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Four Commandments to Writing Funny

by Joe Bunting (@joebunting) | 62 Comments

Exciting news! This week we’re cancelling our normal broadcasting to bring you a series about humor writing. I’ve roped some of the funniest writers and bloggers I know into teaching us all how to make people laugh with our writing. It’s going to be awesome!
Today’s lesson comes from Paul Angone, author and blogger at All Groan Up (puns—humor lesson numero uno), where he writes about the joys and miseries of being part of Gen Y. If you want to get to know him better (I do), follow him on Twitter (@PaulAngone) or like All Groan Up on Facebook. Take it away, Paul!

I can’t force funny. Like trying to trim the nails of an alley cat, every time I try and make funny do exactly as I say, I get clawed.
When I write, my core goal is not to be funny; my goal is to tell the truth in an entertaining way. If that happens by way of funny, then hot damn! Call me a blend of Owen Wilson and Conan O’Brien in blog form. I won’t stop you.
Even though I try not to force funny, when analyzing my writing process, I definitely employ some strategies (daresay, commandments) to allow funny the space to breathe—if it in fact wishes to come to life.

My Four Commandments to Writing Funny

1. Thou Shalt Not Worry About Offending

First and most important, if you’re overly concerned about what others will think, don’t try your hand at funny. Senses of humor are like living room couches: everyone has a different opinion on what should be sitting in the middle of the room.
Sure, stay true to your voice and integrity. Don’t write purely to shock. But you’re going to receive those emails from your classmate in 7th grade, who you haven’t talked to since, writing to tell you that your line about escaping R.E.A.S (Rapidly Expanding Ass Syndrome) was morally offensive. It’s going to happen.
I struggle mightily with this commandment, as I have this nagging issue that I want everyone to like me. But is my commitment to telling truth in an entertaining way or is it to the web-lurkers who only throw grenades, then hide?

2. Thou Shalt Pay Attention to the Mundane

Jerry Seinfield wasn’t funny because he could do impersonations, or was overly animated or creative. He was funny because he told the truth about the mundane. He touched on those taboo simple subjects that we all experience but don’t realize. Tapping into shared experiences is important when writing, but even more so when writing humor. Because you’ll always get a bigger laugh when people are thinking, gosh that’s so freaking true.

3. Thou Shalt Take Clichés to Extremes

My wife suggested to me that I write an article about staying healthy while working in an office. Well, we’ve all read that article a thousand times before. So I decided to take that cliche article and write Eight Creative Ways to Lose Weight in the Cubicle where I encouraged readers to engage in Butt-Clinch Pick-Up-Pens and King of the Cubicle.
Or when there was report after report about the Occupy Movement marching on streets all over the nation, I wrote Occupy Marches on Sesame Street—twentysomething angst taking on the puppets who lied to them first.
Taking cliches to the extreme is the bedrock to satire.

4. Thou Shalt Use Metaphors and Similes Like the Bubonic Plague

(First, see Commandments 1 and 3.)
Metaphors and similes are to funny as Hugh Grant is to romantic comedy.
Instead of writing, “he ran really fast,” why not write, “he ran like a 14-year-old who just walked in on his parents doing the horizontal hula dance”?
Very rarely does a creative simile or metaphor make something less funny.
What other strategies do you use when writing humor?

PRACTICE

Let’s practice the fourth commandment. Take one of these three samples below, turn it into a funny metaphor or simile, and post it into the comments.
She was as sick as…
He was taller than…
She relaxed like…

David Sedaris videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExcpcPZKWpU&list=PLA86A504AA10A73C9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5apZmwR9UI&list=PLA86A504AA10A73C9 


How to write like David Sedaris:

http://remainingawriter.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-write-like-david.html

http://ydrstorytelling.blogspot.com/2012/04/david-sedaris-on-writing-write-everyday.html

http://thecopybot.com/2011/08/sedaris-first-sentence/ 

http://www.missourireview.com/archives/bbarticle/a-conversation-with-david-sedaris/ 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812072,00.html

Welcome back!

Please read Sedaris to pg. 59

TRY THIS EXERCISE TODAY AND POST YOUR ANSWERS!

http://thewritepractice.com/four-commandments-to-writing-funny/

Also, get your blogs going!  Only 6 of you posted your blog links on the last post.

More David Sedaris links:

http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/lists/sedaris/

Bloodsucking Fiends

Go back a few entries to the Readers Guide discussion questions for Bloodsucking Fiends.

Post a comment responding to at least 3 questions to begin a discussion online about the book.

Continue to work on your blog and the "Fiends" exercise

Bloodsucking Fiends

Complete handout Quiz on Part II of Bloodsucking Fiends.

Continue to work on your exercise of parody from the other day.

Continue to work on your blog.

FINISH BLOODSUCKING FIENDS for discussion on Monday!

PARODY

par·o·dy

   ˈpærədi Spelled [par-uh-dee]  IPA noun, plural -dies, verb, -died, -dy·ing.

noun 

1.   a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing: his hilarious parody of Hamlet's soliloquy.

2.   the genre of literary composition represented by such imitations.

3.    a burlesque imitation of a musical composition.

4.   any humorous, satirical, or burlesque imitation, as of a person, event, etc.

5.    the use in the 16th century of borrowed material in a musical setting of the Mass (parody Mass).

verb (used with object)

6.   to imitate (a composition, author, etc.) for purposes of ridicule or satire.

7.   to imitate poorly or feebly; travesty.

Source: www.dictionary.com

GENRE: A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions. The three broadest categories of genre include poetry, drama, and fiction. These general genres are often subdivided into more specific genres and subgenres. For instance, precise examples of genres might include murder mysteries, westerns, sonnets, lyric poetry, epics, tragedies, etc. Many bookstores and video stores divide their books or films into genres for the convenience of shoppers seeking a specific category of literature.
CONVENTION: A common feature that has become traditional or expected within a specific genre (category) of literature or film. In Harlequin romances, it is conventional to focus on a male and female character who struggle through misunderstandings and difficulties until they fall in love. In western films of the early twentieth-century, for instance, it has been conventional for protagonists to wear white hats and antagonists to wear black hats. The wandering knight-errant who travels from place to place, seeking adventure while suffering from the effects of hunger and the elements, is a convention in medieval romances. It is a convention for an English sonnet to have fourteen lines with a specific rhyme scheme, abab, cdcd, efef, gg, and so on. The use of a chorus and the unities are dramatic conventions of Greek tragedy, while, the aside, and the soliloquy are conventions in Elizabethan tragedy. Conventions are often referred to as poetic, literary, or dramatic, depending upon whether the convention appears in a poem, short story or novel, or a play.

Source: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/index.html

Mini Writing Exercises

1.      Write a paragraph that describes a monster (whether it be a vampire or another magical being that you know well).  Make sure that this description fits with the conventions of the genre to which the being belongs (i.e.—a vampire might have fangs; a zombie might eat brains, etc.).  Use rich language and adjectives to create a vivid image for your reader.

2.     Parody a vampire attack (or a part of one) in a paragraph.  Use the Moore reading  for ideas of conventions you might want to twist. 

Bloodsucking Fiends, PART II

Work on multiple choice quiz for CLASSWORK credit.

Continue to work on your blogs and last call for Susquehanna entries.

For Tuesday, read Part II of Bloodsucking Fiends (to pg. 192)

Have a great weekend!