What Makes Writing Funny? (Humor Writing Mini-Course, Class 1)
Welcome to the first lesson of your 4-week, humor writing mini course. Today we’ll look at some examples of what makes things funny, and do an overview of the four most popular humor theories, ending with the one you’ll probably find most helpful in your writing. At the end, we’ll focus on tuning your mental radio to the humor nerd station so you can see the possibilities for humor all around you.
Part 1: Examples of Humor Writing -What Makes These Funny?
Directions: As you read the examples of below, think about which of them makes you laugh and why. Under the examples you’ll find a few noteworthy responses from the in-class discussion. One important thing to keep in mind – during this exercise, I specifically asked students NOT to discuss the things they didn’t like or that didn’t make them laugh. The reason for this is simple: If you focus on enjoying someone else’s writing before you sit down to write, you will be in the right frame of mind to enjoy writing. If you’re lucky, you’ll even find yourself channeling what works into your own writing. On the other hand, if you put yourself in the mindset of nitpicking someone else’s work, you’ll be waking up your snarky inner critic, who will continue to sit on your shoulder and make a-hole comments as you write. (The same thing happens with dancing – if you go to a club and spend the first ten minutes leaning against the wall and making fun of other people’s dance moves, don’t be surprised if you stay leaning against the wall the whole time. The point of these opening exercises are to get you on the dance floor.)
Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits
Dave Barry
Chapter 1: Why Humor Is Funny
As a professional humorist, I often get letters from readers who are interested in the basic nature of humor. “What kind of a sick, perverted, disgusting person are you,” these letters typically ask, “that you make jokes about setting fire to a goat?”
And that, of course, is the wonderful thing about humor. What may seem depressing or even tragic to one person may seem like an absolute scream to another person, especially if he has had between four and seven beers. But most people agree on what is funny, and most people like to be around a person with a great sense of humor, provided he also has reasonable hygiene habits. This is why people so often ask me: “Dave, I’d like to be popular, too. How can I get a sense of humor like yours, only with less of a dependence on jokes that are primarily excuses to use the word ‘booger’?”
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Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation
Aisha Tyler
Being a comedian requires and extremely high threshold of psychic pain. You must be able to tolerate humiliation, learn to resist is, defy it, crave it even. You must make love to embarrassment, tongue kiss abjection, clasp emotional injury close to your heaving breast. You cannot fear the mocking of others; you must face it as a brave, if utterly doomed, Roman soldier. Because the truth is that sometimes the audience may actually be laughing at you and not with you. And that needs to be okay.
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Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Mindy Kaling
Section: I Love Diets
I wish I could be one of those French women you read about who stays thin by eating only the most gourmet food in tiny, ascetic portions, but I could never do that. First of all, I largely don’t like gourmet food. I like frozen yogurt.
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Bossypants
Tina Fey
Why is this book called Bossypants? One, because the name Two and a Half Men was already taken. And two, because ever since I became the executive producer of 30 Rock, people ask me, “Is it hard for you, being the boss?” and “Is it uncomfortable for you to be the person in charge?” You know, in that same way they say, “Gosh, Mr. Trump, is it awkward for you to be the boss of all these people?” I can’t answer for Mr. Trump, but in my case, it is not.
Noteworthy responses from in-class discussion
Strong voice and rhythm: The most common phrases during this discussion were things like, “I hear the voice,” “You can imagine the voice out loud,” and, “Conversational tone.” Some of the English teachers in the crowd (and watch out, because some of us are always in every writing class crowd) pointed out things like commas, question marks, and a mix of short and long sentences that influenced the rhythm of the sentences. The takeaway? Rhythm is an important of writing. Especially humor writing. And yes, your English teachers are correct when they say punctuation is an important part of rhythm.
Unexpected opposites: Several students mentioned opposites; sentences that start out over the top and then get suddenly quiet; sentences that start out sweet and turn suddenly evil; authors like Dave Barry, who make you like them and then suddenly insult you; or the juxtaposition of things we might consider opposite, like when Aisha Tyler says, “making love to embarrassment.” The key words are “opposite” and “suddenly.” Keep these in mind during class three, when we discuss the basic tools of standup comedy.
Word choice is important: Someone in the class noted that Tina Fey makes a point to say, “Mr. Trump,” not Donald or Donald Trump, and that made the sentence funnier. Everyone agreed. And a few people – I suspect it was the English teachers again – pointed out that strong imagery, like Dave Barry’s “setting fire to a goat,” led to funny lines.
With that in mind, let’s move onto…
An overview of the Four Main Humor Theories
Relief theory: Humor relieves psychological tension by allowing us to face our fears, release nervous energy, and overcome inhibitions.
Examples:
(Paraphrased from standup comic Jim Gaffigan): “The worst is when you ask someone out and they turn you down. ‘Cause what they’re really saying is, ‘you know what? I don’t even feel like eating a free meal around you.’”
(Paraphrased from standup comic Louis CK): “My doctor asked me, well, at what point do you feel full and stop eating? I said, the meal isn’t over when I’m full! The meal is over when I hate myself!”
Superiority theory (traced back to philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Hobbes): We laugh at the misfortunes and shortcomings of others because it makes us feel better about ourselves.
Examples:
(Paraphrased from standup comic Demitri Martin) “A refrigerator is the opposite of a drug addict, it starts in a box and moves into a home”
(Paraphrased from millions of playgrounds) “Yo momma’s so fat…”
Incongruity theory (AKA Surprise theory): We laugh when our perception of a situation suddenly changes.
Examples:
(From Greg Dean’s Step-by-Step to Standup, which breaks down how to write this type of joke.)”My grandfather died peacefully in his sleep. But the kids on his bus were screaming.”
(From standup comic Demitri Martin): “I am a man of my word. And that word is unreliable.”
(Also from standup comic Demitri Martin) “I’m sorry’ and ‘I apologize’ mean the same thing… unless you’re at a funeral.”
Benign Violation Theory (by Psychologist Peter McGraw): We think something is funny when it violates our sense of what is okay but is also benign enough not to offend us too badly. (More on this in The Humor Code, by Peter McGraw and Joel Warner.)
Examples: Presumably, any of the jokes above, if you found them funny.
Video Break: Watch this short video of Tim Graw’s TEDx Talk on the Benign Violation Theory
Today’s Assignment: Tune Your Mental Radio to the Humor Nerd Station
This week, reread a few things you have found funny in the past. These can be books, cartoons, or online humor. (You can also listen to standup comics, but keep in mind that written work has its own rhythm and format. If you’re trying to write funny, the best thing you can do is read funny writing.)
As you read, try to answer the following questions:
1. How does this fit into the “surprise theory” of humor? At what point in this piece of writing does the author surprise readers with the opposite of what they expected? Is that where you laughed?
2. How does this fit into the “benign violation theory” of humor? What makes this piece of writing a little bit of a violation (in other words, it surprises us a little or maybe even makes us a little uncomfortable)? What makes it benign enough not to offend us too much?
See you next week.
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