The Secret to Writing Humor
Posted on March 6, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | 38 Comments
This article was generously authored by Brent Diggs of the Ominous Comma. Brent is an author, blogger, and every bit as-funky-as-he-wants-to-be. Visit him at his hilarious site.
Do you know the Secret?
High in the mountains of upper Bolivia, guarded for centuries by ancient Norwegian fish herders lies the secret.
Not the mystical law of attraction that promises to manifest wealth and satisfaction into your life for a small fee, but rather the secret to unleashing smiles and even audible laughter with your written humor.
This secret, which I am about to reveal in the next five words, is none other than editing.
I will pause for the inevitable groaning.
Once you retrieve the mouse you threw against the wall in bitter disappointment, we will continue.* Yes, there are some definite challenges when it comes to writing humor. The first of which is that it is painfully difficult to do. At least if you want to do it well.
Of course this really shouldn’t come as a surprise if you think about it, considering that nearly every tool of comedy is denied to the writer.
In stand up, live comedy, comedy films, and even in conversation much of the humorous effect of any exchange is delivered by facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, and sounds; all of which team up for an interlocking assault on the audience’s collective funny bone.
But as a humble writer of prose, your humor rests almost exclusively on the power of your words. Which is why you must pick them with care and arrange them for maximum impact.
Picking Your Words
William Zinsser, in his well respected reference manual, On Writing Well, which has been in existence longer than many of the people reading this article, states that humor is the one type of writing where using a thesaurus is actually beneficial.
Although none of my work is available in a thirtieth anniversary edition, I too have found that there is a huge advantage to exploring the range of connotations and shades of meaning accessible through careful word selection.
It allows you to assume many different voices or tones in your writing and use them to sneak up on your readers while carefully concealing your punchline until the last possible minute.
Want an example? In the 7th paragraph/block of this piece I wrote that we must chose our words “…with care and arrange them for maximum impact.”
Having finished that sentence I looked up and realized that I had already used the phrase “humorous impact” in the paragraph right above it, which really diluted the power of the word “impact” by repeating it so carelessly.
So I changed that top sentence to read “humorous effect” instead, which I didn’t like as much but preserved the impact effect power strength of the overall piece.
Arranging Your Words
Much has been written about this. Dave Barry is famous for saying that he puts the funniest word at the end of a sentence and the funniest sentence at the end of a paragraph.
Try it, it works. Once you get comfortable with that rule, try breaking it.
Mix up the order of your sentences and even your phrases within each sentence until they smoothly lead the reader from one gag to the next.
A Word on Blogging for Humor
I can’t say this for sure, but the impression I get from many bloggers is that finding themselves with a funny idea and an hour before their favorite TV show, they pound out a quick post, hit publish, and hope that it will be funny.
People who are a little more serious about writing humor have a term for this sort of writing:
A rough draft.
Yes, I know that blogging is all about quick, unfiltered responses, but editing, revising, and many of the things that bloggers pride themselves on not doing are exactly the things required to be consistently funny.
In closing, everyone please bow your head and repeat with me my personal mantra: “Great humor is not written, it is rewritten.”
—–
*Those of you with wireless mice will undoubtedly take longer that the rest. Don’t worry, we’ll wait for you.
—–
Humor-Blogs.com doesn’t have a mouse anymore.
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38 Responses to “The Secret to Writing Humor”
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Humor Writing’s Greatest Secret Revealed…
Writing Humor is painstakingly difficult. There are certain advantages in doing live comedy, comedy sketches, or comedy films that are not applicable when it comes to humor writing. Losing the comedic tools of gesture, props, facial expression, vocal i…
Great advice, Brent! Now you have shared your secrets, we will all be as funny as you are, thus ending your monopoly on chuckles.
I am going to go and start work on my new blog, The Portentous Apostrophe, right now.
Go ahead and try it Andy, you’ll soon find out that I have a blanket copyright on all punctuation related entertainment.
Sorry about that.
Thank you Fiar for misplacing that restraining order long enough for me to come here.
I’m changing my name to Angry Ampersand. Wait, a minute that’s not punctuation, oh well nevermind.
Nice article!
You know you’ve just caused a stampede of sociologists, eager to be the first to document the customs of those ancient Norweigan fish herders.
And all this time, I thought it was your clever use of asterisk directed footnotes.
[...] right, a field trip to humorblogging.com where I have deposited a minty-fresh guest post upon the fine art of writing [...]
It all sounds so… cerebral.
Perhaps I’ll just stick with my unique, Freudian brand of tragedy instead of trying this “humor” schtick.
Chris C. – The ampersand is on m list of future acquisitions.
Theresa – Someday those sociologists will thank me for the exercise.
Chris non-C – The asterisk is a key part of The Magic Of Humor, it misdirects your attention while I find something funny to steal.
Wolf- All humor is Freudian, except for the Jungian stuff, but that’s an acquired taste.
I couldn’t have said it better myself Brent. And now that you have, I don’t have to, but can instead wait a few days and claim it for myself. (The other great secret of excellence in humor writing.)
Is there a class we can sign up for? I need more instruction.
I just stopped by to support my favorite humorists guest post. Great job!
)
Ann
Good points! I have been having a hellish time WRITING stories that are pants-wettingly hilarious told in person… with faces, weird voices, pantomime, gestures, sound effects, etc. This is going to take some practice.
[...] in the article. Always show calmness in your article and maintain a continuous flow. Putting some humor in article writing may make your article more interesting. Then never loose humor inside the article. Use the simplest [...]
Brent, you are dead-on with this. Sometimes I labor for 15 minutes trying to find the right word to end a sentence with. (Note to self: that wasn’t it.)
A lot of people seem to think that humor writing is about coming up with funny ideas and writing them down. When the humor doesn’t pop off the page, they add exclamation marks and CAPITAL LETTERS to show you how CRAZY they are!!!
Writing humor is all about word choice and sentence structure. You can’t get it right without editing.
[...] tuned, because soon Brent Diggs of the hilarious Ominous Comma will reveal the Secret to writing Humor, and you don’t want to miss [...]
…editing…ahhhhhhhh!!!….so that’s my problem…..
Your article was posted in the “Bringing more traffic to your blog” – 3rd Ed. Blog Carnival:
http://blogging4good.blogspot......-blog.html
Appreciate your participation.
[...] Diggs presents The Secret to Writing Humor posted at Humor [...]
I mentioned your article to my readers at Writers Who Blog.
[...] Diggs presents The Secret to Writing Humor posted at Humor [...]
I think the other issue with writing humor is that sometimes you can’t judge your own work. I have written bits that I thought were horrible but people went insane for. Then I have had things that I thought were really funny that fell flat.
Great post.
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I enjoyed this piece. Although not a humor writer I am nontheless a writer…of sorts. In person I am a whacky outgoing goofy person a bit like Star Trek “seeking out” laughter throughout the galaxy. I love people who move through life with their eyes and heart continually questing internal tickles and spreading them around as if they can’t contain them. That’s me too. Although I tend to be a serious writer I do on occassion throw out a rib twister. I really like your dry wit overlayed with your “fake attempt” (LOL) at a serious tone. You may not be aware that you do that but you do and it is GREAT!!! It is very funny and I relate to it. Although this is an extremely helpful article for any writer, humorous or otherwise, for me I still find it funny. It’s the wit mixed in with the serious tone that cracks me up. It gives the reader the impression that you are oblivious to any attempt at humor. It’s hard to explain but it sure works and I like it. Thanks for sharing. AND I totally agree with the REWRITE thing. I think that’s what all writing is about.
RainforestRobin wwww.nakedineden.com
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Very good guidelines. It is hard to write, and it probably is also very much an attitude towards life that is also involved here that can’t be taught. Count Sneaky
Sorry, I don’t know why this comment came out with the 20% between the words. But here it is without the 20%…
Very good guidelines. It is hard to write humor,and it probably is as much of an attitude toward life involved here that can’t be taught.
As you can see,the Count is not the sharpest electron in the atom. Count Sneaky
I really related to this. I TOTALLY get and naturally apply the rules of rewriting over and over; reassembling, changing the words and even the damn tittles and apostrophes until you get just the RIGHT message to yourself,when you CRACK yourself up, then can you publish that stupid thing, everyone else be damned. There’s also the endless WORDS that accumulate as you write like the deranged marquis de Sade, paragraph upon paragraph, reading it, KNOWING all of a sudden it’s way too long, and then, viola! THERE IT IS, the place you need to STOP writing, lit up like a neon sign at a sleazy bar( the end paragraph is usually located 5 pages of moronic drivel up your PC screen and you probabaly completed it over 3 hours beforehand) but you HAVE to write it all out to get it all out before YOU see for yourself the natural beginning and end. Whew! (Take a breath!) Great article!~!
Whoever you are you are absolutely corect. I hear or do something that I want to put into words and the idea is there and it takes so much time and re-writing and then it hits me and my friends tell me that they like what I write and it is funny but maybe they say this because they are my friends. Sould I have my enemies proof read my work. I am new at this so does one send in a cute story with humor and then if it is liked by you do you just steal it or comment on it?
Who can tell me if I have any talent, my mother for I know it isn’t my husband of 42yrs.
Thank you
Carole Heisman
Great tips and very refreshing tips.
Nice thinking,
It is absolutely helpful message to me.. I hope it will guide me so long way..
Thanks for sharing and giving value Ideas and Advices to me.. Keep up your good work forever..
Thanks
Phil
Brent, whats the secret to keeping things simple?
how can i be funny every day and every second
This was very informative thank you.
What’s a thesaurus? Is that some kind of “get rich quick scheme” you’re running here. Best of luck.
Todd
I ALWAYS THOUGHT A THESAURUS WAS DISTANTLY RELATED TO THE PREHISTORIC BRONTOSAURUS ROMPING THROUGH THE WRITER’S HABITAT DEVOURING DANGLING PARTICIPLES AND SPLIT INFINITIVES.
AL D.