… timing. Truly, I think this this is what makes writing funny more difficult than performing funny. In a performance, you can hold for a split-second to be sure the audience is following before hitting them with the punchline. Then, you can stop, start, speed up, slow-down, repeat, change your inflection, or pull the escape hatch with your joke based on the immediate feedback you’re audience gives you. With prose in print, you’ve given up that control–leaving you only two weapons: word choice and punctuation . . . and you have almost no control over when or how it will hit your reader.
Scott Dikkers acknowledges that in How to Write Funny, and offered a few tips. Don’t be afraid to PUSH or stress for emphasis. It’s OK to break. things. up. with punctuation. Offer
- Bullet Points
- for
- Clarity
- or Emphasis.
Because timing . . . is everything. And you’ve got a limited weapons cache with prose.
I’ve been reading–and attempting to write–funny. The former is easier than the latter, and it is surprisingly rare to find a book that makes you laugh out loud. It takes more time to set-up the joke in literature than it does using quick visuals or physical humor seen in film and television. Scott Dikker’s book How to Write Funny attempts to offer a recipe. (Dikkers is the founder of The Onion.) In his book, Dikkers’ mentions a quote from E/B. White: “Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process.” It was a good choice: his book isn’t funny, but there were a few interesting tips I’ll share. You can learn more about Dikkers and his writing in GoodReads. And if you know of any books that made you laugh out loud, let me know!
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