By Sarah Garfinkel & Julie Vick
Interested in strengthening your funny bone?
Whether you want to write a short conceptual humor piece, infuse a serious essay with moments of humor, or just send an impressively funny text, these reliable techniques can get you started.
The Rule of Three
This popular comedic device is based on the idea that words and ideas are funnier in threes. The first two ideas set up a pattern; the third idea deviates from the pattern in a way that surprises and delights the reader. One way to do this is making the first two items in the list relatively serious or straightforward, then breaking the tone with a sillier third item.
From Phoebe Robinson's Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes:
Being from the Midwest and attending a private Catholic prep school, even though I'm not religious, meant a lot of things—having a sense of humility, caring about the greater good, eating at Wahlburgers more often than I care to admit to…
The silliness and unexpectedness of the third idea are supported by the setup of the first two ideas.
Hyperbole
Heightening is critical to humor writing, and especially funny when describing internal thoughts and emotions. Especially when they are embarrassing.
In comedian Samantha Irby's Wow, No Thank You, she describes the difficulties of making friends as an adult:
"I'm gonna friend you on Facebook!" I blurted at the back of her red shirt and mom jeans, feeling my bones weaken and my arteries calcifying as I aged forty years in one second.
Did Irby actually age 40 years all at once? Of course not. But the description matches the writer's feelings in the moment, not her literal physical experience. The hyperbolic description lets the reader experience the cringe factor with Irby—and recall an embarrassing moment of their own.
Funny/Weird/Specific Details
A lot of writing can be punched up by using specific words and details. Hard consonant sounds are often funnier (eating with a spork is funnier than eating with a spoon) and specific quirky details can often lead to laughs.
In Wow, No Thank You, Irby also writes:
And I hear you — how could a person who still has a blog on Al Gore's Internet in the year of our Lord 2020 possibly delude herself into thinking that she is notorious enough to be recognized in a mid-priced sushi chain in Kalamazoo, Michigan?
Just writing "restaurant" wouldn't have had the same funny specificity as "mid-priced sushi chain in Kalamazoo, Michigan." Describing something with a specific detail works well, especially if it paints a funny image in your reader's mind.
Funny Comparisons
Simile and metaphor are often used in serious writing and those same devices can be used for comedic effect. Funny comparisons can be unexpected or relatable (or both). They can pull a reader into a scene, provide imagery, or reference anything from pop culture to obscure moments in history.
In comedian Jim Gaffigan's Dad is Fat:
I explained what it was like having a fourth kid very simply: imagine you are drowning…and then someone hands you a baby.
In The New Yorker, humorist David Sedaris describes his sister's perfume as,
A combination of five different scents, none of which is flowery or particularly sweet, it leaves her smelling like a strange cookie, maybe one with pencil shavings in it.
Alexandra Petri's A Field Guide to Awkward Silences is a gold mine of funny comparisons. She describes her singing voice:
I could hold a tune, but only the way you hold a stranger's cat: not closely and not long (not to mention the strange yowling noises).
End on a Joke
How many times have you heard "save the best for last"? This is especially true for humor writing. Formatting choices can make a reader skim over a joke or pause to belly laugh. As much as possible, put the best part of the joke at the end of the sentence/paragraph/essay. Building to the funniest part is a great way to engage (and surprise) the reader. And what is humor without surprise?
Author Courtney Maum builds up to a joke in this essay about publishing a first book:
You know that people are entitled to read books you haven't written because you've been reading those other books your entire life…. You're aware of this. You're just not sure why your friend's mommy blog post about perfect gift ideas for 2-year-olds didn't include a link to your first novel is all.
Analyze Comedic Pieces
Find a piece that you find funny and take a highlighter to it. Examine the spots that make you laugh. What techniques did the writer use? Was there a specific funny word choice or a humorous aside or commentary?
Looking at the underlying techniques in a piece can help you create your own humorous writing. You can also notice these devices in other types of comedy, like stand-up or sitcoms. And we promise—absorbing any kind of humor absolutely counts as writing time.
Julie Vick has written humor for New Yorker Daily Shouts, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and Real Simple; and most importantly, one of her tweets once appeared in In Touch Weekly. She is the author of the humorous advice book for introverted parents, Babies Don't Make Small Talk (So Why Should I?) and is an English instructor at the University of Colorado Denver. Read more of her work at julievick.com
Sarah Garfinkel's writing has been featured in New Yorker Daily Shouts, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Electric Literature, and The Rumpus, where she is an assistant editor of the Funny Women column. She has taught writing at Harvard University and Columbia University. She also leads humor writing workshops for teens and adults. Read more of her work at sarahgarfinkelwriting.com.
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