A Serious Look at Comedy, Part IV

IV. The Joke's on Hugh

I'm sure you've heard the expression by now, “The secret to humor is surprise.” And it's true, especially in the joke department.

Jokes are a subset of comedy writing. They are primarily the domain of the stand-up comics and that guy who seems to be at the water cooler every time you walk by. A joke is primarily a short story with a humorous twist at the end. The problem is that you can't build a novel out of them. You can use them, but only as one of many tools.

Writing jokes can be boiled down to this simple graph:

“What does it mean?” you ask. It's not very exciting to look at, but keeping this simple graph in mind can help us when writing our jokes. The horizontal line represents the set-up; it is the expectation created in our audience's mind. The sudden 90 degree change represents the punchline that twists away from the expectation.

Here's an example by Richard Dran: “I have a rock garden. Last week, three of them died.” We're first set up to believe we are talking about a nice little ornamental display made out of rocks. When the last word, 'died', hits, its an unexpected twist that we find funny. Why? Because rocks can't die, unless you are a really, really horrible rock gardener.

Here's another example: President Obama and former presidents Clinton and Bush are all out hunting together. They discover some tracks, stop, and try to determine what animal created them. Bush says, “Those are rabbit tracks.” Clinton says, “No, no, I've seen these a lot while in Arkansas. These are deer tracks.” The two of them argue for quite a while until they decide to ask the current president for his wise opinion. Before Obama can answer, all three of them are run over by a train.

See how the misdirection works? This time, the expectation is that they are looking at tracks created by one of our cute, furry friends. Then BAM! No more presidents. There's also the element of three supposedly intelligent men being completely stupid but we'll talk more about opposites and contrasts later. It also uses the rule of three, which I'll talk about next week.

The trick is to make sure we surprise the audience. If it is too predicable, though, our audience can lose interest. I'm sure you've been to a movie or read a book where at some point you predicted what would happen next. When you predict a lot of it correctly, do you like it more or less? At the opposite end of the spectrum, if it's too hard for the audience to make the connection, we also lose.

The moral of the story: find ways to create surprise by using the sudden twist.

Over the next few weeks, we'll discuss some ways to utilize the joke formula, as well as other tools for creating our 'atmosphere of funny'.

A Serious Look at Comedy, Part III

III. Cumulative Comedy

First, some news. For today and tomorrow, the Kindle version of Delroy Versus the Yshtari is free on Amazon. You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DFM2M5Q/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk It is a sci-fi/comedy. If you don't have a Kindle or Kindle app, you can also read them on Windows and Mac computers. So, download away and enjoy.

This week, we'll explore what most comedy writing is: creating an 'atmosphere of funny'. Even though having lots of hilarious punchlines is great, it just doesn't work with novel writing like it does in stand-up comedy. We have to tell a longer story. Another name I've given this principle is 'cumulative comedy' and it works like this:

Think back to a time when you were young, say last week, when you were with a bunch of friends. You started laughing at something one of them said. Then someone adds to it, then you get your quip in, and before you know it, all of you are on the floor in danger of needing hernia surgery. Then someone walks in (another friend, mom, parole officer) and they look at all of you like you are space aliens. You, in your desire to let them in on the revelry, explain to them, step-by-step, how you ended up in your jovial circumstances. They shake their head, turn around, and leave, now knowing for sure that at least some of you are from the planet Theespeoplaridiots. What went wrong? Why didn't they join in? It could be the different sense of humor thing, but most likely not. The problem was, they were not there while the 'atmosphere of funny' was created.

You've probably seen a series of stupid cat pictures that by the end had you laughing whether you wanted to or not. Or how about that list of insurance claims:

“I was driving along the motorway when the police pulled me over onto the hard shoulder. Unfortunately I was in the middle lane and there was another car in the way.”

“I started to slow down but the traffic was more stationary than I thought.”

“I pulled into a lay-by with smoke coming from under the hood. I realised the car was on fire so took my dog and smothered it with a blanket.”

Q: Could either driver have done anything to avoid the accident? A: Traveled by bus?

“I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.”

“I was on my way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.”

“The car in front hit the pedestrian but he got up so I hit him again.”

“The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intention.”

“I had been driving for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.”

“The gentleman behind struck me on the backside. He then went to rest in a bush with just his rear end showing.”

“The pedestrian ran for the pavement but I got him.”

When a claimant collided with a cow. Q: What warning was given by you? A: Horn. Q: What warning was given by the other party? A: Moo.

You probably didn't find any of these lines by themselves to be super hilarious. At the same time, by the time you reached the end, you were probably laughing. Or at least got a good chuckle. The reason for that is because each line contributed more to the cumulative comedic effect.

Here is an example from my Big World Network series, Delroy Versus the Ysthari (did I mention it was free today and tomorrow on Amazon Kindle?). Delroy is trying to escape from an Yshtari kitchen (lobster-like aliens who think humans are delicious) before they can eat him. For better or worse, he is aided by his butler bot, Minx:

     The door opened, and I saw that obnoxious LED smile beaming down at me. “You can get out now, sir.”

     I climbed out of the oven, glaring at Minx. “What in the world do you think you're doing?”

     “I had to convince the Yshtari that you were no longer a threat.” He pointed to a bathtub-sized pot sitting on the table where they'd had me chained. “Now, please climb into that pot.”

     “What? You expect me to just hop out of the oven and into a stew pot? I don't think so.”

     “Trust me, sir, I'm trying to help you escape before the Yshtari return.”

     I looked around the kitchen. “Where are they?”

     “I convinced them to temporarily leave. Please sir, you must hurry. They'll be back soon.”

     “What are you cooking up in that addled processor of yours?” I climbed up on to the table. The pot was filled with some kind of greenish broth. It looked like snot. “I'm not getting into that.”

     “Please sir, I must insist.”

     “Why?”

     “It's the safest way I know of to smuggle you out of here.”

     “Yes, but in a broth? Can't you think of another way?”

     “Not really. After all, I am programmed for cooking, not exotic escape plans. Oh, and I'm sorry that the spirulina sauce isn't to the right consistency. I didn't have much time.”

     “Right. Whatever.” I looked back into the pot and stuck my foot in. “Brr. It's cold. I sure hope you know what you're doing.” Against my better judgment, I climbed into the cold, syrupy liquid.

     “Okay, sir, now lie down and put this apple in your mouth.” He held it out to me.

     “I don't like apples.” I shivered as I eased myself down into a sitting position in the pot.

     “It's not for you, it’s for the presentation.”

     “What present—” I couldn't finish because he jammed it into my open mouth.

     “Now relax and hold still. We only have about a minute before they return.”

     I looked at him feeling a mixture of anger and confusion. He opened up a container and picked up a brush-like utensil. “Now, hold still.” He painted a foul-smelling red sauce all over my face.

     When I couldn't take it any more, I spat the apple out and let it plunk into the liquid. It sat on top without sinking. “What are you doing?”

     For an answer, Minx picked the apple up and shoved it back in. It tasted like rotten algae. “Sir, you really need to calm down. Now hold still and look cooked.”

Another good example I've thought of is the opening scene from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams when the main character, Arthur Dent, is trying to keep the bulldozers from destroying his house. Look it up; it's worth it.

Cumulative Comedy is powerful, though, even if the jokes aren't huge. Just keep plugging away with lots of little 'jokoids' and before you know it, your audience will be ROFLAWP (rolling on floor laughing and wetting pants). Remember, everyone has a different sense of humor; when you use several smaller jokes one of them is bound to hit someone just right.

Next week's installment will be a surprise.

A Serious Look at Comedy, Part II

II. Why Writing Comedy is Easy

“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. They both die in the process.” E.B. White

How ya'll been? I hope you haven't lost too much sleep in anticipation of this week's installment.

Here is what I believe: writing comedy is easy. “Well, that's easy for you to say,” you say. “You have a natural knack for it. Unless you have the gift, it's hopeless.”

Not so, my friends. Anyone can learn to write funny, as long as you know a few principles. Being funny in real life is another matter, and I can't help you there. But writing? That's something we can work with.

Why is comedy easy? There is one important thing to remember: everyone wants to laugh. Well, everyone except maybe Mrs. Axechucker, your junior high librarian. Even though it's true that everyone has a different sense of humor, just about everyone is looking for something they can laugh at. It's natural and it feels good. When they pick up your comedic masterpiece, they are rooting for you to succeed at making them laugh. We all have to deal with stress in our daily lives and laughter is a great way to relieve it. I believe we comedy writers don't get enough credit for keeping people from going psycho after a hard day's work. Comedy saves lives.

On a side note, I remember reading about a man, Norman Cousins, who was diagnosed with an 'incurable' illness and sent home to die. He decided laughter would cure his disease, so he got a bunch of Marx brothers movies and laughed himself back to health. True story. Comedy saves lives.

I think stand up comics have done us a bit of a disservice and make us put unfair expectations upon ourselves. The good ones can get us laughing almost every time with their punch lines. It makes us think, “All my jokes need to do this, too. All of my humor needs to end with an amazing zinger that has everyone rolling on the floor.” Though that's not a bad goal, we don't actually have to do that. Humor doesn't rely upon hitting a home run each time we go to bat. It can be, and usually is, more subtle.

Here's another thing: we don't have to write the perfect joke with the first try. There's this thing called rewriting. We'll get several chances during each of our edits to improve or upgrade the joke we first wrote. Many times as I'm writing, I think, “Something funny needs to go here.” I put my brain to work on coming up with something funny, and all I get is, “spice this scene up with a llama.” Or sometimes I just write: [insert joke here]. When nothing better comes along, I'll use whatever poor, weak excuse for a joke I have. There, I put a 'funny' in, but I know I don't want to keep it. I call them 'placer jokes'. When I come back later, I see that joke and go, “Ugh.” So I try again. I may improve it, come up with a better one, or cut it. But that's the thing, we get several shots at coming up with a better line.

Related to the above point is that most jokes are garbage. They say 90% of them are crap. This is true for everyone, even the greatest comedy writers. The trick is to generate, on average, ten jokes for every one we want to use. This is what those great stand up comics do. The odds are we'll come up with an upgrade at some point. This principle applies to plotting our stories, too, which is to not necessarily go with your first thought but to brainstorm several ideas and then pick the best one.

Another thing to help overall with comedy writing is to be a comedy connoisseur. Try watching sitcoms and comedic movies. And if you want to write clean humor, watch the old classics: Leave it to Beaver, Get Smart, Bewitched, The Dick Van Dyke show, etc. Many of these shows had great humor and writing without the questionable stuff. It also can get us in a humorous mood which helps when writing comedy. And when you do find something funny to you, write it down in your comedy journal. This applies to books, too.

Lastly, don't be afraid to let other people read your stuff. This is especially true with comedy. Have several people read it and get responses from them: friends, family, writer's group/enemies. It's also interesting to note who found what to be funny. It will be different for each reader, but if no one likes a joke, that's a good indication to cut it. Often, it is better to have no joke at all than a lame one.

I learned this recently with my attempt to be the first person to write a dystopian comedy. It failed just as miserably as my attempt to write Amish science fiction. The grim mood of the novel made the attempts at humor feel wrong and out of place. As much as my internal comedian hated cutting out all the jokes, it improved the story immensely when I did.

So, don't despair my fellow comedians. In the next articles, we'll explore some concepts and techniques we can use to create an 'atmosphere of funny'. And always remember, comedy saves lives.

A Serious Look at Comedy, Part I

I. “Why is Writing Comedy So Hard?”

“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” –Edmund Kean on his deathbed.

I was at a writing conference once where I kept hearing several different instructors and attendees complain about how hard it was to write comedy. I kept thinking, “What do they mean? Comedy is easy. It's a lot easier than writing that drama stuff.” Nevertheless, a lot of writers I talk to feel that comedy is hard to do. I hope to show through this series of articles that comedy is not hard. It's actually easier than we think

.

Why do we feel it's so hard? Well, here are a few reasons:

The biggest hurdle we have to get over is that everyone has a different sense of humor. We've all had that experience where we hear a joke that we think is hilarious. We can't wait to tell someone, and when we do, it flops. Doesn't do much for our joke-telling self-confidence, does it? Was it a bad joke? Did we suck at the delivery? Or is it just that our funny bone is broken? Usually, it's none of the above. What might be funny to you can seem stupid or cheesy or gross to someone else. But, trust me, there is someone out there who will also think the joke is funny. You're not alone. Bottom line is, no one can write the ultimate joke that everyone will think is funny. It has only happened once, during World War II, as we learned from a very informative documentary done by the highly reputable news source called Monty Python. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3k7hKCdPcI

It also can be a bit of a challenge to make a funny joke that is not predictable. When people do predict the punchline, it isn't funny to them. In the chess match between us and our reader, we've lost when that happens (same with plot, by the way). It's bound to occur sometimes because every reader is different, but as long as it doesn't happen too frequently, we'll be okay. We see this a lot in the older sitcoms, and their technique to get us to laugh was to throw a laugh track in. I hate those things. To me, the modern equivalent is writing 'LOL' at the end of a line. Just make the joke and let people either enjoy it or not. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox.

Another obstacle for some of us is wanting to keep the humor clean. Have you noticed how a lot of the young comedians tend to rely upon rude and crude humor to get their laughs? Even our older comedians like Robin Williams and Steve Martin tended toward the raunchy side of humor in their early days until they learned to add more comedic weapons to their arsenals. Why do so many gravitate toward crude jokes? It's easier to surprise your audience and get a laugh. After all, they say the secret to comedy is surprise. When we don't want to use the dirty joke option, it takes away one of the easier tools. It means there's more of a learning curve for clean comedians. 

Here are some of the tools used on the darker side of comedy:

*Foul language

*Sex jokes

*Gross out/crude

*Insults

Does it mean we can't use them? No, but when we do we run the risk of offending more people. Some comedians believe that to write good comedy you have to be willing to be offensive. I personally don't think that is necessary, though I do admit to using some of the 'dark side'. I am committed to not using foul language but I do have swearing in the form of made up words or 'he swore'. I totally avoid sex jokes. There's plenty of that out there and I don't believe in going that route. Crude humor I usually avoid, but have been guilty of slipping in an occasional flatulence reference. And insults? Well, I use that a lot, for better or worse. It's also been a main staple in sitcoms since the beginning. I'll talk more about this when we get into making characters feel awkward. But I believe it's possible to write comedy that totally avoids this list if you want. It's been done for centuries.

Next Thursday, we'll talk about why comedy writing is actually quite simple. Until then, keep it funny.

Cleaning out the Cobwebs

Yes, I know, a lot of dust has gathered here. It's not that I have nothing to blog about, but trying to keep up on writing novels and serial stories takes precedent over whether or not I blog. And usually, I don't have anything really new to contribute. However, I've had an idea to start a blog series for a while now (I've warned you about this) about writing comedy. Well, I'm finally ready to start putting articles up. Beginning tomorrow, I'll be putting an article up on Thursdays or Fridays (depending upon my schedule) of each week exploring different facets of comedy writing.

Why, you ask? Well, there isn't a lot out there about humor writing. Also, I just put together a presentation that I did for 'Life, the Universe, and Everything' in Provo, Utah last week called 'A Serious Look at Comedy'. Now, I don't claim to be a total expert on this, but I've had some experience and done some research on this and I believe anyone can write comedy if they know some of the tricks.

So be patient and wait for tomorrow. I know, it will be hard and some of you won't sleep tonight because of the excitement, but hang in there. And if you have questions or ideas, let me know. Until then, keep on laughing.

Review: Penumbras by Braden Bell

For starters, I'm going to announce here that I soon plan to put up several articles about how to write comedy. My goal is to get those started by September, so if you don't see anything by then, remind me because I get easily distracted. But for this week, I have a review for you.

Penumbras, the sequel to Braden Bell's middle-grade fantasy The Kindling, is a fun book that can carry readers, young and old, through an exciting new world of mayhem, magic, and middle school. It continues the tale of three thirteen-year-olds, twins Connor and Lexa Dell and their friend Melanie Stephens (who has a super-cool last name), as they come to grips with their “kindling”. When they kindled, they discovered that they had command of various magic powers and the ability to talk to each other through a kind of telepathy.

The story continues when they are on a field trip and, as usual around these three kids, things get a little wonky. Here's a blurb from the book:

Connor Dell didn't mean to blow up the school bus.
Or the bathrooms.
In fact, he only wanted to go to sleep and possibly dream about Melanie Stephens.
But explosions had a funny way of happening when Connor and his friends were around.

Connor Dell wants to be good--he really does. But he is terrified that he might be turning into a Darkhand, especially when new powers start to surface. What's worse, the Stalker is following Connor, but no one else seems to be able to see him. The Magi think he might be hallucinating, the guilt of what happened in the Shadowbox keeps weighing on him, and his relationship with Melanie Stephens is complicating things. Even for a Magi, Connor knows is life is anything but normal. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I like stories with lots of action but that also show us growth in the characters. This book does both. Not only that, it is a clean read and I have no reservations about recommending it for any age.

The main character arc belongs to Connor Dell as he struggles with the age-old question of whether he is turning evil or not. Will he be able to do good even when more and more “Darkhand” powers are manifesting themselves within him?

And then there's Lexa's growth that happens at the end of the book. At first, she seemed a little obnoxious. Finally, something happened to her that I've been through many times myself. I completely knew the feelings that she was going through. I've also been in the same position as Dr. Timberi, their mentor, and have had to make hard decisions when choosing between students. I know I'm being vague, but you'll have to read it for yourself to see what I'm talking about. Let's just say that Braden did an excellent job of setting up the situation and creating a powerful emotional experience. Whether you're in music or not, though, there is a powerful lesson there about how we treat people and deal with our disappointments in life.

I recommend both the first book, The Kindling and now the sequel, Penumbras, to any reader who likes action, character development, and a clean read that provides good morals. I should mention that the story arc for the book is complete, but it also ends on a cliffhanger. Now we have to wait for the third book. 

Okay, Braden, no vacation time for you until it's done. You hear me?

Show me the evidence - Common Core

I generally try to stay away from hot topics in my public dealings. It's not that I don't have opinions, it's just that I want to keep my relationships civil. Getting into political topics often opens up a lot of emotions that can injure friendships, which I don't want to do (which is mainly because I have a personality that doesn't like conflict). But there are times when I feel like certain things need to be heard and I don't feel like the message is getting out there. Of course, I know I don't have a huge influence on the world, but if I can at least spread the information to a few more people, I've done something.

Okay, here's my beef. It's this thing that the government wants to push upon our kids called Common Core. Now, I'm not an expert on this, but I'm hearing many things that concern me. Instead of getting into the nit-picky details, though, I thought I'd talk about my three main concerns about it.

#1. If this is such a great new educational system for our kids, why did the government try to sneak it through without parental feedback? When they've tried to install this under our noses, this raises many red flags for me. Why does this have to be put through so quickly? I just saw a video the other day of one of our local school officials who had no idea this was even being implemented until this year. Shouldn't they, of all people, have had some kind of heads up from their higher-ups? So, let's slow down and get a look at what Common Core entails before whole-hardheartedly subjecting our children to it.

#2. Money. How much is this going to cost the taxpayers? They haven't told us yet. They are only charging us a little bit at a time. So far, our school district has only budgeted $54,000 for teacher training on Common Core. Looking at the overall budget, that doesn't seem like much, but what about all the new text books and computer systems that will be needed to implement this? How much is that going to raise our taxes? By my humble estimation, it will probably be in the thousands of dollars per classroom. Add up all the classrooms (which I have no idea how many there are in our district) and I'm sure we will be into the millions of dollars. Who's paying for this? Oh yeah, we are. Did we get a say in it? No. If nothing else, that's taxation without representation. It seems like I remember that as being something that really ticked off our founding fathers.
[Addendum: I heard that the feds want to add a $5 per line tax to all phone lines as a way to help offset the cost. How much will that impact your family now?]

#3. We don't even know if this new educational system will work. Have they tested it? Not really. And what little testing they did in New York turned out disastrous. They want to overhaul our whole educational system because they have a new theory? Shouldn't it be tested first to prove that the system is better? You'd think so. An analogy I thought of is this: what if someone had a theory that sucking on swamp water would cure cancer. Without testing it first, they get government approval to scrap all other cancer treatments and initiate a nationwide mandate that all people doing cancer treatments now have to suck on swamp water. Does that sound smart? Who knows, maybe sucking on swamp water will cure cancer, but shouldn't we test it on a smaller scale first to make sure it works before making everyone have to do it?

Now, I'm not even getting into the other details. Things like data mining, tracking, and potential emotional damage to children. The materials that are coming to light also seem bent on breaking family ties apart and teaching a specific political agenda.

This is what I call on all parents to do: get informed. Get involved. Maybe after you do some research, you might feel this is the best thing for your kids. Fine, but at least find out what our government has planned for them. No responsible parent should be unaware of what their children are learning in school. Find out about Common Core and see if it meets your family's needs. And if it doesn't, let your voice be heard before it's too late.

Here are a few websites that have more info, some for and some against:
http://truthinamericaneducation.com/
http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/
http://www.corestandards.org/
http://www.scholastic.com/commoncore/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_State_Standards_Initiative