Ways to make it funny

A list of punchline sparks.

When I first began doing comedy, I listened to a bunch of standup albums and wrote down how each joke worked. I was trying to give myself a framework for how to take something that happened IRL (e.g. someone said something dumb/strange/weird to me) and turn it into a joke I could say onstage. Just discovered it again and thought I’d share it here…

Ways to make it funny:

• time dashes = same characters at diff time in their lives.

• analogous situation = diff characters in similar situation.

• Make it art.

• Argue an interesting or hard case. (Stanhope and Burr are great at this.)

• Earn yer sentimentality. Like Judd Apatow does by combining hard jokes with heartfelt moments.

• make them love you or hate you. get into damage control mode.

• What do you secretly wish you had said?

  

• “That would never happen. If it did…”

• What if this was normal?

• When would that be the right thing to say?

• Take it personally

• thinking before reasoning-- the immediate reaction before logic sets in.

• delight, frighten, soothe and enrage

• “I had this insane thought. What if...?”

• How would a child view this?

• Go to ridic extreme

• Act outs

• Misdirection

• exaggerate

• Extreme truth

• Extreme lie

• Ask questions: “But why this, and why that, and how does this work?”

• Make up weird situation and then act it out

• Why?

• Scale it up

• Use/create a funny word

• Find the game of the scene

• "What was the meeting like where they decided to do that?" (like PFT does in “Peanut Brittle”)

• Give ‘em a slap in the face!

• What should be said in a given situation (appropriate response to stupid comment)

  

• Be the person you hate

• Pretend to love what you actually hate

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mattrubycomedy

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