You wrote a joke. You have a premise and a punchline. You tell it and… nothing.
Here’s what nobody tells you upfront: most jokes don’t work the first time you write them. Even the pros throw away more material than they keep. So if your joke bombed, let’s figure out why and fix it.
Your Premise Is Too Vague
You think you have a premise, but what you actually have is a topic. “Dating is hard” is a topic. “I went on a date with a guy who brought his own Tupperware to the restaurant because he doesn’t trust their portion sizes” is a premise. See the difference? The first one is something everyone already knows. The second one is specific and weird.
Specificity is your best friend in comedy. If your joke isn’t landing, ask yourself: could anyone tell this joke, or could only I tell this joke? If anyone could tell it, you need to get more specific. What exact thing happened? What exact detail made it weird or annoying or surprising?
Your Punchline Is Too Predictable
You set up the joke and the audience already knows where you’re going. They’re three steps ahead of you. By the time you get to the punchline, they’re bored. This usually happens when you go for the most obvious choice.
“My mom is so old-fashioned… she still uses a flip phone!” Yeah, we saw that coming. The audience needs to be surprised. This is especially important on themed shows, where all the comics are from one group (all expats, all women, all comedians from Atlanta). If the whole lineup is similar in demographic, everyone might have brought the same jokes.
They need to think you’re going one direction and then you take them somewhere else entirely. “My mom is so old-fashioned… she still uses a flip phone. Not because she can’t figure out a smartphone – she just likes the satisfaction of hanging up on people.” The first part is predictable. The second part is the surprise. That’s where the laugh lives.
When you write your punchline, write down the first three things that come to mind. Then throw away the first two. They’re probably the obvious choices. The third one, or the fourth, or the tenth – that’s where you’ll find something the audience wasn’t expecting. We use that in A to C thinking in improv training where improvisers should move from “A,” the initial idea collected, skip past “B,” the first thing that occurs to you after thinking about this idea, and finally use “C,” a third idea, when initiating a scene.
Your Setup Is Too Long
If your setup is longer than your punchline, you’re in trouble. Comedy is not a novel. Every single word in your setup should be necessary. If you can cut a word without losing meaning, cut it. “So I was at the grocery store the other day, you know, just doing my weekly shopping like I always do on Sundays, and I was in the produce section looking at the apples, and there was this guy…” versus “I saw a guy at the grocery store yesterday…” Get to the point.
The longer your setup, the bigger your punchline needs to be to justify it. And most punchlines can’t carry that weight. Read your setup out loud. Every time you take a breath, ask yourself if you really need everything you just said. Cut ruthlessly. If it hurts to cut it, you’re probably doing it right.
You’re Missing Your Attitude
Your joke might have a premise and a punchline, but if we don’t know how YOU feel about it, the joke falls flat. Are you annoyed? Confused? Delighted? Horrified?
“I went to a wedding last weekend” tells us nothing. “I went to a wedding last weekend and I have never been more convinced that love is a scam” tells us exactly how you feel about weddings. Now we’re not just hearing a joke – we’re hearing YOUR joke. Your point of view is what makes you different from every other comedian telling jokes about weddings.
You’re Explaining the Joke
If you have to explain why something is funny, it’s not funny anymore. “My roommate is so lazy… he orders delivery from the restaurant across the street. Like, you can literally see it from our window. It would take two minutes to walk there. But no, he pays $8 in delivery fees instead. Isn’t that crazy?” The “Isn’t that crazy?” kills it. You’re telling the audience how to feel instead of letting them get there on their own.
Trust your audience. If the joke is good, they’ll get it. Cut everything after your punchline. Especially cut phrases like “you know what I mean?” or “isn’t that weird?” or “that’s crazy, right?” Just end on the funny part and let it breathe.
The Joke Might Just Not Be Funny
Sometimes you write a joke and it’s just not good. That’s okay. Even the best comedians write jokes that don’t work. The difference is they recognize it and move on. Not every funny idea becomes a funny joke. Some premises are amusing in your head but they don’t translate to the stage. Some punchlines are almost there but not quite. They can’t all be winners.
The best way to know if your joke works is to tell it to people. Real people. An open mic audience who doesn’t owe you anything. You can analyze your joke all day long, but until you say it out loud in front of humans, you don’t really know if it works. Write the joke. Fix the joke. Tell the joke. Bomb with the joke. Fix it again. Tell it again. Try telling it to some other people in a different audience. That’s the process. Best of luck!