You’ve mastered act outs, wordplay, misdirects, lists of three, analogies, and exaggeration, which you can read about in Part 1. Yay! You’re now less likely to die on the hill of dick jokes at an open mic night, because you did your comedy homework. Most people don’t and are happy to torture audience with their underwritten jokes – which we don’t recommend. Here are four more punchline tools to add to improve your joke-writing skills.
1. IRONY
Irony is when you say one thing but mean the opposite, or when the outcome is the opposite of what you’d expect. The key is to highlight the contradiction – the gap between expectation and reality, between what should happen and what actually happens. Don’t wink. Let the clash do the work. It’s important to commit to the sincerity.
IRONY:
Premise: I finally joined a gym to get healthy.
Punchline: They have a pizza place right next door. Proud to say I’ve been lifting pepperoncini twice a week.
2. WORDPLAY
Wordplay is the thinking person’s punchline tool. It’s all about exploiting the flexibility of language – double meanings, homophones, redefining terms, taking things literally that shouldn’t be. The best wordplay feels clever without being too clever. You want the audience to feel smart for getting it, not like they need a dictionary.
And avoid puns, which are a little bit like naked wordplay. They have a double meaning, technically, but without a point of view they’re not wearing any clothes under the robe. Wordplay with POV lands. Puns without POV don’t. In fact, they are torture and please stop.
WORDPLAY:
Premise: I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high.
Punchline: She looked surprised.
NOTE: These are not great jokes. They are great examples. If you want great jokes, buy a ticket to a show. Great jokes and great hair guaranteed!
3. INAPPROPRIATE RESPONSE
This is where your punchline is wildly out of proportion to the setup – either too calm when it should be panicked, or too extreme when it should be measured. It’s about having the wrong emotional reaction to a situation. A ton of fish-out-of-water type comedy comes from this tool.
INAPPROPRIATE RESPONSE:
Premise: The doctor told me I have six months to live.
Punchline: I said, “Can we make it three?”
4. UNDERSTATEMENT – The Holy Grail for British Comedy
Understatement is the art of describing something significant as if it’s barely worth mentioning. It’s the opposite of exaggeration. Where Americans might say “That was the worst day of my entire life!”, a British comedian might say “It wasn’t ideal.” The humour comes from the massive gap between the reality of the situation and your casual, understated description of it. This tool requires a certain deadpan delivery to really land.
UNDERSTATEMENT:
Premise: My house burned down last week.
Punchline: Bit of a setback, really.
Applying these tools is the difference between a ‘pity laugh’ at an open mic and a real set. Do it now!
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