The Definitive Joke Writing Handbook
Learn comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes.
See why Amazon reviewers call How to Write Funny "one of the best books on comedy writing" and "one of the best books on humor writing."
Author Scott Dikkers will show you how to write jokes. He’s a master joke writer, founder of the world’s most popular humor site TheOnion.com, #1 New York Times and #1 Amazon best-selling humor author, professional public speaker, and successful cartoonist. Scott created and leads The Onion” Training Center at the famed Second City in Chicago. His students have been hired for the top comedy writing jobs in TV and won dozens of Emmy Awards. He’s consulted with top entertainment companies like NBC, Comedy Central, and Pixar.
This easy-to-follow guide lays out a clear system and simple formula for how to write a joke that will get big, milk-coming-out-of-your-nose laughs, reliably and repeatably.
You'll learn...
• The 3 sure-fire ways to generate funny text
• The 11 different “Funny Filters” and how to use them to write jokes
• The secret to getting rid of writer's block—permanently
• And many more humor writing tips, tricks, and techniques
Table of Contents
1 IntroductionUse the techniques in this book to reliably create top-notch humor writing (page 11)
2 Your Brain’s Comedy Engine
Access both hemispheres of your brain to eliminate writer’s block and tap an endless reserve of comedy ideas (page 21)
3 The Humor Writer’s Biggest Problem
Overcome this one devastating obstacle to reach the widest possible audience (page 29)
4 How To Get Laughs
Understand the different kinds of laughs, and how to generate the best one (page 43)
6 The Secret Ingredient
Infuse your humor with this vital component to create writing that makes people laugh (page 57)
6 The 11 Funny Filters
Create any joke using the 11 fundamental building blocks of humor (page 67)
Funny Filter 1: Irony (page 68)
Funny Filter 2: Character (page 70)
Funny Filter 3: Shock (page 76)
Funny Filter 4: Hyperbole (page 80)
Funny Filter 5: Wordplay (page 83)
Funny Filter 6: Reference (page 88)
Funny Filter 7: Madcap (page 92)
Funny Filter 8: Parody (page 90)
Funny Filter 9: Analogy (page 100)
Funny Filter 10: Misplaced Focus (page 104)
Funny Filter 11: Metahumor (page 106)
7 Using The Funny FiltersLayer the building blocks to create increasingly hilarious jokes (page 113)
8 Process OverviewMaster this simple system to become a prolific humor writer (page 137)
If you've wondered how you can start writing jokes, how to tell jokes to your friends, how to add humor to your writing, how to add jokes in a speech, or how to add humor to your presentation, this book spells out the simple joke writing formula professionals use.How to Write Funny is for you whether you want to find a comedy writing job or just want to learn how to tell a joke.
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Scott Dikkers is a founding editor of The Onion and #1 New York Times best-selling author. He co-wrote and edited The Onion's Our Dumb Century, which has sold more than a half-million copies and was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He heads up the "Writing with the Onion" training program at The Second City in Chicago.
