mark with 5) adding in its own
double play on the word chops. 3) and 4) work on the notion that the journalist
felt sick and take it a step further.
xix
This set-up always gets the biggest haul of gags. 1), 2), 3) play off the David
Beckham  is  thick  stereotype.  4)  and  5)  are  a  quite  clever  play  off  corn  rows
whilst 6) goes for the jugular with Victoria Beckham.
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1) is playing off the word Keys, which is the angle the show went on as well.
2) is very original and probably better than the joke the show used, 3) is a lovely
pun really, that takes the sentence literally and 4) alludes to another topical story
that was in the news at the time about the Government losing data.

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This is an edited transcript, dots indicated where I have truncated things...
xxii
When I teach the Surrealist Inquisition Question Sheet there is always at least
one person who has usually been quite quiet throughout the course who suddenly
comes to life.
xxiii
I  didn’t  use  it  in  the  original  example  because  I  can’t  include  everything
from the classes.
xxiv
 This  and  other  brilliant  observations  about  writing  and  performing  comedy
are  in  Frank  Skinner’s  book  On  the  Road.  Love,  Stand-up  Comedy  and  the
Queen of the Night. Random House. 2008
xxv
This might seem that I am just referring to stand-up but the writers of Peep
Show (Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. See Peep Show The Scripts - 2006) said
they never know if something truly works until they hear the cast say it.
xxvi
The Best Stand-up and Comedy Routines edited by Mike O’Brien (Constable
and Robinson) 2006 has transcribed a number of famous modern comic routines.
xxvii
As in Writing Jokes From Newspapers (Chapter 7)
xxviii
See Background Processing (Chapter 2)
xxix
See Double Joke-Webs and the Hadron Joke Collider (Chapter 5)
xxx
See Never Be Ashamed of Your Joke Writing Process (Chapter 10)
xxxi
See What’s Most Important: Time, Tenacity or Talent? (Chapter 8)
xxxii
The Surrealist Inquisition (Chapter 11)
xxxiii
See Honing (Chapter 13)

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