Reddit mentions of The Serious Guide to Joke Writing: How To Say Something Funny About Anything

I’ve read a few books on comedy and none of them really stuck with me, it want until I read and listened to Neil Thornton talk about his method was I really able to start writing jokes myself, I’m not particularly funny so my jokes aren’t great but none the less this writing work book really helped me, you can find more from him around the web but this stuck out to me the most.


http://www.neilthornton.com/workbook


This book did not help me particularly write jokes but months after reading it I realized that it made me understand the structure and what happens in a brain to get from premise to the funny

https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Guide-Joke-Writing-Something/dp/1907498370

Oh, absolutely... Here's a link!

A few things:

Buy, and read a rhyming dictionary... constantly.

Research how to write jokes. A big part of freestyling is the punch lines. If your flow is killin', and your punchlines are great, you'll stand out. Remember, comedy = truth + absurdity. I don't know if this book is any good, but it's what I'm talking about when I say research. Also, listen to comedians that you like, but don't copy them. Figure out who they listened to, and listen to those people, too. http://www.amazon.com/The-Serious-Guide-Joke-Writing/dp/1907498370

Practice rapping Dr. Suess, Shakespeare, ..any poetry you can find.

Next, and I know this is crazy, but I've had someone try this and it worked.. try to rap things that don't rhyme.. read food ingredients, DVD player instructions, anything. Just make it groove.

The idea is two fold:

1. train yourself to 'load' a line, or two into your head/mind while you're rapping one. You always want your brain to be searching for the next rhyme (and punchline) while you're articulating one vocally. The idea is to 'hear ahead'.
   
   
2. train your ear not to be distracted by something you may say that throws you off, or messes with your confidence in what you're saying. A big problem with improvisation (which is really what we're talking about), is recovery from something that may throw you off your flow. Remember, nothing is a mistake unless you decide it is. If you mess up the time, stay with it, it creates tension, then resolve it appropriately. If you mess up a rhyme, extend the phrase until another resolution point presents itself, and then rhyme to resolve. You may find other rhyming points in your phrase as you do, which will allow you to have compound resolutions. To the audience, it may seem like you messed up at first, but that's just 'tension'. The multiple resolutions will resolve that tension,etc, etc.. there's a lot, but nothing you won't discover along the way. Remember, music is tension and release. Imperfect flow is like tension for "free"..
   
   One other thing.. repeating a line isn't bad. In fact, it can be awesome if you vary it a bit each time. It's actually something you should practice. It's called, "thematic development". In fact, throw out a line, and I'll respond with a variation to show you what I mean.
   
   I hope this helps.
   
   Source: serious improviser who has worked with all kinds of musicians, and asked a lot of questions.
   
   Edit: a phrase.

https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Guide-Joke-Writing-Something/dp/1907498370