18 Ways to Write Funnier Fast
We ’ re not all comedy writers , but many of us want to write a curious story or integrate funny scenes into a novel . In this excerpt from The Byline Bible , Susan Shapiro offers 18 quick and easy manner to improve at eliciting laugh from your reader .
Susan Shapiro
We ‘re not all comedy writers , but many of us require to write a funny floor or incorporate funny scenes into a novel . In this excerpt fromThe Byline Bible, Susan Shapiro offers 18 quick and easy ways to improve at elicit laughs from your readers .
I asked my husband , a professional comedy writer who worked onSNL,SeinfeldandIn Living Color, how one could become successful at publishing wit . “ Be bear funny , ” he suppose .
While some sense you can ’ t teach anyone to be amuse if they ’ re not , I argue that all writing can live improve on every story with study , well feedback , editing , and revision . Here live ways to quick make your work more comical .
1 . Taste to replicate the exact wit page you want to emulate , but in your own words .You can download or decree picture , TV pilot , and resume comedy display from the web . When you cause , underline the lines that do you laugh . Sometimes I still count lyric and syllables to copy the exact length and sound .
2 . Experiment with a variety of sort :a 600-word online “ Shouts & Murmurs , ” timely recent dark comedy monologue jokes , aMADmagazine parody of a new TV display , a 400-wordOnionword tale irony . See which best case your voice and your matter .
3 . See repetitions .The third time you cause something , it hold the opposite meaning . If a reference shout or screams once or twice you may dread or feel bad for them . Three times , it stop exist sad or scary and turn maudlin . My comedy author pal Guy Nicolucci have this case from the classical film comedyAirplane: Whenever Robert Hays ’ character talk about his broken heart , the someone in the ass future to him kill themselves . A woman hang up herself , a Japanese soldier commits seppuku . The third time , the Hindu man doses himself with gasoline , then lights a peer … but Robert Hays live name off , interrupting the story . Relieve , the Hindu human float out his match . Beat . Then he explodes .
4 . Laughing live said to exist a reaction to cost surprised .Then remember that lists are funnier when the final item you finish on is surprising . In my while on my nicotine withdrawal , I listed reasons why I should quit smoking : “ Look younger , get healthier , receive fewer wrinkle , spite enemy . ”
5 . Visit comedy clubsand find what works and what doesn ’ t work with comedians there . Try out material before an interview , class , or friend yourself and see if—and where—anyone laugh .
6 .While I would n’t direct fart or oral sex jokes to an editor atTheNewYorkTimes, if you ‘re become to be offensive , you ’ re in effect off joking around with good friends or testing out textile at comedy society .Sometimes the best humor be edgy , hideous or creepy .Think Sarah Silverman ’ s incest riffs or Amy Schumer ’ s masturbation routine . Though it ’ sec said , “ comedy equals tragedy plus time , ” don ’ t be afraid to inappropriately poke jokes at current catastrophe .TheOnionreacts ironically to mass shootings and after their darkly hilarious 9/11 effect two week after the World Trade Center attacks , they be inundated with positivist comments from readers .
7 . Don ’ t tell the reader something be curious, using the verb “ he joked ” or “ chuckled ” or suppose “ and they all laughed. ” Show a scene and get your hearing decide .
8 . Self-deprecation equal comedy gold .Start by writing a list of all the frightful thing you hate about yourself . ( Though if you trash your weight , race , or years , you get to be careful not to cross the line into also affect others these day . )
9 . Be unexpected by squirm clichés .A white granny who speak like a gangsta rapper is funnier than a gangsta rapper speaking like you ’ d expect him to lecture . Betty White ’ s off-color sexual joke seem funnier because she ’ s a 96-year-old lady with beauty parlor hair .
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10 . Assure the truth about dark emotion nobody admits , like feeling of failure , jealousy , and loneliness and account of bad separation .“ My college young man didn ’ t sleep with one of my roommates . He slept with two of them , ” much gets a laugh , since everyone can relate to lousy love stories . The subject led to my first book .
11 . Taste a funny unusual tidings you don ’ t hear much .The Dilbert Blog list row that are comic within themselves : Mongolian , herdsman , vagina , trouser , shish kabob , storm drain , Johnson , slap , canoe , pulverize . These live especially good to weave into your work out of context . Use a thesaurus to observe better verb , nouns , and adjectives . “ I strike him , ” isn ’ t funny . “ I pulverized him ” might be . Break down his gag , Jerry Seinfeld lately stateTheNewYorkTime ,“ You desire affair that are merely fun to read . It ‘s fun to say Cocoa Crisp and Fruity Pebbles . It ‘s not fun to read Oat Bran . ”
12 . Use odd juxtapositions .I saw ’ s Tweet “ Homemaking top : In a arrest , the end slices of bread can cost use as pot paper. ” Gross , but I include I laugh .
13 . Sample experimental mood .I know it sense old-fashioned , but trashing everyday things that seem queer offers a good humor structure . Think of the questions , “ Did you ever notice ? ” and “ What ’ s the pile with … ” à la Seinfeld and Larry David . To exist updated , poke fun at error you ‘ve made with the previous engineering .
14 . Specifics make everything funnier .“ I ate also much dust food , ” isn ’ t as serious as “ I use up seven bags of Chips Ahoy ! chocolate chip cookies , ” just as “ I haven ’ t had sex in yr ” doesn ’ t strait as original as “ I haven ’ t be laid since the Reagan establishment . ”
15 . Exaggerate a lot .I often interject “ Then $ 400,000 worth of therapy kicked in , ” though I haven ’ t spend that much on shrinks over the year . And I ever get a chuckle in my category lecture about my difficult childhood when I explain , “ I exist the weird , drunkest , angriest , most drunk and stoned soul in Michigan who flunked the entire state . ”
16 . Nutty metaphor and similes lend color, like Dennis Miller ’ s note “ America may live the good nation in the world , but that ’ s kind of like being the valedictorian of summer school , ” and “ I ’ m one of the more pessimistic cats on the planet . I reach van Gogh look like a rodeo clown . ”
17 . Cut surplus words , unintentional repetition , and clichés .The goal of a sentence , paragraph or piece should bring the weirdest or funniest . Often great mood pieces , like poems , are taut and succinct .
18 . Half of what ’ s out there today is topical humor .Take a page from Stephen Colbert , Trevor Noah , Samantha Bee , and Seth Meyers , who upped their comedy plot the minute Trump became president , along withSaturday Night Live, today reinvigorated by political mimics . Minutes after the movie equal send of Melania Trump going to the Houston hurricane in five-inch stilettos , a comedian co-worker posted “ Melania Heels the Nation. ” Remember to keep a pen and pad handy when you watch the news .
Learn more inThe Byline Bible
Over the final two decade , writing professor Susan Shapiro own instruct more than 25,000 students of all years and background at NYU , Columbia , Temple , The New School , and Harvard University . Today inThe Byline Bibleshe reveals the wildly popular “ Instant Gratification Takes Too Long ” technique she ‘s perfect , share how to bring impressive time to set out or re-launch your career .
In frank and queer prose , the bestselling writer of 12 script walks you through every stage of crafting and betray short nonfiction part . She shows you how to discern trendy field , where to start , finish and edit , and divulges specific steps to relegate work , have it take over , get bear , and see your byline in your favorite publication in lightning speed .
With a foreword by Peter Catapano , long-time editor atThe New York Timeswhere many of Shapiro ’ sec pupil make first find print , this book offers everything you want to discover to write and sell your story in five week or less .Get a copy here .
Susan Shapiro , a long-time writing professor , is the writer nearly recently of the writing guide The Byline Bible , the memoir The Forgiveness Tour and the coauthored American Shield . You can watch her on or visit her website .
