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

To Find Out if a Joke Needs Honing...
Say  it  out  loud.  If  that  works,  tell  it  to  a  friend.  If  they  laugh  you’re  on  to  a
winner.
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If, when you start saying your joke out loud, it comes out woolly and you can’t
even get the set-up right let alone the punchline then what you’ve probably got is
a joke idea rather than a joke.
That’s  when  honing  comes  into  its  own  and  you  can  try  any  or  all  of  the
following on it...

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To Find The Central Kernel of a Joke...
Ask yourself, ‘What is it that makes this funny?’
For  example  a  friend  of  mine  wrote  a  very  sick  joke  about  the  terrible  fire
tragedy that was in the news that week. The joke ran that if the survivors of the
tragedy  had  a  reunion  they’d  call  it  ‘Friends  Reignited.’  He  loved  his  joke  but
thought people would be offended by it.
I  told  him  that  the  central  kernel  of  the  joke  was  sound-alike/word  play
Reignited/Reunited.  So  this  joke  doesn’t  have  to  be  about  that  particular  fire
tragedy it can be about anything to do with fire. So we changed it to...
When arsonists have a reunion they
call it Friends Reignited.
Lovely. No insulting fire tragedy survivors (or their relations) just a nice word
play gag.
Basically once you recognise the central kernel you can change the joke as long
as you stay true to it.
I was trying to write some jokes for an MP. I won’t name the town, let’s say he
comes from Anytown. The first line I came up with was:
You need someone to represent Anytown which is a bit tatty, run down and
problems with drugs, alcohol and underage sex.
Here I am!
Obviously my MP isn’t going to say that. It attacks both him and the town he
represents. The central kernel of the joke is mistaking the town’s problems with
his personal problems.
After much thought (I did agonise over this one) I came up with...
I’m MP for Anytown
Wrongly assumed to be a bit tatty, run down, problems with alcohol... But
enough about me...
Just by adding the ‘wrongly assumed’ it takes the sting out of the gag and makes
it harmless but hopefully still funny; obviously the ‘underage sex’ line had to go
too!
I once wrote a joke for a student in my stand-up class who was doing an act as a
monk. The joke ran:
As a monk it can be very difficult going years without sex... But it does help

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me understand the married men in my congregation.
The first time he told it like that and it got a laugh. The next time he came to
class he changed the wording to:
I’m a monk and I’m celibate. Yes I’m celibate, like the married men in the
audience.
It didn’t get a laugh. The central kernel of that joke is a play on the words ‘go
years without sex’. The vague wording allows us to link monks to the supposed
frustrations of married men. Saying the word celibate is too strong, it implies a
philosophy and commitment and deadens the nuance.
So,  when  you  are  honing,  always  remember  to  stick  to  the  central  kernel  (and
keep  your  old  versions)  because  sometimes  it’s  easy  to  forget  what  was  funny
about the joke in the first place.

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