This is just one of a series of articles I’m writing on performing and developing comedy material either for your own performance or for sale to another comedian. There are many types of comedy that can be performed and certainly there is always room for a unique spin on any of these forms.
A most common type of comedy is observational comedy where a comic will take a basic premise like how expensive the cost of a drink at a movie theater is and then expand on that premise. Almost all type of comedy relies on an exaggeration of some basic truth. Like, you could say, “I didn’t have much money so I only ordered a small. 3 more monthly payments and that baby’s mine!” People will laugh both because they recognize how expensive theater concessions are and because of the exaggeration comparing it to a car payment. Most comedy is usually a comparison of one item or situation to another. Some comparisons are just more sophisticated where you might take the same concept of the over-priced theater drink and make a mini-skit where some well-known or made-up character is ordering a drink at a theater, like perhaps Lincoln is getting a Coke at the Ford Theater and is arguing over the cost and this is what upset John Wilkes Booth or perhaps he misses his opportunity because Lincoln is at the concession stand. You get the idea.
Puns, riddles, poems, songs, and one-liners are various tools a comedian or comedy writer has at his disposal. A writer can write banter for a duo or a ventriloquist and his dummy which is basically playwriting with minimal props and backgrounds. Prop comedy is something that can be written as well. The first thing to know is whether you are writing for yourself or another comic, what type of material you need to write. With some many types of comedy and ways to present material, you must know what fits the comic in question. First, is there any topic that is off-limits or inappropriate. George Carlin and Richard Pryor had no problem with topics most might consider taboo while Bill Cosby or Jerry Seinfeld might prefer more family-friendly fare. Knowing what topics and words are acceptable is highly important. Knowing a comic’s style is key. Rodney Dangerfield primarily used one-liners loosely connected by a common theme while Bill Cosby prefers more of a story-telling approach. In the case of Bill Cosby, if you wrote down and read most of his material, it would be very funny. It is Bill Cosby’s delivery, mannerisms, and vocal affectations that make his material work. The material still has to be written and rehearsed to work effectively. Bob Newhart would use skits like a phone call from Lincoln to his agent which if written down would still read as quite funny because of the absurd premise and the particular dialogue used.
There are some many topics to choose from and some obviously have been overdone. For me, I will make a list of several topics that interest me. Writing down a list will commit it to memory and help your mind start panning for comedic gold. If you are like most people a joke or a premise will strike out of the blue, while sleeping, driving, waiting in line, listening to your boss drone on but I have found I can sit down with a series of starters, if there are no other distractions, and write on cue. I feel this is a learned behavior anyone can acquire with practice. I enjoy writing one-liners and use a very simple work process. I may write down “starters” like, “She’s so ugly that…”, “She’s so fat that…”, etc. then I will write done potential “finishers” as absurd as possible like anything I feel is absurd like “Henry the VIII”, “Oompa Loompas”, “Green M & M”, “Mr. Spock’s ears”, or whatever. I will then start “matching” the starters with the finishers spending time on each one to see if anything then “connects” the two, like “She’s so fat that she makes Henry the VII look like a smurf with anorexia.” Now that’s a joke I might not be satisfied with but think I am on to something so I will jot it down and go onto another one. After I have several I like I will go back and rework them. Some may never make the cut but there are many jokes that may end up completely different but work tremendously but all because of the underlying foundation of work. Usually you want a one-liner to be short and powerful but sometimes a longer one can work. The “Henry the VII” joke for example could work but obviously the problems with it is Henry the VII is a dated historical figure, the smurfs haven’t been on TV for years, and anorexia is an over-used theme. This isn’t to say it wouldn’t work but it could use some tweaking. One successful line of mine is “This girl was so redneck, her vagina had a mullet!” This works because it is taboo, unexpected, and mullets are just funny and certainly not something you’d match up with a vagina.
The best advice I can give any comedian or comedy writer is too avidly study all types of comedy and comedy writing, both good and bad. It’s just at important to know how not to tell a joke as how to tell one. I have learned a lot from “bad” comics, including myself when a joke or performance didn’t “WOW” the audience. Many times, it is just the delivery or an “economy of words” issue. Finding the right words and right number of words is important to any joke. It is always important to have proper set-up for a joke. Just having a punchline without proper build-up is like getting married on a blind date. It’s more successful if you know what you are in for. The big danger of one-liners is they must be strong since they are the whole joke. With storytelling comics, you have several funny or humorous points throughout to be successful and if one point doesn’t work, then you have reinforcements. The audience doesn’t like to hear a long monologue to get to one joke. If it doesn’t work, it’s hard to win them back. With one-liners, at least they are short so you can move on quickly to the next opportunity. As a writer, you must play around a lot with all of the different forms of comedy to find your strengths. Just because you might have a weakness with one form, keep studying good examples of that form and that will eventually help you find the proper voice in your head for that type of comedy.
