question for you writers.

Ken,

Dennis and Sal have given you some great tips. The unexpected is a highly effective comedy tool, as is the incongruous. And misdirection is one of the best ways of increasing their impact.

To use misdirection, you first set up a situation or premise, then confound the readers' likely expectation.

There's much talk about the "rule of three" in such a set-up. Whether that's because of the mind's average attention span or some deeper psychological reasons, it does seem to work, and you'll often see examples of this technique in comedy writing. A (much) shortened version would be the famous "formula for success" offered by J. Paul Getty:

1) Get up early

2) Work hard

3) Strike oil


Another crucial tool is your editing. This is the written equivalent of the comic's timing which is the essence of good humor. Arranging the funny bits in the optimum order on the page can make or break your comedy writing. In general, you'll want to place the funniest word at the end of a sentence and end the paragraph with your funniest sentence, but experiment with your own writing for the most effective placement. Find some written jokes that appeal to you and study their structure; could you improve the set-up to increase the impact of the punchline?

Also, some words are just intrinsically funnier than others. Try using a thesaurus to substitute mundane-sounding words with punchier ones. Words starting with a "k" sound tend to be quite effective (Quack, Kicker, Krusty The Clown) but again, try out different words for yourself.

It's already been mentioned that as your audience gets to know you, they'll come to recognize your style and be more receptive to your humor. But it's equally important that you get to know your audience. Nothing is likely to kill humor more that a too obvious, heavy-handed approach. Far better to keep your humorous attempts on the subtle side, encouraging your readers to join the dots. The more you know your audience, the easier it will become to get the pitch right.

Finally, and as a rule of thumb, remember that less is more. Don't try to cram as many jokes as you can into every paragraph. One or two funny lines per post or page of writing is often all you'll need, as long as the set-up has been well structured and the lines are actually funny and fit the context of the piece.


Frank

PS And if everything else fails, there's always the undies.

I should have been more clear: I was referring to my potential response to your comment, not your actual comment.