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

in their place and imagine how they would respond?’
The class start describing democracy in terms of the X Factor but we realise that
this idea is in the popular consciousness now anyway.
Are there any other parts of the voting process we can explain to a child?
‘What about the manifesto?’ someone says.
‘Try it.’
‘They have what’s called a manifesto where the people who want to lead us set
out what they are going to do.’
‘Okay, think about that from the child’s point of view.’
‘If I didn’t know the word manifesto,’ says one student, ‘I would think it was the
name of a pizza in an Italian restaurant. Antipasti, manifesto, linguine.’ Everyone
loves this.
‘Yeah, politicians don’t stick to the manifesto, they have pasta as well.’
‘Wonderful,’  I  say.  We  kick  around  the  idea  of  school  timetables  being  a
manifesto but it doesn’t go anywhere so we move on to the next question...
‘Find an analogy.’
Nobody responds. ‘Usually, finding an analogy is one of the hardest parts of the
Inquisition’ I say and show the class some previous examples.
We all know chaos theory is usually described as a butterfly flapping its wings in
Brazil causing a hurricane elsewhere.
If you have been doing the Surrealist Inquisition on this subject, you will have
already  broken  it  down  to  explain  it  to  both  aliens  and  small  children.  So  you
could’ve  got  down  to  the  basic  kernel  that  Chaos  Theory  is  where  something
really  small  can  turn  into  something  big,  something  small  can  have  big
consequences.  Once  you  have  got  the  penis  gags  out  the  way  (!)  you  trawl
through  your  mind  and  look  for  other  things  to  which  you  can  apply  those
criteria:
For  example  when  chaos  theory  was  first  popularised  in  the  early  nineties,
comedienne Jenny Vickers came out with the joke...
I know chaos theory’s true, because one day
my Dad farted and the next day the Berlin
wall came down.

---

This has kept to ‘tiny’ and ‘enormous’ criteria. Here’s a couple I wrote...
Chaos theory, where something small can turn into something large? Yeah
one day I ate this tiny little cake and the next day my bum was enormous.
Chaos theory: like a tiny remark to your mum that you saw your dad giving
mouth to mouth resuscitation to his secretary and the next day they have a
massive row.
That’s  three  different  analogies  for  one  theory  and  I’m  sure  there  are  more.
These ideas won’t jump into your head. You have to break the idea down to its
simplest  form  and  then  think  hard  about  what  you  can  apply  it  to.  Outside  of
class I often go for a walk in order to think of an analogy, simply because I know
one might not come straight away and I might as well have some nice scenery
while I’m thinking! But back in class they are ready to start again.
‘So we can try and find an analogy for democracy or any of the things that make
up democracy.’
‘I’m still thinking about the manifesto,’ says the quiet woman in the corner who
doesn’t say much normally.
‘Break Manifesto down to its basic kernel,’ I say.
‘It’s where you state what you are going to do before you do it.’
‘Good, so is there an analogy for that?’
‘What  about  if  we  had  to  have  a  sexual  manifesto?  Where  people  have  to  tell
you  what  they’re  going  to  do  before  you  go  to  bed  with  them?’  This  gets  a
chuckle from the class.
‘And  also  what  they  are  not  going  to  do,’  says  the  bloke  next  to  her,  leaning
forward.
‘But then people will say that they’re going to do stuff and then go back on their
word. Just like some politicians,’ she replies.
‘But  if  you  had  their  manifesto  you  could  send  Jeremy  Paxman  round  to
interview them and find out why.’
The  group  are  starting  to  talk  over  each  other  now.  One  even  starts  doing  an
impression  of  Jeremy  Paxman,  saying  ‘It  says  here  you’ll  kiss  for  10  minutes
and not less.’
The  class  have  got  the  point  about  analogies  so  we  move  on  to  the  next
question...
‘Think about it from the point of view of any objects, places or people that