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

Problem: I feel like I don’t want to write anything down on my joke-web unless
I’m sure it’s going to lead to a good joke.
Solution:  First  of  all,  congratulations  for  identifying  the  problem.  So  many
people  feel  like  this.  There  are  lots  of  reasons  why  people  won’t  write  things

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down (or say things out loud when in a group situation, see Chapter 10 for more
on this). I remember teaching one class when we were doing a joke-web on bird
flu  which  had  just  broken  out  on  Bernard  Matthew’s  farm.  We  had  gone  down
several  levels  and  were  coming  up  with  nothing.  Eventually  I  had  to  ask  ‘Are
any of you holding anything back? We can say anything here. It doesn’t matter if
it’s rude.’ (I thought that might be the problem).
One bloke winced. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I am, not because it’s rude but because it’s
too boring.’
‘What is it?’ I asked.
‘Well bird-flu is the H5 N1 virus,’ he said meekly.
‘Great,’ I said and wrote it down.
The moment we disassociated it from the original subject of Bird Flu it was clear
that H5 N1 looks like either a postcode or car number plate. Within a minute the
class had written a gag about Bernard Matthews’ postcode being H5 N1 and we
all gave a sigh of relief. The lesson there is that you have to suspend disbelief,
write everything down, don’t prejudge, and follow every lead.