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How to Write Quick and Easy Jokes for Father’s Day

So how do we "come up" with a joke intentionally? Joan Rivers was one of the fastest, funniest comedians EVER. When I say "ever" I mean EVER! She was faster than Robin Williams. Faster than Groucho Marx, two of the fastest comedians alive at the time. She did this by doing deliberate writing every day. One of the ways she did it was to...
by Jerry Corley
trying to write jokes but getting stuck
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Trying to Write Jokes, but Feeling Stuck?

So you're writing and you get a premise down on the page and then... it just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Does this happen to you?

I was Skype-coaching with one of my students today and he said, I've been trying to write, but I keep feeling like I'm getting stuck."

It can be super frustrating, especially when you’re just writing to put something, ANYTHING, on the page.

So how do you take that idea and make it into something?

Here's a sure-fire way to develop that idea further to get to the jokes.

by Jerry Corley
misconceptions on comedy writing
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Another Common Misconception About Writing Your Comedy

In the vast horizon of possibilities of where comedy can come from, why would anyone who's taken any time to study this art make such a definitive and limiting statement about comedy?

Not only that, just look around! Jerry Seinfeld, "What is it with bugs?!" or "I don't know if horses really know they're racing. I think horses are sitting at the starting gate going, 'I know there's a bag of oats at the end of this and I wanna get there first.'"

Does that sound like it comes from the depths of Seinfeld's soul?

Or take Anthony Jeselnik: "The best way to break up with a girl is like I take off a band-aid, slowly and in the shower."

Depths of his soul? Or just a incongruous association joke about breaking up with a girl?

Of course there are pieces the "depths of the soul" comment that make sense. It's cathartic to talk about things that are deep and you have an emotional connection to. But how limiting is that statement?

It's missing something, like, where the laugh comes from!

by Jerry Corley