Writing/Making a Joke

Not everybody is able to formulate jokes. Before you’re able to do this, you have to be funny. The funniness of a joke depends solely on the teller and how it is told. But it’s not only being funny that qualifies you to write a joke; you also have to be quite imaginative. Imagination is the key and base of all jokes (both funny and unfunny). So if you’re not funny and not imaginative, I’m afraid this post isn’t meant for you. I pointed out how to know if you’re funny in one of my previous posts titled “How to Become a Comic Maven”.

Here are 7 tips to help you in the art of joke making:

1.     Take real events that happened and inject some humour in them. This form of comedy is called Anecdote.

2.     Exaggerate your stories. Making use of hyperbole when narrating a real event (in an attempt to make it funny) will definitely make it a funny joke.

3.     Use your imagination (Crucial). Imagine silly things happening and you may have a really good joke coming out of them.

4.     Make fun of yourself. Notice that comedians that have physical flaws usually use that flaw to create jokes. A fat comedian could use his fatness to create a pretty good story that’ll serve as a joke etc.

5.     Look for old popular sayings and make them into something funny. For instance: “Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are” hilariously transformed into: “Show me your face and I will tell you how ugly you are”.

6.     Don’t use direct words or phrases to make the punch line. If you saw the 2011 Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump, a perfect example what you should do is Whitney Cummings’ joke about Larry King: “ I don’t even know where to start, I guess I’ll start with Larry King because I don’t know, tick tock” It’s obvious she meant Larry King could die at any moment because he’s so old. If she had said something like “….because he may die at any second”, it would have been less funny.

7.     Avoid making the joke long. Some people take a supposed-to-be short joke into a long story, which will eventually make the audience bored. Even though the punch line may be great, the journey to it will be long and tiring. It’ll even give the audience an opportunity to go to the restroom.

Here is a link to more and advanced tips on how to create a joke and an explanation of the anatomy of a joke written by comedienne and comedy writer Jan McInnis: Anatomy of a Joke

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HOW NOT TO BE A CONVERSATION KILLER

Are you an unfunny loser who literally bores innocent humans to their untimely death? Do people fake phone calls or shoot themselves just to get away from having to speak with you? Then this is your lucky day! This blog is meant to give you the best tips and pointers to make conversations interesting and turn you from a conversation killer into a conversation sparker.

Killing conversations is quite easy for most people; making conversations interesting on the other hand is difficult still for most people. I’m a part of that remaining percentage of people who have the natural ability to keep a conversation going and interesting. How do you make a conversation interesting you ask? Well, here are some tips on how to reduce mortality rate among members of your clique:

·        Don’t take everything seriously: You’re talking with your pal, not the governor. Keep yourselves laughing and stop taking stuff seriously. I hate talking to someone who frowns all the time.

·        Always smile: Nobody would want to have a conversation with someone who looks like Osama wearing a face mask made of poop. Keep yourself jolly all the time and people will want to keep talking to you.

·        Make jokes and funny remarks: A conversation would be totally lack luster if the was nothing to laugh about. Making funny remarks every now and then will not only make a conversation interesting, but will also attract people to you.

·        Contribute substantially: A conversation involves dialogue between two or more people; some people defy that definition and let the other person keep talking and bringing up topics. This isn’t right; it should even be a serious criminal offence at par with murder. Say something to show that you’re alive, if not the victim will get bored and end the conversation.

·        Bring up interesting topics: This is a reason to read the papers and search for cool stories and events on the internet. By knowing, you can tell; by telling, you’ll be making quite an interesting conversation. They say knowledge is power, but I say KNOWLEDGE IS CONVERSATION.

·        Be silly: When in a conversation, to support tip number 3, you can make funny faces or even act dumb. This will result in a short period of laughter by both parties; and laughter indicates a great conversation.

·        Gossip a little: Gossip is one of the juiciest conversation sparkers known to man. You say only women gossip? Well you’re wrong. Talk about someone when you notice the conversation going down.

Follow these easy tips and you will notice great changes in your conversation life. You won’t have to threaten people to make them talk to you anymore.

I’m sure you enjoyed this post and I assure you that you’ll get more from The Funny Maniac..

Please leave your comments and questions and I’ll reply to them; make sure you all follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/funnymaniac

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HOW TO BECOME A COMIC MAVEN

 One thing you all should have in mind is that the ability to make people laugh is a talent just like singing and dancing. And just like singing and dancing, being funny can be propagated and perfected. Some people are funny in story writing, some are funny in speech, others in action, and you can find someone who’s funny in all three (like me). One should know how to identify and use this ability to get what he/she wants because, just like a woman’s beauty is her weapon, an individual’s sense of humour is his/her bazooka.

The three stages of being a comic maven are:

1.       Knowing if you have the talent

2.     Identifying what form of Beingfunnititis you have

3.     Identifying what form of comedy you’re good at

4.     Perfecting that form of comedy

Ø ACKNOWLEDGING THE TALENT

Being funny is also like a disease, a non-communicable disease that is sometimes hereditary (let’s call it Beingfunnititis). If you have been infected with this disease:

·        You are able to make someone laugh without even trying

·        You are able to identify boring people quickly

·        People expect you to say something funny always

Once all these 3 symptoms are observed, you now know that you have the talent.

Ø IDENTIFYING WHAT FORM OF BEINGFUNNITITIS YOU HAVE

Now, this disease can be temporary or permanent. According to my experience with people, there are 4 forms of this disease:

1.       Permanent Beingfunnititis

2.     Temporary Beingfunnititis

3.     Pseudo Beingfunnititis and

4.     Off-and-On Beingfunnititis

1.       Permanent Beingfunnititis: Under this form, the ability to be funny is permanent and is modified on a static ground. The virus begins to infect further and makes the patient funnier.

2.     Temporary Beingfunnititis: As the name implies, the patient becomes funny for a period of time, and then becomes boring permanently; or, the patient is boring then becomes funny.

3.     Pseudo Beingfunnititis: A patient under this condition seems funny to some people but can be identified as boring by people with the same disease.

4.     Off-and-On Beingfunnititis: This is an occurrence of the temporary Beingfunnititis over and over again. The person may be funny this week, next week he may become boring, the week after he’s funny and so the circle continues.

Ø IDENTIFYING WHAT FORM OF COMEDY YOU’RE GOOD AT

This is a crucial part of the journey to perfection- what to perfect. Without knowing exactly what you’re good at, you’re taking yourself back to the first stage of the transition. There are multifarious forms of comedy involving various methods of giving out humour. Your job is just to identify which one gets you the most laughs and then move on to the final stage. Here are some of the common forms of comedy:

1.       Anecdote:

2.     Burlesque

3.     Stand-up

4.     Blue

5.     Morbid

6.     Ironic

7.     Epigrammatic

8.     Juvenile/Sophomore

9.     Hyperbolic

10.   Satirical

11.     Slapstick

12.  Dry

You could also try out some of the forms in order to get the one you’re best at. Once you’ve selected and eventually go on to perfect it, you’ll see that you’ll be able to pick up other forms and perfect them. You all know the chat acronym LMAO (Laughing My Ass Out, in case some of you dimwits have no idea what it means). Well, someone who’s perfected their form of comedy can be able to literally make someone laugh their ass out. It has happened, TRUE STORY. Now we move on to the next and final stage of the transition to becoming a comic maven.

Ø PERFECTING THAT FORM  OF COMEDY

This stage involves steps that would take a while to carry out. Known to me, there are three modes of reaching out to an audience:

·        By speech (stand-up comedians e.g. Jeff Ross, Jeff Dunham and Chris Rock). Comedy by speech is divided into visual (on stage, in front of an audience) and audio (recorded speech) comic acts.

·        By writing

·        By action (Performing Artists e.g. Arnold Artkinson)

A shy person (I thought this was just a myth, but believe me, I’ve seen shy comedy material people) could go for comedy by writing or comedy by speech (audio) if they’re too afraid to go on stage;

One thing to make sure of is to know that a lot of people think you’re funny, that way, you’ll be sure that you’ve gained the laughs of different types of personalities.

Talent shows are the best places to extend your coverage and popularity. Make sure you try your best to get into a lot of talent shows. The only thing that should be in your mind when doing this is getting more people to know you and not winning. The more people know you, the more popular you’ll get; and that’s exactly what we’re looking for. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to win!

I almost forgot this important part of the journey- MAKE SURE YOU WRITE DOWN EVERY JOKE YOU MAKE UP IMMEDIATELY YOU THINK OF THEM. It’s best you have a mobile phone with a memo/notepad. AND ALWAYS PASSWORD YOUR JOKES TO PREVENT JOKE THIEVES FROM GAINING ACCESS TO THEM. Yes you read it well, there are joke thieves existing in our world. They’ve been in existence since the 7^th century. Joke thieves are people infected with the other forms of Beingfunnititis except permanent Beingfunnititis (i.e. Temporary, Pseudo and Off-and-On Beingfunnititis). These people will stop at nothing to steal your jokes in an attempt to make their Beingfunnititis permanent or last longer.

Lastly, I want to give this last advice: Never feel bad when you get silence for a joke you just told. Instead, let it be an encouragement to you.

Thanks for reading my blog and still expect more from me.

Please leave your comments and questions and I’ll reply to them, and make sure you all follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/funnymaniac

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