Session #5
5.3 – How to Write Like Jim Gaffigan
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Course Objectives
Spot contradictions, irony and unexpected connections hiding inside everyday observations.
Learn to dig deeper and develop multiple punchlines from a single idea.
Extend your punchlines, generate additional laughs and tie ideas together.
Instructor:
Jerry Corley
Lesson information
🎭 5.3 - How to Write Comedy Like Jim Gaffigan
Jim Gaffigan is known for observational comedy, but what makes his writing so effective is what he does after he finds the observation.
He takes familiar situations, identifies their nuances and inconsistencies, exaggerates them, changes perspectives, compares seemingly unrelated ideas and brings those ideas to life through characters and act-outs.
Then he keeps digging.
Rather than settling for the first joke in a premise, Gaffigan can take one simple idea and wring it out for everything it's worth—finding additional punchlines, tags, act-outs, callbacks and new perspectives.
You'll examine how he builds jokes from a simple Topic → Angle → Punchline, and how changing the angle—sometimes to the cynical, opposite or unexpected interpretation—can completely change where the joke goes.
You'll also explore one of Gaffigan's signature techniques: stepping outside the joke through asides and his "voice of conscience," allowing him to comment on his own material and sometimes beat the audience to the punch.
The objective isn't to imitate Jim Gaffigan.
It's to understand the tools underneath his comedy so you can add them to your own comedy-writing toolbox.
If you like this course, DON'T MISS THIS ONE...
How to Write Like George Carlin
Learn how George Carlin turned outrage, hypocrisy, and brutal honesty into unforgettable comedy. This course breaks down the tools behind his sharp observations, layered logic, and fearless point of view and 'unassailable truth' so you can write smarter, deeper, harder-hitting material.
Special offer only $49
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