The Comedy Publication Funnel
ABG! A. Always. B. Be. G. Generating. Always be generating! (New ideas).
Sometimes we talk about comedy ideas in terms of feelings and woo: how inspired were you last week? Where and when do you do your best work? What puts you in a flow state? All that jazz.
This is not one of those posts.
Today is all about the funnel: the repeatable process of being a generative writer who ships shit.
Think of your generative process like a funnel.
Why a funnel? A funnel is the perfect metaphor: You pour lots of stuff (ideas) into the top of the funnel. And as you go down through the layers of the funnel, you lose the weak material and only the strongest, most potent stuff survives.
At the end of the funnel, you have some comedy that’s strong and shippable.
It’s work you’re proud of. We hope!
Here’s what that funnel looks like for comedy pieces, in four stages:
Stage 1 (raw idea) - The raw concepts, jokes, or headline ideas you generate
Stage 2 (vetted idea) - The vetted, promising concepts, jokes, or headlines ideas you get (from stage 1)
Stage 3 (draft) - The first drafts you write (from stage 2)
Stage 4 (final draft) - The drafts you polish into solid final drafts, using self-editing and feedback (from stage 3)
Example: In a given month, you generate 25 headline ideas (stage 1). You narrow down to your 6 favorite headlines (stage 2).
You play around with them and end up drafting 4 of them (stage 3).
Based on feedback and self-editing, you finish 3 out of 4 of those drafts (stage 4).
You ship—publish or submit—3 pieces.
That’s the funnel: 25 ideas funneled into 3 shippable drafts.
If you’re writing sketch comedy, just substitute “sketch premise” in the appropriate place above, and the funnel is otherwise the same.
If you’re writing pure jokes, it’s almost the same:
The raw joke ideas you write.
The vetted, promising jokes you like and want to use (from 1).
The jokes you edit and actually test: by posting or performing (from 2),
The jokes you keep—your best stuff (from 3).
When you’re not producing or shipping enough material, there could be lots of culprits.
But an obvious one is this: you don’t have enough input, or follow through, at some stage of the funnel.
Identify the weak stage, and we’ve identified the bottleneck.
Let’s look at each one.
1. Raw concepts
Raw concepts, headlines, jokes, or ideas are your top of funnel fuel.
Do you have too few raw ideas (headlines, jokes, concepts) at stage 1? Well, you won’t get shippable material. You need lots of options to find a good idea.
Rookie comedy writers come up with one idea and go, “okay maybe that’s funny, let me run with it.”
A better approach is to come up with 10 ideas, and pick 1 or 2.
Remember, “quantity wins.”
To do this, you must treat idea generation as part of your job.
Comedy writers should practice “ABG”—A. Always. B. Be. G. Generating. Always be generating! (New ideas).
Then pour them into the funnel.
