Question: 'Comedy' writing?

[LJ Beck]

Ooh! Can you list some examples of the tools?

Sure! Although keep in mind these are from a paid (and material copywriten) course. So... please don't share outside our bubble of love.

Here's the course I took many, many (15+?) years ago, but it's still there, being offered! It was bloody great when I took it, and I don't know why it would be worse now. I've taken many classes from this site, and they were ALL good. Although it's screenwriting, it's still storytelling. Comedy Writing for Screenplays

Preamble and promo done, here's some comedy info/tips I got from that class.

Punchlines need setups, a pattern that causes a predictable result. Here's some tips for creating punchlines:
ABSURD REQUEST: Ask them to do something ridiculous, insane or stupid.
COMPARISON: Show the similarity to something incongruent.
EXAGGERATION: Overstate or embellish the situation. Make an extravagant statement.
INSULT: A rude verbal attack. Give it to them...in the face.
METAPHOR: A is B. Describe one thing in terms of another.
MISINTERPRETATION: React with an incorrect but also incongruent perspective.
PARODY: An exaggerated imitation of something or someone else.
RENAME: Give it an alternative name that is funny.
REVERSAL: Go one way, then do a 180 degree turn.
UNDERSTATEMENT: The big, the powerful and the grandiose are reduced to the small, the everyday, and the unimportant. Start with something big, then complete it with an everyday response.

These are some scene builders:
Toppers: a second punchline unexpectedly springs up and exceeds the first one. A follow-up joke.
Running gag: same joke repeated through a section or the whole story, in a slightly different way each time
Physical Humor and prop humor (must feel natural for the scene.)

Anyway, just some examples of how to learn to write comedy.
There's a bunch of books on writing comedy. Weirdly, some are not that funny.

 

[Claire G]

Sure! Although keep in mind these are from a paid (and material copywriten) course. So... please don't share outside our bubble of love.

Here's the course I took many, many (15+?) years ago, but it's still there, being offered! It was bloody great when I took it, and I don't know why it would be worse now. I've taken many classes from this site, and they were ALL good. Although it's screenwriting, it's still storytelling. Comedy Writing for Screenplays

Preamble and promo done, here's some comedy info/tips I got from that class.

Punchlines need setups, a pattern that causes a predictable result. Here's some tips for creating punchlines:
ABSURD REQUEST: Ask them to do something ridiculous, insane or stupid.
COMPARISON: Show the similarity to something incongruent.
EXAGGERATION: Overstate or embellish the situation. Make an extravagant statement.
INSULT: A rude verbal attack. Give it to them...in the face.
METAPHOR: A is B. Describe one thing in terms of another.
MISINTERPRETATION: React with an incorrect but also incongruent perspective.
PARODY: An exaggerated imitation of something or someone else.
RENAME: Give it an alternative name that is funny.
REVERSAL: Go one way, then do a 180 degree turn.
UNDERSTATEMENT: The big, the powerful and the grandiose are reduced to the small, the everyday, and the unimportant. Start with something big, then complete it with an everyday response.

These are some scene builders:
Toppers: a second punchline unexpectedly springs up and exceeds the first one. A follow-up joke.
Running gag: same joke repeated through a section or the whole story, in a slightly different way each time
Physical Humor and prop humor (must feel natural for the scene.)

Anyway, just some examples of how to learn to write comedy.
There's a bunch of books on writing comedy. Weirdly, some are not that funny.

Weirdly, some are not that funny.

Ha! Thanks for this - very interesting!

 

[LJ Beck]

BTW, this "punchline" class was day 6 of 10 in the class. So there's loads more to comedy, of course.
I thought I'd give some examples I found for some of those punchline techniques. The idea of the list is that it helps brainstorm from different angles.
Something else from the class is that all comedy techniques have incongruity at their center.

Reversal: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!" - Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Doctor Strangelove
Exaggeration: "It's just a flesh wound." - John Cleese as The Black Knight in The Holy Grail
Comparison: "It's not a man purse. It's called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one." - Zack Galifianakis as Alan Garner in The Hangover
Insult and reversal: "Look up idiot in the dictionary, you know what you'll find?" "A picture of me?" "No! The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are!" - Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr, as Perry and Harry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Understatement: I make a habit out of doing things people say I can't do: Walk through fire, waterski blindfolded, take up piano at a late age." - Jason Statham as Rick Ford in Spy.
Absurd request and Comparison: "I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?" - Robert De Niro as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Parents
Rename: “These people are so posh and snobby, they’re snoshy.” —Peik Lin Goh, Crazy Rich Asians
Comparison: “How the hell did you get the beans above the frank?” —Mary’s dad, There’s Something About Mary
Comparison: “Here’s the deal. I love you. I know I do, because I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, and I once shared an elevator with Saddam Hussein. Just me and Saddam, and this is way scarier.” —Charlotte, Long Shot

 

[RK Wallis]

BTW, this "punchline" class was day 6 of 10 in the class. So there's loads more to comedy, of course.
I thought I'd give some examples I found for some of those punchline techniques. The idea of the list is that it helps brainstorm from different angles.
Something else from the class is that all comedy techniques have incongruity at their center.

Reversal: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!" - Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Doctor Strangelove
Exaggeration: "It's just a flesh wound." - John Cleese as The Black Knight in The Holy Grail
Comparison: "It's not a man purse. It's called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one." - Zack Galifianakis as Alan Garner in The Hangover
Insult and reversal: "Look up idiot in the dictionary, you know what you'll find?" "A picture of me?" "No! The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are!" - Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr, as Perry and Harry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Understatement: I make a habit out of doing things people say I can't do: Walk through fire, waterski blindfolded, take up piano at a late age." - Jason Statham as Rick Ford in Spy.
Absurd request and Comparison: "I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?" - Robert De Niro as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Parents
Rename: “These people are so posh and snobby, they’re snoshy.” —Peik Lin Goh, Crazy Rich Asians
Comparison: “How the hell did you get the beans above the frank?” —Mary’s dad, There’s Something About Mary
Comparison: “Here’s the deal. I love you. I know I do, because I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, and I once shared an elevator with Saddam Hussein. Just me and Saddam, and this is way scarier.” —Charlotte, Long Shot

This is so good. It's my new permanently open tab. Classics!

 

[Claire G]

BTW, this "punchline" class was day 6 of 10 in the class. So there's loads more to comedy, of course.
I thought I'd give some examples I found for some of those punchline techniques. The idea of the list is that it helps brainstorm from different angles.
Something else from the class is that all comedy techniques have incongruity at their center.

Reversal: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!" - Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Doctor Strangelove
Exaggeration: "It's just a flesh wound." - John Cleese as The Black Knight in The Holy Grail
Comparison: "It's not a man purse. It's called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one." - Zack Galifianakis as Alan Garner in The Hangover
Insult and reversal: "Look up idiot in the dictionary, you know what you'll find?" "A picture of me?" "No! The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are!" - Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr, as Perry and Harry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Understatement: I make a habit out of doing things people say I can't do: Walk through fire, waterski blindfolded, take up piano at a late age." - Jason Statham as Rick Ford in Spy.
Absurd request and Comparison: "I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?" - Robert De Niro as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Parents
Rename: “These people are so posh and snobby, they’re snoshy.” —Peik Lin Goh, Crazy Rich Asians
Comparison: “How the hell did you get the beans above the frank?” —Mary’s dad, There’s Something About Mary
Comparison: “Here’s the deal. I love you. I know I do, because I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, and I once shared an elevator with Saddam Hussein. Just me and Saddam, and this is way scarier.” —Charlotte, Long Shot

Great examples! Thank you xx

 

[Pamela Jo]

Sure! Although keep in mind these are from a paid (and material copywriten) course. So... please don't share outside our bubble of love.

Here's the course I took many, many (15+?) years ago, but it's still there, being offered! It was bloody great when I took it, and I don't know why it would be worse now. I've taken many classes from this site, and they were ALL good. Although it's screenwriting, it's still storytelling. Comedy Writing for Screenplays

Preamble and promo done, here's some comedy info/tips I got from that class.

Punchlines need setups, a pattern that causes a predictable result. Here's some tips for creating punchlines:
ABSURD REQUEST: Ask them to do something ridiculous, insane or stupid.
COMPARISON: Show the similarity to something incongruent.
EXAGGERATION: Overstate or embellish the situation. Make an extravagant statement.
INSULT: A rude verbal attack. Give it to them...in the face.
METAPHOR: A is B. Describe one thing in terms of another.
MISINTERPRETATION: React with an incorrect but also incongruent perspective.
PARODY: An exaggerated imitation of something or someone else.
RENAME: Give it an alternative name that is funny.
REVERSAL: Go one way, then do a 180 degree turn.
UNDERSTATEMENT: The big, the powerful and the grandiose are reduced to the small, the everyday, and the unimportant. Start with something big, then complete it with an everyday response.

These are some scene builders:
Toppers: a second punchline unexpectedly springs up and exceeds the first one. A follow-up joke.
Running gag: same joke repeated through a section or the whole story, in a slightly different way each time
Physical Humor and prop humor (must feel natural for the scene.)

Anyway, just some examples of how to learn to write comedy.
There's a bunch of books on writing comedy. Weirdly, some are not that funny.

My husband and I did an intimacy/relationship weekend with marriage counsellors once. This sounds like the directions on what not to say or do when fighting. Just saying.

 

[LJ Beck]

My husband and I did an intimacy/relationship weekend with marriage counsellors once. This sounds like the directions on what not to say or do when fighting. Just saying.

That would be a super fun exercise though! Find punchlines that you can share with your spouse that will make them laugh AND love you more.
Laughter is the best aphrodisiac after all...

 

[E G Logan]

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Think 'warm family values'. That's probably it in a nutshell. A quotable nutshell.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

So. There's a women's magazine running a 2000-word short story competition. The genres you can enter are Romance, Thriller and Comedy (you can enter one, two or all three categories but only once for each). The magazine has been going for a looong time and includes lots of short stories on the gentler side of fiction (the inclusion of the Thriller category is therefore a bit weird!). Think sweet romances featuring dukes, vicars and village bus drivers.

Anyway, there's quite a large monetary prize so I thought I'd give it a go. Initially, I wrote a romance and submitted it. Then I got an idea for a crime thriller, so I wrote and submitted that too. But I absolutely swore to myself that I would not even ATTEMPT a comedy because, in my opinion, it's the most difficult genre to write. But of course, a title and premise decided to set up camp in my mind and I wrote it. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but there are some lines which made me smile while writing them. Because of the type of magazine that it is, and the stories they print, I think that they mean 'gentle humour' when they say 'comedy', but who knows? I'm 50-50 as to whether I'll submit it (but as it's free to enter I may just send it in for the hell of it).

Long story short, this started me thinking about comedy in writing. Obviously, humour is subjective, but what do you think the key ingredients are for making writing humorous?

A while ago, I wrote a sort of rom-com which was very character-driven (she has an imaginary friend and is what I'd call 'quirky'). The character came to me fully-formed. I knew her voice, her personality, I could picture what she looked like. I wasn't deliberately trying to be funny; this was just what the character was like so I wrote her story. But readers have said they laughed out loud at parts of the book, which I take as a real compliment. That story was very organic. I didn't sit down and say, 'Right, I'm going to write a comedy now'. When I wrote the short story for the competition however, I realised that to set out to deliberately write a comedy is a totally different kettle of fish, at least for me.

What are your thoughts? Do you include humour in your writing? And how do you go about it?!

P.S. If anyone wants the details of the competition, send me a PM. UK only. I think the deadline is Feb 5th xx

Whatever you write, you write it well. Sorry I missed the comp deadline.