Writing tips
How to write comedy
How to write comedy
How to write comedy
14 December 2011
by Tiernan Douieb
You want to write comedy? Well it's
easy. I've just done it and didn't even use a spell check. I'd
definitely suggest starting with a 'c' rather than a 'k' as that sounds
either wacky or German and either way there will be prejudices about
what type of humour it is. Oh, sorry, comedy writing? I see. Well first
try not doing the most God-awful joke you can in your very first
sentence. That's a definite no-no. To be honest, I can't tell you how to
write comedy as such. I'm very much a subscriber to the 'either you're
funny or you're not' party. However even if you have the invite to
that very party, there's a high chance you might not know quite how to
utilise the correct chat for the kitchen, or the right outfit to wear,
in the same way I've never worked out how to do a decent analogy.
What I'm saying is that if you're a funny chap or chapette, there
are some things that definitely hone those powers into a neat bit of
witty prose, rather than a bundle of nearly funny cons.
Tip 1: I know this is obvious, but watch, read and
listen to a lot of comedy. Work out exactly what makes you laugh and
why. Is it the style of humour or the content? Does surrealism make you
howl with laughter or do you prefer dry, observational witticisms? You
are never going to make someone laugh unless you know what makes you
laugh. Simple as. You don't have to write in exactly the same way as
those who've tickled your funny bone, but if it makes you laugh,
chances are you'll enjoy writing that style more and it'll be far more
likely make someone else laugh too. If you're not already a comedy fan
then seek out all types. Try everything from Douglas Adams and Terry
Pratchet to Will Self and David Sedaris. Watch Chris Morris, Spaced, 15 Stories High and Stewart Lee, but also Michael McIntyre, Mongrels and Gavin and Stacey.
It's the only way you'll work out what's for you. Yes, it sounds like a
lot of effort, but at least you'll be laughing for some of it.
Tip 2: Similar to the above tip, and yes, I promise
the tip after this will be of different, though it should be said that
the art of repetition is a very good tip in itself. I would be tempted
to just repeat the above tip three times for good proof of this,
followed by repeating it constantly over and over again, sending it in
emails to you and letters and texts until its so ludicrous its funny,
but that would seem gratuitous. Not only that but this tip has nothing
to do with repetition. This tip is about finding your voice. In the
same with any book, documentary or even speech, its far more engrossing
if you can identify the voice of the reader, narrator or main
character quickly. Work out if you're writing as you, prefer to write
in an extended version of you or even as a completely different
character.
Tip 3: Whichever voice you choose for yourself, try
your best to keep your humour consistent with it. 'What?' I hear you
cry. Well don't cry, that won't help you write comedy at all. Though
schadenfraude is another useful too. Anyway, I digress once again. What
I mean is make sure the comedy you are writing is on a level and with a
subject matter or reference that that voice would use. In the world of
live comedy as a stand-up I aim to come across fairly friendly on
stage and so I know I can't do dark evil jokes that comedians such as
say Jimmy Carr or Jim Jeffries could get away with. In the first 30
seconds the audience have decided who they think I am, and while I can
play with that to an extent, pushing jokes to a reasonable boundary, if
I take it too far and break that image, they can feel cheated and
suddenly be a whole lot less warm. Believe me, I've been there many a
time and learnt very quickly from those horrible mistakes. At the same
time, as an audience member, I hate watching a stand-up say something I
know for a fact they don't really think or agree with, and you can
tell that the humour feels forced and unnatural. Would you expect Harry
Hill to do a political rant? No. It'd feel odd. At the same time, the
odd cheeky slightly political comment might work. Would you expect Alan
Carr to make reference to the Higgs Boson Particle? No, but if he did
and followed it with a gag about men in lab coats being fetching then
you just might go with it. Allow your audience to work out who you are
and then you can throw all the funnies you like at them.
Tip 4: There is, oddly enough, some theory in comedy. Freud wrote a highly dull book called Jokes And Their Relation To The Unconscious.
For a book about comedy it contains very little of the subject matter,
but then again the Freudian slip is the least funny of all slapstick
motions. It contains one useful notion, which is that for comedy to work
it must always have a victim. Someone or something is always demeaned
or ridiculed to initiate laughter from the audience. I always dispute
that this in no way accounts for surrealist humour, praying that no one
clever would point out surrealist humour prays on realism as its
victim. Anyway, I'm not a fan of all comedy theory but some bits are
definitely useful. Kant's incongruity theory for example, which works
on the basis that comedy comes from an unexpected result. To display
this I'll use one of my favourite ever Douglas Adams lines from the Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy (a bible of how to write comedy if you ask me): 'The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.'
Perfect stuff. Why is it so funny? Well, quite simply, the end of
the sentence is not at all what you expected it to be. It is a
comparison, but not as we know it. Far from helping us to imagine the
gravity defiance of the spacecrafts, we are told to imagine the
opposite in order to work out how they are being the opposite. It's
brilliantly absurd and yet also follows another bit of comedy theory
which is that of Koestler. He worked on the idea of bisociation, which
is when comedy arises from two very normal frames of reference collide,
creating something unexpected. So looking at the Adams quote again, we
can imagine how spaceships might operate, and we can imagine how
bricks plummet to the ground, but the joining of those two ideas in a
comparison is what makes it so funny.
I personally think Koestler's idea is important. Even the best
surreal comedy comes from some grounding in reality. Much like knowing
your comedy voice, you need to get the audience on board your humour
train at the first stop if you want them to enjoy the journey. Wow. I
think that's the worst analogy yet. Let's hope for signal failure and a
crash soon. What I mean is that your audience have to be able to
imagine the situation, and if you immediately throw them off course
with heaps of overly weird things, they won't get there. All the best
science fiction stories are based on notions or fears already in
society, in order for these extreme realities to seem at least slightly
plausible. Comedy works in very much the same way.
See, you had no idea that you could be clever about being stupid did you?
Tip 5: Get someone you trust to read what you've
written. When doing live comedy you have the very lucky - and sometimes
very unlucky - opportunity to find out whether your humour is funny
there and then. When it's not it can be a particularly painful
experience but you get to learn exactly how to make it work based on
doing more of what works. With writing you don't get that unless you
let others you trust read it. Find out what they found funny or didn't
and work with that feedback. Don't feel you need to change everything
you do based on response, but comedy either makes people laugh or smile
and its far better to find out if it doesn't before you release those
50,000 words into the world. I have a few people whose sense of humour I
trust and I enjoy, and I trust to be honest with me and without them
this would be even more difficult to read than it is now.
Tip 6: Ok, I know this sounds like cliché city, and
several will read this and briefly sick into a bag, worried that I'll
polish off the whole piece with a moral message about not giving drugs
to pets or something, but here it is. Have fun doing it. Been sick yet?
Good. Now wipe that bit from the side of your chin and let's continue.
I mean it, you really have to enjoy writing comedy. You can tell when
someone's enjoyed writing something funny as its even funnier. In the
same way those scripts and gags hacked out just because someone is
being paid to do them will never make you gut laugh in the same way as
something that's been written by a writer who cared. Spaced is one of
my favourite ever sitcoms. Its combination of quick gags, slick
writing, yet honest touching characters and storylines makes it one of
the best sitcoms of the last 20 years in my humble opinion. However,
while a large part of it is down to the talent of the people involved,
I'm also sure its to do with the fact that Simon Pegg and Jessica
Stevenson were good friends who wrote it because they wanted to.
Everytime they are interviewed about it, they talk about how enjoyable
the process was.
When watching stand-ups (thinking of up and coming star, ace comic
and chum Carl Donnelly specifically here) you can tell when they are
enjoying telling the jokes they are proud of as it beams out of them on
stage, infecting the audience with the enthusiasm that they have. I
write a daily blog. This is mostly because I'm a sadomasochist who
can't ever enjoy just relaxing and partly as a vehicle to get me to
write everyday. If you write because you have something to say, and
idea you want to share or a joke you want to tell, it'll really show.
Don't just write because you think you should or for a reward. Do it
for you and others will feel that in the content.
There's loads more I could try and cram in here, whether it be
looking at the use of metaphors or exaggeration, or where you prefer to
write (my flatmate sits in Café Nero making a herbal tea last as long
as humanly possible, whilst I prefer to get up slowly and lounge about
until inspiration hits me in the face, which is usually after breakfast
and seeing Holly Willoughby on This Morning) but to be
honest, the best thing you can do with comedic writing is find your own
style based on your likes and influences. You might read through this
and find none of these tips remotely helpful because they don't fit
your style. Instead you'll find that you prefer to write using the most
remote ideas, in a constantly contradictory voice, never letting
anyone read what you write and it might be the next humour best seller,
top sitcom or best bit of stand-up anyone's heard in years. The comedy
rulebook is always being rewritten. I would say 'just get writing' and
'good luck' but to be honest I'm sick of all the brilliant competition
so kindly ignore everything that I've said and go write some great
crime fiction.
About Tiernan
Tiernan Douieb is a stand-up comedian, writer, professional
procrastinator and very good at making tea. Starting his stand-up
career back in 2003, Tiernan has since performed all over the globe and
alongside various comedy alumni including one terrifying evening
where he had to follow the Robin Williams. His third solo Edinburgh
show Tiernan Douieb vs The World received excellent reviews
for its political angle and Tiernan has since gigged at various
marches and political movements with Mark Thomas and Josie Long among
others.
As well as this Tiernan co-runs and hosts the Comedy Club 4 Kids,
which is stand-up for 6-11 year olds, writes a popular daily blog on
his website, spends far too much time on Twitter where he set up the
first ever Twitter Comedy Club, and generally has little time for the
amount of sleep he'd like. He is currently working on a few children's
TV projects, ways to bring down the government and how to get on Dragon's Den with his idea to put zips on pitta breads.
