Joke Writing

Question 1

how are tragedy and comedy similar?

Answer 1

both acknowledge botched nature of human life

Question 2

what is a joke (psychological, philosophical, and cognitive aspects)

Answer 2

• psych: Freud believed jokes were dream-like, rooted in subconscious, subliminal, aggressive and sexual
• phil: Kant said laughter was a “tense expectation… transformed into nothing”
• cog: De Bono suggests that jokes establish and subverts a pattern; our pleasure comes from re-ordering a new pattern

Question 3

biological/evolutionary theory of laugher

Answer 3

signals to others that what we thought was dangerous was never there -> ie. you thought a bear was in the bush, but it was really a bunny (the incongruency makes it funny)

Question 4

Beerbohm’s view on laughter

Answer 4

laughter and love bridge intellectual and physical experiences in opposite directions

Question 5

a successful joke is…

Answer 5

one that makes people laugh or smile

Question 6

jokes as literary texts

Answer 6

Paul Auster: joke is purest most essential form of storytelling - every word has to count

Question 7

folklore/street jokes

Answer 7

• authorship unimportant
• templates that get updated (ie. dumb Polish jokes in the 70’s got turned into dumb blonde jokes in the 90’s)
• often relate to ethical or moral themes

Question 8

written material

Answer 8

• authorship matters (joke is often fused with performance/voice of comedian)
• limited literary form somewhere between poetry and prose

Question 9

How are folklore/street jokes and written material similar?

Answer 9

both emphasize economy of words, symbolism, and rhythm

Question 10

literary devices in comedy

Answer 10

• the moving detail: roots us in a scene, its specificity is funny, makes a joke seem real
• rhythm/cadence: build and explosion, deliberately chosen
• word choice: ie. alcoholic instead of drunk

Question 11

components of a joke

Answer 11

• premise/setup: creates pattern/expectation
• punchline/payoff: subverts/disrupts/reorders expectations
• ex. Pretentious? (premise) Moi? (payoff)

Question 12

units of standup comedy

Answer 12

• the joke
• the bit
• the set

Question 13

units of standup -> joke

Answer 13

• any combo of premise and punchline

- may also include a tag (another punchline built off first premise and punchline)

Question 14

units of standup -> bit

Answer 14

section of related material (aka “chunk”)

Question 15

units of standup -> set

Answer 15

entirety of comic’s performance, from stepping onstage to stepping off

Question 16

5 main comic elements/devices

Answer 16

• incongruity
• irony
• reversal
• tension
• surprise

Question 17

comic devices -> incongruity

Answer 17

2 or more things that don’t belong together (ie. “holy shit!”)

Question 18

comic devices -> irony

Answer 18

when what you get isn’t what you expected

Question 19

comic devices -> reversal

Answer 19

subversion of status -> flips who has power (ie. Eddie Murphy bit -> lead kid drops ice cream)

Question 20

Rule of 3

Answer 20

• 3 is the shortest space to establish and subvert a pattern (ex. a priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar…)

Question 21

uses of comedy

Answer 21

• trojan horse: allows us to speak about subjects otherwise too uncomfortable (politics, social issues, etc.)
• persuasive: forces listener to temporarily share your premise
• “punching up”: Chris Rock coined this -> victim/minority group making a joke where the butt of the joke is the perpetrator/person higher up in the social hierarchy

Question 22

comedy is ____ + ____

Answer 22

TRAGEDY + TIME