How to Write Funny: Your Serious, Step-By-Step Blueprint For Creating Incredibly, Irresistibly, Successfully Hilarious Writing

by Scott Dikkers

  Note also how short all of these one-liners are. There’s not an unnecessary word among them.

  HYPERBOLE SUMMARY:

  WHAT IT IS: Exaggeration so absurd it goes beyond the bounds of science or reason.

  HOW TO USE IT: Exaggerate your Subtext.

  FUNNY FILTER 5: WORDPLAY

  Wordplay is any kind of fun you can have with words.

  Broadly speaking, the Wordplay Funny Filter covers any use of words beyond their standard meaning(s), or beyond their inherent function as words.

  Specifically, Wordplay can take any number of forms: revealing double or triple meanings (entendre); making up new words; puns; word switches; the repetition of words; playing with the sounds of words. The list of named Wordplay devices is too long to recite here, but here’s a short sampling of some that can make for excellent humor:

  • Anagrams

  • Spoonerisms

  • Oxymorons

  • Tongue Twisters

  • Rhymes (best used in song or poetry written in verse, not in prose)

  • Rebuses

  • Puns

  Another game of Wordplay you can play is using words that sound funny. Balloon, Thwack, Feeble, Clump, and other words that are simply fun to say or sound funny, can add an excellent note of humor to just about any joke. This technique is closely related to Funny Filter 7.

  Oxymorons can be somewhat amusing if original, but be careful. “It’s an oxymoron, like Military Intelligence,” is a cliché that’s been around for many years.

  The comic strip “Family Circus” nearly pushed Malapropism out of fashion, turning the device, for a couple of generations, into a roundly ridiculed cliché used solely to reference the cute verbal slipups of toddlers, like “Pasghetti” for “Spaghetti.” Malapropisms enjoyed a resurgence in the 2000s with Bushisms, which were funnier because they also employed a layer of the Character and Irony Funny Filters. (The Character: George W. Bush as the Dummy Archetype. The Irony: the Dummy is the polar opposite type of character you would want or expect in a President of the United States.)

  Some established Wordplay varieties aren’t funny. This could be because they’ve been used too much and come off as a cliché, or maybe, for whatever reason, they’re out of fashion at the moment. They can also seem clever for cleverness’s sake, and very difficult to use in service of great Subtext.

  These types of Wordplay are best avoided in satirical writing:

  • Alliteration

  • Acronyms

  • Pangrams

  • Mnemonics

  • Tom Swifties and Wellerisms

  • Typewriter Words

  • Subalphabetic Words

  However, there is a way to make use of all types of Wordplay, including the “best avoided” list above, and that’s by making fun of them, or deconstructing them, which we’ll explore in greater depth in Funny Filter 11.

  In prose writing, Wordplay is especially useful in titles, headlines and specific jokes as opposed to informing a larger structure like Irony and Character can.

  Most jokes in circulation at any given time employ Wordplay, but these jokes aren’t usually very funny because their Wordplay isn’t crafted very well. The simplistic pun-based jokes that tend to go around aren’t going to dazzle anyone. These not-so-great jokes (“groaners”) are primarily puns with no Subtext, like, “How did the frog die? He croaked.” This type of Wordplay involving one word that has two meaning offers no additional Subtext beyond “this word has two meanings,” which is not very astute and certainly doesn’t point out any great wrong in the world.

  This is the level of sophistication we typically see in children’s joke books and on Laffy Taffy packages.

  Bad or simple Wordplay often only makes sense one way and not the other. In the frog example above, the joke only makes sense if you take the meaning of the word “croaked” to be “died.” It doesn’t make any sense if you take the meaning as “talked like a frog.” One simple step to improving puns is to at least make sure all meanings of the words you use make sense no matter which was you read the joke/ Example: “What did the frog say to the newspaper coupon? Rip-it.” That is only slightly less of a groaner because it at least makes sense both ways.

  Making simple puns and other Wordplay devices a little more layered is one way to get started with Wordplay. Ultimately, readers want more sophistication in Wordplay, and that usually means more than just one simple pun.

  The most important rule of thumb with Wordplay, and a great way to instantly give it the sophistication it needs, is to always make sure you’re working with good Subtext. None of these frog jokes above have any Subtext.

  The difference, then, between a groaner and a sophisticated, genuinely funny Wordplay joke is simple: the wordplay must be used in service of astute Subtext, otherwise it will be perceived by the reader as being for the sheer sake of cleverness or cuteness, which, at best, is only mildly amusing. At worst, it’s annoying. Such baseless display is what it looks like when a writer winks at the reader, which in good Satire we never do. We always play it straight.

  The Onion’s excellent story, “Fritolaysia Cuts Off Chiplomatic Relations With Snakistan,” written by Mike DiCenzo, makes use of so much wordplay that its overwhelming effect is part of the joke:

  That story is rich with Subtext: Americans don’t care about turmoil in countries halfway around the world, they care about snacks—two veins of Subtext often tapped by The Onion.

  Like Shock, good Wordplay is often no more than a garnish on humor writing. As the main thrust of the writing (again, excepting when it is used in service of good Subtext), Wordplay can feel too lightweight to actually generate sizeable laughs.

  Some examples of Wordplay used in one-liners:

  “I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed.”

  —George Carlin

  “I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he’s gone.”

  —Steven Wright

  “Echolocation, Echolocation, Echolocation—the 3 most important things in bat real estate.”

  —me

  Note that each of these jokes has Subtext. The Subtext of the first is that societal change is difficult. The second, Spot is an odd name for a dog, since it’s the same as a stain. (There’s also Shock in this one, since the dog disappeared, presumably destroyed by the spot remover.) The third, that old joke about “the three most important things in real estate” is dumb.

  WORDPLAY SUMMARY:

  WHAT IT IS: Paying with words in ways outside their standard definitions.

  HOW TO USE IT: Only with great Subtext.

  FUNNY FILTER 6: REFERENCE

  Reference is perhaps the most useful of all the Funny Filters. Even more so than the ubiquitous Character. Reference is at the core of almost all humor. Most of the other Funny Filters, for example, employ a Reference at some level, and most Subtext is based on Reference.

  A Reference is a relatable observation. Readers have seen, heard or otherwise experienced the thing being referenced. It makes them say, “oh, yeah, I’ve experienced that—and I didn’t know others had!” This reaction makes them laugh.

  The more unique and relevant the Reference, the more sophisticated it will be perceived to be, and the more the audience it will enjoy it. The less unique or relevant the Reference, the closer you get to cliché territory.

  Reference is closely related to Observational Humor, which is the observing and pointing out of the little things in everyday life that you have in common with your readers, especially things that they haven’t consciously thought about before.

  But the Reference Funny Filter is broader than everyday observations. It’s a reference to any shared experience that the reader and writer have in common.

  And that’s what tickles the funny bone with Reference—it bonds writer and reader. When their shared experience is revealed, especially one that readers haven’t heard articulated in that a particular way before, they connect with the comedy writer on a deepe
r level. Readers feel like the writer has some secret insight into their everyday life, which they find absolutely delightful.

  Jerry Seinfeld is probably the best-known master of Reference humor. “Did you ever notice how there’s always one sock missing when you do the laundry?” These kinds of mundane observations about everyday life are the foundation of his comedy, and they are all Reference. The Reference is how he begins a bit, but he quickly escalates it using Hyperbole, Wordplay, Character, or other Funny Filters.

  There are gradations of Reference. The least sophisticated kind of Reference is the grade-D Reference. This is the “in-joke,” where the writer tells a joke that he/she knows the very limited audience of readers are the only ones who will understand the Reference because they’re familiar with the same small geographical area the writer is, yet no one outside that area would understand it. In-jokes are fun for those involved, but they’re easy, and don’t really have any practical application in professional comedy writing.

  A grade-C Reference is the “call-back.” This is a Reference to an earlier joke told in your writing or in your performance. If you write a joke, then write about other things for a while, then come back to that first joke again, it’s called a “call-back.” You’re simply recalling or calling back that joke. This is a grade-C Reference because it’s not only very easy to do, it’s also a huge hit with audiences. Most stand-up routines end with a callback, usually one with some escalation, and it’s a guaranteed laugh—that’s why they finish with it. Watch just about any stand-up set and you’ll see this tactic in action.

  Humor-Writing Tip #12: Don’t Fall In Love

  You may think you have the greatest idea in the world, but don’t fall in love with it. You may have to change it or cut it based on the feedback you get from an internal or external editor.

  Humor writing is closely tied to ego. When you write something that you think is funny, it hurts when you put it out there and it doesn’t work. On some level, it can feel like it wasn’t just your joke that bombed, it was your inherent worth as a human being.

  Amateur humor writers often have one idea that they’re very proud of. This makes them immune from potentially constructive feedback, because with so much ego riding on this one idea, they can’t help but take personally any critical notes they might get on it.

  Professional humor writers come up with tons of ideas, and are prepared to discard any ideas that don’t connect with their own internal Editor, or the opinions of people in their inner circle.

  The same principle applies to brilliantly written lines in a story. If they have to be cut, cut them. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch famously said (though it’s often mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain), “Murder your darlings.”

  Slightly more sophisticated is the grade-B Reference, which references things that are at the forefront of everyone’s mind: the latest story in the 24-hour news cycle, for example, or other current event or cultural touchstone. It could be a holiday, the weather, or anything in the public consciousness. These are the go-to subjects of most late-night monologues, of course. If the current event is inherently amusing, many audiences will laugh simply at the Reference—you scarcely need to tell a joke about it. This is a relatively easy Reference because it doesn’t take a lot of thought to come up with a current event, holiday, or other common Reference.

  Slightly more sophisticated but still grade B (we’ll call this grade B+) is a Reference to more obscure cultural tidbits that we’ve all experienced—modes of speech or ways of being that have become more prevalent recently. Referencing new or emerging clichés of speech is a popular form of Reference. “SNL” sketches employ this type of Reference a lot, using new yet familiar slang terms in dialog. Simon Rich, a former “SNL” writer who’s written several books of short comedy essays, including the excellent collection Ant Farm, is especially adept at this kind of Reference. He references modes and structures of speech, conversations, social dynamics, interpersonal politics, and other loosely defined experiences we’ve all had. He recreates these things so perfectly that we recognize them instantly (that’s how we “get” the reference), in no matter what context he uses them. He also uses several other Funny Filters, and always a killer Subtext, to expound on the Reference and create some of the best prose humor being written today.

  A grade-A Reference, the most sophisticated kind, is some universal observation about life that’s yet to be pointed out in exactly the same way before—a new observation about day-to-day minutia, or the way things are, or something that’s wrong with the human condition. If it points out a shared weakness or universal human foible, something that you, the writer, wish could be improved, that’s the core of all great Subtext and is the essence of Satire.

  Most of Jerry Seinfeld’s and Louis C.K.’s observational humor fit into the grade-A category, as did George Carlin’s.

  The Onion achieves this type of Reference humor on a daily basis.

  You find Reference by observing, and writing down anything you notice that you think other people might understand or relate to. There are so many things that you can share with your reader that make good Reference humor. You just have to take notice.

  Some one-liner examples of the Reference Funny Filter:

  “Tip Of Man’s Tongue Refuses To Relinquish Richard Crenna’s Name”

  —The Onion

  “Men don’t care what’s on TV. They only care what else is on TV.”

  —Jerry Seinfeld

  “Ever notice that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, but anyone going faster is a maniac?

  —George Carlin

  REFERENCE SUMMARY:

  WHAT IT IS: Referring to something that readers will recognize from their own lives.

  HOW TO USE IT: Come up with unique observations about everything from day-to-day life to broad issues about society, culture or life, and do so in a way that you don’t believe anyone has done before. It might be helpful to use Jerry Seinfeld’s famous “did you ever notice…?” or “What’s the deal with...?” intros (in your mind only, not on the page—these are clichés) to get into the right mindset to come up with references that will connect with readers.

  FUNNY FILTER 7: MADCAP

  Madcap is the literary equivalent of physical humor. It’s crazy, made-up words, the descriptions of slapstick, pratfalls, and other funny physical action. Absurdist references and seemingly random non sequiturs also count as Madcap.

  This is where you loosen up, and really get silly. Take your readers to Loonyland, where slaphappy, cartoonish things happen, and characters become clownish.

  These things are “seemingly” random because while the audience may perceive them as crazy, random, silly things, you, the writer, know that they are communicating powerful Subtext. This is the only way Madcap works in Satire. Even In Formulaic Humor, Subtext is critical for Madcap to be entertaining in any sustained way. Without Subtext, you have silliness for silliness’s sake. If it’s just pie-in-the-face antics with nothing intelligent going on beneath the surface, most readers will get bored quickly.

  Kids (and kids at heart) are one of the few audiences who enjoy Madcap without letup, and will even tolerate it without Subtext. The prose category of Kid Stuff is comprised largely of Madcap: pratfalls, funny faces, talking animals wearing funny hats. Pure Wackytown. The green slime of Nickelodeon is a perfect example of Madcap humor without Subtext. Kids love it. The rest of us don’t see the humor in it.

  Madcap is like Shock in that a little goes a long way. An otherwise calm, intelligent joke is often made a little more laugh-inducing with a pinch of Madcap. The insertion of an inherently funny-sounding word for a specific, inherently funny thing like “pants,” “chimp,” or “water balloon,” or the clever insertion of a quick description of some over-the-top physical humor like someone falling over backwards or getting slapped in the face with a giant fish, can make all the difference in elevating a potentially drab joke into one that is more widely accessible, and actually has a chance
to get a laugh.

  The Continuum of Funny Filters

  You may have noticed that “funny words” appears as a feature of both Wordplay and Madcap.

  These 11 Funny Filters tend to blur into each other at the periphery. Some are much more closely related than others. Parody (next), for example, is really just a subset of Reference.

  This chapter is not meant to be the Periodic Table of Humor Elements. These are loose definitions to describe general concepts in humor. The end goal of all of these terms and tools is not an academic one, it’s practical. They’re here to communicate the concepts so that you can use them intelligently to create humor, and also identify how and why your writing works or doesn’t work, which is the central skill of a good inner Editor.

  Steve Martin wrote a book in the 1970s called Cruel Shoes, which used a lot of Madcap, as did his stand-up act. The Onion uses Madcap on occasion, in stories like “Secretary Of Agriculture Attends Diplomatic Meeting With Foreign Cabbage.” It features a photo of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack sitting next to a big head of cabbage in an official meeting room.