“Brevity is the soul of wit.” — Shakespeare, Hamlet
“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.” — Voltaire
“Often, cutting is the best answer.” — Jack Handey
Welcome to day 5 of The 21 Day Comedy Writing Challenge.
New to The Challenge? Start here. And here’s every Challenge post.
Today we’re talking conciseness.
Being concise is a cornerstone of comedy writing.
Like I said in my Humor Writing Cheat Sheet, not being concise is a funny writing mistake.
Good humor writing is tight. There are no wasted words.
Always ask: “Do I need this? Are these words advancing my premise? Is this actually funny?” Then cut, cut, cut.
You may have noticed that a lot of my replies in the Challenge comments section this week contain some form of: “you could shorten this.”
That’s no coincidence.
Many headlines and joke drafts are too long. The writer hasn’t cut them down to their elemental size.
But it’s easy to misunderstand what “be concise” means. You could think it means, “The funniest writing is always short and spare.”
No, not exactly.
A lot of funny writing is tight and spare. But some fun writing is more flowery. Those are stylistic choices, and either option, or anything in between, is fine.
For example, if you have a character monologue with a character who’s verbose and grandiloquent, the voice will be more wordy. (Think of Ignatius Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces.)
Rather, “be concise” means this: you should trim words, phrases, and sentences that aren’t necessary to your joke. As Strunk & White said in The Elements of Style, “Omit needless words.”
My advice today is that when you play with your comedy idea—a premise, a joke, a headline, or whatever—try making it shorter and shorter and shorter.
Keep going until the idea actually becomes less funny. Then jump back a step.
At some point, if you keep trimming, you’ll cut some necessary part of the joke. And that’s where you stop cutting.
Trim until you reach the point where everything that’s left—every single word—is needed for the joke.
Try it out!
Featured Favorites…
I shout out my favorite work from all of you, The Challengers.
My favorites from Wednesday’s comment thread pitches…
Humor Headline: “Polyamory Pitfalls: Turns Out My Parents Only Had Room in Their Hearts for One Boyfriend” by
Humor Headline: “Quiz: Clown-Car Salesman or Clown Car-Salesman?” by
Humor Headline: “Your Conference Gift Is This Reusable Piece of Landfill” by
Humor Headline: “The Ship of Theseus Wouldn’t Have Created a Paradox if It Had Just Been Built Ford Tough” by
Humor Headline: “Nothing about Our 10-Year Siege of Troy Has Worked, but What about a Giant Wooden Horse” by
Joke: “My mom is the ultimate helicopter parent. I’m forty years old and she still cuts my lines of cocaine for me.” by Dina Rodrigues |
Joke: “Polyamory is like a group project. You spend more time arguing about scheduling than actually doing it.” by
Joke: “The last girl who dumped me tried to be nice about it. She said, "It’s not you, it’s me … who hates you. And also your roommate. Who I’m sleeping with.” by
Sketch Premise: “A guy wrestles a baseball from a kid on the jumbotron. He gives it back, but the crowd is booing him and the commentators are harassing him. He apologizes, he gives the kid money in his wallet, eventually the shirt on his back, and then starts signing over aspects of his life (with a lawyer suddenly present), donating a kidney, etc to make amends.” by
Awesome work. Keep ‘em coming!
Last Free Challenge Post
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Comedy Examples
Today, let’s look at some creative examples of tight joke writing.
Humor Piece: Letters Of The Alphabet, Renamed With The Same Logic As The Letter W by Molly Henderson
A highly clever premise that lends itself to super short jokes. The setup of each joke is one letter long.
Sketch: “Z Shirt” with Kevin Hart and Tim Robinson.
Such a simple, funny premise. The acting sells it. The escalation here is emotional. My favorite sketch that’s under 90 seconds.
Stand-up: Steven Wright Delivers In This Fantastic First Appearance
Wright is the prince of tight one-liners. Can you cut any words from his jokes? No!
Prompt of The Day
Bad Advice: Pick a topic you know a lot about, or where you have a good amount of life experience. Give someone terrible advice on that topic.
(Note: Prompts are optional, in case you want a specific topic for your daily ideas. Feel free to ignore the prompt.)
Your Turn
Stay accountable. Post your Challenge comedy ideas in the comments section.
Remember, you can post up to 5 ideas for feedback, as a list.
If you post, give some feedback in return!
Humor piece headlines. Which one(s) should I write?
1. How People Told Time Before They Knew Time Existed
2. Is It A Genie, Or Just Some Asshole Who Lives In A Lamp?
3. It’s Crazy How Much Money You Have To Make Just To Have Any Money
4. Whoops, I Woke Up 7 Hours Too Late Again
5. Kafka’s Asbestos Factory
DAY 5 LET'S GO. here are my headlines:
1. 9 Business Tips From Your Local Lemonade Stand Kids
2. You’ve Been Cooking Your Ice Cream All Wrong
3. A 10-Course Meal Curated by the Cast of Jackass
4. Wilderness Survival Tips From the Ghost of Steve Irwin
5. I’m Your Mom’s Minivan and Boy Have I Seen Some Shit