Writing Funny

Writing Funny

Today I will teach you how to write funny. I will be referring to my earlier post about the world’s tallest man. Read that one first, two posts below, if you haven’t already.

Picking a Topic
-------------------

The topic does half of your work. I look for topics that have at least one of the essential elements of humor:

Clever
Cute
Bizarre
Cruel
Naughty
Recognizable

In order for something to be funny, it has to have at least two of the six elements of humor. A story about a 7-foot 9-inch Mongolian herdsman marrying a smallish woman is bizarre all by itself. In the humor context, bizarre simply means two things you wouldn’t normally find together.

Notice how many of the humor elements I worked into my post about the tall herdsman:

Clever: Retrieving an iPod in a clever way, and the salmon in a canoe analogy

Cruel: Shish Kabob accident with his wife

Bizarre: Conjoined twins with two heads and one vagina, huge man with smallish wife, and a Mongolian herdsman with an iPod.

Naughty: The entire post

The story of the world’s tallest man wasn’t “recognizable” in any meaningful way, so it lacked that element. For many people, that element is the only important one, and the other dimensions are just flavor. If you leave out the “recognizable” element, many people won’t relate to the situation. I took that chance because the other elements were so strong.

I also left out the “cute” element, but that one is never essential. It mixes best with the “cruel” and “bizarre” elements, e.g. a bunny with a bazooka.

Simple Sentences
---------------------

Keep your writing simple, as if you were sending a witty e-mail to a friend. Be smart, but not academic. Prune words that don’t make a difference.

Write About People
------------------------

It’s impossible to find humor in inanimate things. If you must write about an object or a concept, focus on how someone (usually you) thinks or feels or experiences those things. Humor is about people, period.

Write Visually
-----------------

Paint a funny picture with your words, but leave out any details that don’t serve the humor. Notice how many images I packed into my post about the tall guy. It’s hugely visual, and yet I never describe what he looks like, other than being tall.

Leave Room for Imagination
-----------------------------------

When I described how the tall guy could retrieve an iPod from a storm drain, I only mentioned the gum, his “python,” and a Victoria Secrets catalog. Every reader formed a slightly different mental picture of the specifics. Leaving out details allows readers to fill them in with whatever image strikes them as funniest. In effect, you let readers direct their own funny movie.

Funny Words
-----------------

Use “funny” words when you can. Here are some I used:

Mongolian
Herdsman
Vagina
Trouser
Shish Kabob
Storm drain
Johnson
Slap
Canoe

You can read that list of funny words totally out of context and it almost makes you laugh. Funny words are the ones that are familiar yet rarely used in conversation. It’s a bonus when those words have funny sounds to them, as do most of the ones in my list.

Pop Culture References
-----------------------------

References to popular culture often add humor. It’s funny that the world’s tallest man is retrieving a lost iPod, and not something generic such as a wallet. And it’s funny that his manhood is compared to Ryan Seacrest as opposed to something generic, such as an oak tree. Someone could write a thesis on why pop culture references are funny, but just accept it.

Animal analogies
---------------------

Animal references are funny. If you can’t think of anything funny, make some sort of animal/creature analogy. It’s easy, and it almost always works. I made these creature analogies in my post…

King salmon
Python

Exaggerate, then Exaggerate Some More
-------------------------------------------------

Figure out what’s the worst that could happen with your topic, then multiple it by ten or more. Don’t say a mole is as big as a grapefruit. Say that mole is opening its own Starbucks. (Notice the pop culture reference of Starbucks.) The bigger the exaggeration, the funnier it is.

Near Logic
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Humor is about creating logic that a-a-a-lmost makes sense but doesn’t. No one in the real world could put gum on his penis and retrieve an iPod from a storm drain. But your brain allows you to imagine that working, while simultaneously knowing it can’t. That incongruity launches the laugh reflex.

Callback
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A callback is when you end with a funny reference that already got a laugh. In my post, I knew the Ganbaatar gag would get a laugh, so I used it again in a different sense for the closing line. It puts a nice period on your humor writing.

Genetic Abnormality
-------------------------

Humor is like any other human capacity; some people are born with more of it than others. No amount of advice will help if you don’t have the humor gene.

Here’s a link to a newish comic called F Minus, by Tony Carrillo. He has the humor gene. I’m picking him to be the next big comic. (Read a few weeks of his archive before forming an opinion.)

http://www.comics.com/comics/fminus/index.html

Comments

[Sando]

Brilliant! Worked everytime I saw so far.

Speaking of, do you have any such tips on other areas? By areas I mean music, action (as in movies), mystery, etc. (I'm trying siphon the rest of you brilliant ideas here.)

[Real Live Girl]

I checked out F Minus and Half Baked. Sorry, but I thought Half Baked was funnier -- and was already a fan of Wulffmorgenthaler. But there's probably an unfair advantage to being a web only comic like Wulffmorgenthaler - no censoring for one. But Dilbert is one of the few I read every day, so you must be onto something with your funny writing.

[Joshua Jacobsen]

Neat post! Bad plug, though. I read a bunch of F Minus, and it's just a string of floundering random gags. They're almost funny, but apparently it's hard to tell a joke in one frame. Gary Larsen was the only guy that really pulled that format off. But to be honest, he had about three stupid comics for every funny one. His "crap factor" was still pretty high.

Dilbert is one of very few comics that I've found to be consistently funny. Out of five strips, you probably have one that's frame-able, another that is really funny, another two that are okay, and one that is feeble. You basically have one stupid comic for every four good ones. Calvin & Hobbes is probably the only comic I've ever read that had a better ratio. You're easily the best cartoonist in the world, right now, imo.

[Rick]

I prefer this

http://www.humorousmaximus.com/halfbaked/halfbaked.php

[Mikey Benny]

I must concur with your F-Minus recommendation; I literally just discovered the strip last week, and I think it's almost as good as Dilbert ;) Good stuff on the humorous writing lesson.

[Rick]

I prefer this

http://www.humorousmaximus.com/halfbaked/halfbaked.php

[Kilgore J. Trout]

so when i hit yahoo home page the cartoons i can expect are from you and a dead guy who's best work was in the 50s and 60s.

[FatherJack]

F-Minus
how apt, although i dont think i would be that generous if i graded it.

trying to be like Greg Larson (Far Side) only it isnt funny (or wierd or anything really). They need to check out your 6 components and other rules. If it gets syndicated then i'll eat chips for a week. even your 80% rule doesnt work. I read 30+ posts and didnt grin or laugh out loud once. Dilbert rarely fails to make me grin/smirk and usually three times a week i get looks from across the office when i laugh. he isnt 80% right - not good enough yet.

unless the whole of June and July were not up to normal form, how can you be so far off Scott? Or are you just building to a sure fire topic for tomorrows blog.

[ipsissimusclay]

Might have been said, and if so sorry, but I think you did get the 'recognisable' element. That's why pop culture references are funny; they're recognisable, something you can relate not just to life in general [like a wallet] but your own, personal, modern life at that moment [like a fundamental obsession with having the shiniest tech].

Bit short for a thesis, but there you go.

[Richard Gosling]

Pop Culture references only work if the reader has heard of the reference. In common with (probably) the entire population of the world outside the US, I've never heard of Ryan Seacrest, so that joke fell flat. I wikipedia'd him, and apparently he is quite short, so I guess the joke has something to do with that.

So another hint on writing funny - Know Your Audience. If the majority of them have heard of Ryan Seacrest, and you don't care about the rest, feel free to go with that joke...

[spike17]

You left out an element......truth. Maybe you've rolled that into the "recognizable" category, but for something to be funny, there has to be a smidgeon of truth to it (which explains why so many politicians aren't very funny...they couldn't recognize the truth if it hit them in the head)

[Shawn]

Vegetarian Zombies, greatly funny:
http://www.comics.com/comics/fminus/archive/fminus-20070630.html

I think the "F-" cartoonist is very original and has a great natural sense of humor, sometimes needs a little work on his execution, but will get past that on his own with more experience.

I feel qualified to judge his work like this because I have extensive experience at being amused.

[T.G.]

Maybe that's what is wrong.

[Nomi]

"You don't have the heart of a true great cartoonist."

Huh? Phooey.

F Minus is funny.

[Cameron at Laugh It Off]

I'm blowing my own trumpet. The best jokes have very few words like this comic.

http://laughitoff.info/archive.php?Comic=LiveAlone

[KD]

F-Minus seems vaguely reminescent of Far Side, but it lacks the humor. I went through a few weeks worth but only a small handful of things even came close to being funny. It's not that his ideas for most of his comics are bad, it's more like he just can't deliver it in a funny or humorous manner most of the time.

[Tigerh8r]

F - didn't do it for me. Not only was it clearly an attempt to emulate Larson's The Far Side, a couple of the ones that I saw were pretty much twists on actual Larson comics. I felt dirty reading it, so I guess that might satisfy the "naughty" element, but I felt like it was a lame attempt to rip-off Larson, but with better art. Strangely, the fact that it had better art somehow made it less funny.

[Oink]

THIS wasnt funny . And F Minus has nothing that remotely qualifies as funny. Nothing is less funnnier than analysing WHY something should be or is funny.

[passerby]

Those aren't peacocks, they're flamingos. Sheesh. Pay more attention next time you're at the zoo.

[None of the above]

There's nothing funny about Mongolian Vaginas. Wait. Maybe there is.

I also found F-minus reminiscent of the Far Side. Any way back when in England there was a series of T-shirts with "Fred" in them, that was somewhat similar (ex, Fred is looking through what looks to be a stamp-album. Caption "Fred was horrified to find a rice-crispy in his cornflake collection". ok, perhaps it loses something in translation).

[Penethra]

hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahah

[LeComte]

Actually, I didn't find that comment terribly funny. It wasn't offensive, as some comments say, or at least I didn't find it so, but I think you tried a little too hard. Stick to your own rule. Two elements are generally enough. You write about the simplicity of humor, so stick with it! Brevity is the soulf of wit. That post went on longer than I would have liked.

[Cally]

F Minus is great most of the time, you should also check out the online comic "Boy on a Stick and Slither" it's very good. If you like F Minus, you might want to give the series "Discword" by Terry Pratchett a try. I will now use a magical spell to stop my endless list of recomendations. *POOF*

[rd]

i re-read your post today and it strikes me, how it's skipped my attention yesterday that you deliberately tried to offend
is it worth to trade someone's hurt feelings for a few laughs
sure my dislike of chinese may be not much sympathetic too, but that's a long talk
'funny' mongolian? how funny?
ipod incompatible herdsman ?
you may think it's pathetic, i don't care
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA0XN8VDh6k
posting this just in hope that may be you and your readers will change a little your perception of us
though not sure, may be the racist gene is also inherent
and does not evolve

today is the last day of our Independence day festivities
thanks a lot for your attention
very much honored by series of your funny posts

[D. Mented]

...So there I was at the damn party, and after all the trouble it took to get there, the only one worth talking to was the babboon, and SHE was a Republican!
D. Mented