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

Afterword: How To Make Joke
Writing Fun
Start early.
Invite someone round to write with you, bribe them with cake if necessary which
they can only have after an hour’s work.
See  who  can  come  up  with  the  most  rubbish  joke  on  a  subject  –  let  them  out
joyfully, just to free things up.
Play verbal word games, take whatever subject you have and break up the major
words involved in it and try and pun on them. Try this yourself or with a partner
(this is a particularly good way of writing bad jokes!) Start very early.
Think to yourself I am going to open up my mind to joke writing.
Just trust. Jokes are there and you’re going to find them. All you have to do is
put the time in.
Smile while you work. Whistle so the jokes hiding in the corners of your mind
can hear you coming.
Start really early.
If  you  need  jokes  for  Thursday,  start  writing  on  Monday  then  you  can  sit  back
and go on an open ended exploration because you have so much time.
Lay  on  the  floor  and  imagine  the  subject  you  are  trying  to  write  about  being
played out on the ceiling.
Go for a mental walk into the unknown and don’t worry if you don’t find a joke
there.
Go for a real walk and gently mull over the subject.
Allow  yourself  to  think  the  unthinkable  like  what’s  the  opposite  of  what  you
think might happen?
Act a situation out, mime it, mimic it, mine it.
Tell a story and exaggerate wildly.
Breathe, expand your mind outwards and smile inwards.
Relax.
Don’t forget to start early now.

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Bibliography
Carr, Jimmy & Greaves, Lucy, The naked Jape Uncovering the hidden world of
jokes (Penguin books) 2007
Allen, Tony, Attitude - Wanna Make Something of it? (Gothic Image
Publications) 2002
More Viz Crap Jokes (John Brown Publishing Ltd.) 1999
Murray, Logan, Be a Great Stand-up (Hodder) 2010
Robert Leahy, Anxiety Free: Unravel your fears before they unravel you (Hay
House) Lamont, Anne, Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life (Anchor
Books) 1995
Skinner, Frank, On The Road: Love, Stand-up Comedy and The Queen of the
Night (Century) 2008
Carter Judy, Stand-Up Comedy – The Book, (Bantam, Doubleday, Bell) 1990
Cameron, Julia, The Artists Way (Souvenir Press) 1994
Jeffers, Susan, Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway, (Arrow Books) 1991
Armstrong, Jesse & Bain, Sam, Peep Show: the scripts and more (Transworld)
2008
Bradbury, David & McGrath, Joe, Now That’s funny! Writers on writing comedy
(Methuen) 1998

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