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

Exercise 4: Single Joke-webs (General
Subject)
A  general  joke-web  is  a  major  exploration  of  a  subject  that  you  do  when  you
have time, a flask, sandwiches and a torch. Then you can settle down and think
of  yourself  prising  open  the  subject  like  a  clamshell:  you  are  going  to  explore
every nook and cranny, every nuance, and it’s going to take at least an hour.
This is going to be a big old joke-web, so get the largest piece of paper you can.
I use a flip chart but you can also stick two bits of A4 together.
1. Put your subject in the middle and draw lines coming out. Now think of
big things to do with the subject as well as small things and obscure things.
Write them all down. These are your sub-subjects.
2. Now clamp your hand down on the original subject and use the Ways To
Think About Words List to find new meanings and ideas for each of the sub
subjects.
3. Once you have new meanings for your words, apply these back to your
original subject, deliberately thinking each one through. Don’t dismiss them
before you have done this.
4. Go down as many levels as you have space for adding any links you can.
This  can  take  you  far  away  from  your  subject.  A  completed  joke-web
should fill every corner of the page. Look at the example joke-web after the
How Did The Class Do? section in this chapter, and see if yours looks the
same.

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5.  Have  a  break  then  read  through  the  whole  joke-web,  highlighting
anything interesting, so when you go back to it again you can just look at
what you have highlighted.
6.  Then  look  at  everything  on  the  outer  rim  of  the  joke-web  and  apply  it
back  to  the  central  subject.  This  should  throw  up  strange  but  interesting
juxtapositions.

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