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The New Comedy Writing Step by Step: Revised and Updated with Words of Instruction, Encouragement, and Inspiration from Legends of the Comedy Profession
Three-time Emmy Award-winner Gene Perret's ""Comedy Writing Step by Step"" has been the manual for humor writers for 25 years. In this new book, his first update, Perret offers readers a treasure trove of guidelines and suggestions covering a broad range of comedy writing situations, along with many all-important insights into the selling of one's work. Perret covers all aspects of comedy writing in his uniquely knowledgeable and anecdotal fashion.
267 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2007
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275 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 15, 2019
Reading this in public was embarrassing. There are some exercises in the middle that are decent.
February 17, 2021
A lot of the first part of the book was filler, but when he got to the actual "how-to," his suggestions were helpful. In fact, the exercises would be fun to do with friends. Some reminded me of the Jack-Box games you can play on the internet. The filler was pretty interesting too, so yes, I enjoyed this book.
February 28, 2010
This book really opened my eyes to comedy writing being more formula based than I ever expected. I'll be able to use the techniques I've learned in this book to improve my own comedy writing. Enjoyed reading all funny quotes and skits in it as well.
February 27, 2017
The author's discussion of comedy was useful and he is an authority, having been head writer for Bob Hope. Many of the steps laid out here as writing exercises were very pun centric and didn't appeal to me. Disappointing.
August 30, 2010
I picked up “The New Comedy Writing Step by Step” because I wanted to introduce more humor into my writing, and I wanted a detour from my standard reading about the craft of writing (you know: characters, plots, arcs, etc. etc.). I'm glad I did.
Before opening this book, I felt that comedy was something reserved for those I would classify as "comic geniuses." In my hand was a book written by a gifted comic writer—a Grandmaster, so to speak. And having read many books on the game of Chess, I found that some Grandmasters struggle to simplify their thought processes enough to penetrate my amateur mind. I expected the same from Mr. Perret. Yet, from the first pages, Gene set out to prove me wrong--had he read my mind?
Gene's credentials are astounding: having worked for the likes of Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller. That brings me to the reason for my 4-star rating. The book is excellent, don't get me wrong, but Gene's style of humor is sometimes a little dated. Note that I said, “sometimes” and "a little." As an example, one exercise is to write 100 original Tom Swifties. I enjoy playing with words, but I was not thrilled about the idea of this exercise. If you feel the same, skip the Swifties and keep reading. There is so much more to come.
Gene makes writing comedy accessible to anyone. He walks you step by step through the process of brainstorming effectively, organizing your thoughts, identifying comic potential, writing jokes, and even combining jokes into routines. One reason his approach is successful is the way he immerses you into the world of comedy with his anecdotal approach to writing about the subject.
My only regret with this book was not having enough time to spend on the exercises. Of course, that is easily remedied. I plan to read it again…and take my time.
Before opening this book, I felt that comedy was something reserved for those I would classify as "comic geniuses." In my hand was a book written by a gifted comic writer—a Grandmaster, so to speak. And having read many books on the game of Chess, I found that some Grandmasters struggle to simplify their thought processes enough to penetrate my amateur mind. I expected the same from Mr. Perret. Yet, from the first pages, Gene set out to prove me wrong--had he read my mind?
Gene's credentials are astounding: having worked for the likes of Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller. That brings me to the reason for my 4-star rating. The book is excellent, don't get me wrong, but Gene's style of humor is sometimes a little dated. Note that I said, “sometimes” and "a little." As an example, one exercise is to write 100 original Tom Swifties. I enjoy playing with words, but I was not thrilled about the idea of this exercise. If you feel the same, skip the Swifties and keep reading. There is so much more to come.
Gene makes writing comedy accessible to anyone. He walks you step by step through the process of brainstorming effectively, organizing your thoughts, identifying comic potential, writing jokes, and even combining jokes into routines. One reason his approach is successful is the way he immerses you into the world of comedy with his anecdotal approach to writing about the subject.
My only regret with this book was not having enough time to spend on the exercises. Of course, that is easily remedied. I plan to read it again…and take my time.
July 17, 2015
Some well-received novels employ the device of immersing the narrative in a richly detailed context that enable the narrator to spice the story up with hopefully fascinating insights into this 'hidden' world. Examples I have in mind are Life of Pi, where we learn about zookeeping; The Remains of the Day, where we learn about being a butler; Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne, where we learn about glaciology; The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, where we learn about 1940s superhero comics; and so on.
Reading The New Comedy Writing Step by Step gives the same sense of fascinated alienation. Although a self-help book instead of a novel, reading it without any intention of becoming a comedy writer, I found it an intriguing insight into a milieu I never gave a second thought.
Given that I managed to read an entire self-help book on a book with little relevance to my work or life, it must have been well-written; it wasn't hard to get through.
That said, it's a fairly typical self-help book, with lots of claims that 'if you just work hard enough at it, you'll make it'. While I agree that there's some truth in the sentiment that you can only get discovered if there's something to discover, I've always considered books like these too safe from the authors' perspective. If, after all, you didn't succeed, you probably didn't work hard enough.
Reading The New Comedy Writing Step by Step gives the same sense of fascinated alienation. Although a self-help book instead of a novel, reading it without any intention of becoming a comedy writer, I found it an intriguing insight into a milieu I never gave a second thought.
Given that I managed to read an entire self-help book on a book with little relevance to my work or life, it must have been well-written; it wasn't hard to get through.
That said, it's a fairly typical self-help book, with lots of claims that 'if you just work hard enough at it, you'll make it'. While I agree that there's some truth in the sentiment that you can only get discovered if there's something to discover, I've always considered books like these too safe from the authors' perspective. If, after all, you didn't succeed, you probably didn't work hard enough.
August 6, 2022
“The Joke is not a collection of words,” Gene Perret says in this book, “it’s the scene that appears in the listener’s mind as a result of those words.”
Something I learned from this book is why puns and dad jokes are seen as the lowest form of humor: they rely exclusively on wordplay, and do not create a visual image.
If you can craft a visual image from your pun - distorting a feature to false prominence, like an artist drawing a caricature - then you have a joke that gets more laughs than groans.
I studied this book to sharpen my funny bone. So many of my Zoom meetings rely on my own wackiness and enthusiasm to amplify the energy, and turn a boring meeting into a playful interaction, that I felt my humor needed a polish.
Instead of doing stand-up in a club, I’m putting together five-minute comedy routines, in a series of visual jokes using my greenscreen and visual effects.
I’m grateful to this book for providing me with a blueprint to the mechanics of telling jokes, as well as the surprising wealth of advice on how to grow and sustain a creative career.
Something I learned from this book is why puns and dad jokes are seen as the lowest form of humor: they rely exclusively on wordplay, and do not create a visual image.
If you can craft a visual image from your pun - distorting a feature to false prominence, like an artist drawing a caricature - then you have a joke that gets more laughs than groans.
I studied this book to sharpen my funny bone. So many of my Zoom meetings rely on my own wackiness and enthusiasm to amplify the energy, and turn a boring meeting into a playful interaction, that I felt my humor needed a polish.
Instead of doing stand-up in a club, I’m putting together five-minute comedy routines, in a series of visual jokes using my greenscreen and visual effects.
I’m grateful to this book for providing me with a blueprint to the mechanics of telling jokes, as well as the surprising wealth of advice on how to grow and sustain a creative career.
November 24, 2021
The New Comedy Writing Step by Step by Gene Perret is a great book that helped moved me from beginner to intermediate. I loved Greg Dean’s book, it got things started. However, there were some great exercises to help kick start the writing process in this book. Unlike Dean’s definitions, Perret’s definition for what makes a joke is a bit broader – “A joke is anything that gets a laugh.” That definition was helpful to allow me to break out from the formula provided by Dean and move into other kinds and types of joke structures. I really appreciated Perret’s perspective that comedy can be taught. There are folks in the comedy community – particularly those who learned from the school of hard knocks who don’t believe that comedy can be taught – or learned from techniques.
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June 7, 2021
Great resource on humor writing!
Gene Perret’s “The New Comedy Writing Step by Step” is a wonderful resource on humor writing. It’s full of great insights into the world of writing and preparing jokes, sketches, sitcoms, and other forms of comedy writing.
It also has some great lessons for success in life in general.
P.S. The book contains not only wonderful anecdotes, but also some sample scripts. Most of the latter are very good, but I didn’t “get” the one that appears at the very end of the book. That’s probably just me, but still...I didn’t understand why it was at all included. Otherwise, a great book!
Gene Perret’s “The New Comedy Writing Step by Step” is a wonderful resource on humor writing. It’s full of great insights into the world of writing and preparing jokes, sketches, sitcoms, and other forms of comedy writing.
It also has some great lessons for success in life in general.
P.S. The book contains not only wonderful anecdotes, but also some sample scripts. Most of the latter are very good, but I didn’t “get” the one that appears at the very end of the book. That’s probably just me, but still...I didn’t understand why it was at all included. Otherwise, a great book!
December 18, 2011
A bit disappointed in the book. it came highly recommended, but I don t feel I learned anything I didn t really know already. I liked some of his excercises and anecdotes though. It took me a while to get through itn. It was an OK read.
January 8, 2014
If you have ambitions to write comedy, this is a great primer. Perret's a comedy-writer who's written for the best of the best. He gives you step-by-step exercises that will have you writing solid stand-up material.
November 29, 2010
Some of it feels dated at times, but a great book. One of the best about comedy writing. Great ideas. Great advice. Interesting stories.
April 29, 2011
A good book for anyone that wants to learn comedy writting or stand-up.
February 28, 2012
A very good book by a guy who has seen, if not all, way more than most mortals in comedy.
Read
September 26, 2008Genius.
Read
October 10, 2010I'm reading this and thinking..."this is what I keep telling Colin!" Thanks Gene!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews