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

particular character and start acting it out. If you're a cartoonist start
drawing it. If it's going to be in a stand-up routine or monologue, find a
place for it in your act and try saying it with the joke that comes before and
after it. If you are writing a political speech, add the joke to your text and
see if it scans.
• If you don’t get it right the first time you hone it, leave it in your notebook
and  try  again  another  time.  You  never  know  what  other  ideas  it  might
eventually link with.

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Troubleshooting
Question: Why do I have a whole notebook full of half formed jokes and ideas
that I can’t seem to make work?
Answer: Well if you’ve really tried to make them work in one medium and can’t
have  you  considered  finding  an  outlet  in  a  different  medium?  So  rather  than
thinking,  ‘that  would  never  work  in  my  stand-up  act,’  you  might  think  ‘great,
there’s an article/sketch/cartoon in that, or that would make a great short story.’
Comedian  and  writer  Dan  Evans  says,  ‘It’s  about  producing  stuff,  who  knows
specifically what it’ll end up being. I used a line in a short story that was a failed
stand-up joke from years before that I stumbled upon in my notebook.’
So  even  though  it’s  frustrating  if  you  want  jokes  for  a  specific  thing  now,  they
will  usually  be  part  of  the  overall  mix  of  your  joke  writing  life.  So  be  grateful
you’ve got ideas. Keep all your old notebooks.