What are some simple techniques for comedy writing?

Photo by Michel Grolet on Unsplash

From a stand-up comedy perspective, I’ve learned a lot from:
- Mike Bent’s Everything Guide to Comedy
- Jay Sankey’s Zen and the Art of Stand-up Comedy.

In simplest terms, comedy writing is a genre of writing that is intended to be funny. There’s much more to it than that, but first and foremost, the chief goal is to make the audience laugh.

“Comedy writing is something you don’t see people doing. It’s a secretive thing.”

— Jerry Seinfeld

As Seinfeld suggests, comedy writing is a very secretive thing. One reason why is because most comedy writers feel like their material has to be perfect before it’s presented.

Think about it this way: let’s say you write a dramatic stage play. There’s no way to tell if the audience hated it – except if they fell asleep, then I’d say it’s fair to say they hated it. Now let’s say you write a comedic play. If the audience doesn’t laugh at the jokes, then you know they hated it.

You know, they know, everybody knows – a joke that doesn’t land is a special type of shame. It’s for this reason that comedy writing can feel so personal. The most important thing to remember is that nobody is funny 100% of the time, but by taking inspiration from some of the best, we can improve our craft.

Tips and tricks for writing comedy:

Here are five great tips for writing a comedy scene:

1. Take a typical situation and exaggerate it
2. Let tension build
3. Use specificity
4. Embarrass someone
5. Finish with a bang

Now let’s see how Meet the Parents utilizes these five strategies.

• Greg is visiting his girlfriend’s family. This is a typical situation – and at some level, it’s something we can all relate to. But it’s exaggerated by Jack’s CIA background.
• Say you’re the writer of a story like Meet the Parents and you have a great structural conflict between two characters (Jack and Greg) – how do you take that tension and build it? Well, start by putting the two characters in close proximity.
• Specificity is a double-edged sword in comedy writing. Notice how Greg is wearing Jack’s pajamas with the little JB insignia on the chest-pocket? That’s funny. Notice how there are a bunch of pictures of Jack undercover in the CIA? That’s funny. And it’s funny because it’s not forced on us.
  Jack embarrasses Greg by asking him uncomfortable questions. Situationally, this is funny, and it’s elevated by Robert De Niro’s great deadpan delivery.
• Like Jerry Seinfeld said, always save the best joke for last. It’s an expectation in comedy writing that you’re going to end with a bang. In this scene from Meet the Parents, it’s when Jack asks Greg if he watches porn.

So while we see a character catch us out the first time, we can’t see the character again and still feel the same way. It was the same for me, as a TV wrestling fan, seeing comedy wrestlers like Les Kellett and Catweazle. At first, they come across as polite and willing to shake hands with everybody, later on, not so much… The comedy was in the put-downs of their opponents and even the referees didn’t escape their jokes.

So while writing is typing text on paper, the human mind visualises ideas and plays these out and embellishes them with wit and wiles, just to make us laugh. It’s a business for some and a pastime for others. Sometimes the comedians go home and can’t switch off being funny even there. They wisecrack all the time. It’s like they know the gift or talent is so strong that they must always be open to it. Pretty soon, another idea is developed and becomes a masterpiece shared with millions.

It’s the editing stage that is paramount. That’s where the real magic is going on!