And Here's the Kicker

1. Humor Starts with Truth and Observation

You have to look and listen.

Observe the world. Great humor isn't just made up; it's ripped from real life. Writers emphasize the importance of staying connected to the outside world, observing people, listening to conversations, and drawing inspiration from everyday experiences rather than just other media. This provides a bedrock of reality for comedy.

Find the funny. The goal is to live life and take inspiration from that experience, as opposed to just getting inspiration from other artists and their work. This means looking for the inherent absurdity, hypocrisy, or unexpected details in the world around you. Even mundane or uncomfortable situations can be gold mines for comedy if viewed with a keen, observant eye.

Grounding in reality. An artful slice of life, even if it isn't totally free of editorial contrivance, will inspire you to build your work on the bedrock of reality. This grounding makes the humor resonate more deeply with the audience because they recognize the truth in the situation, even when it's exaggerated for comic effect. It's about finding the universal in the specific.

2. Character and Voice are Paramount

All good comedy comes from character.

Develop authentic characters. Whether writing sketches, sitcoms, or essays, the most enduring humor is rooted in believable, well-defined characters. These characters don't have to be traditionally "likable," but they must feel real and consistent within their own world, allowing their flaws and quirks to drive the comedy organically. This is why two-dimensional characters aren't as funny as fully-formed ones.

Find your unique voice. The only thing you have that is unique is yourself. Your personal experiences, background, and perspective are your greatest assets as a writer. Don't try to imitate others; instead, cultivate your own distinct sensibility and point of view, as this is what will make your work original and resonate with readers or viewers.

Let characters drive the jokes. Instead of forcing characters to deliver pre-written jokes, let the humor arise naturally from who they are and how they would genuinely react in a given situation. This makes the comedy feel less artificial and more truthful. It's about writing for the character, not just through them.

3. Embrace the Pain and the Outsider Status

I don't think humor is just here to tickle people. Humor has much deeper roots than that.

Comedy from discomfort. Many humorists find their comedic voice in pain, anxiety, and feeling like an outsider. Growing up different, experiencing trauma, or simply feeling disconnected from the mainstream can provide a rich well of material and a unique perspective on the world's absurdities. This is why comedy is often described as defensive in nature.

Darkness fuels laughter. Humor is really closely related to fear and despair. By confronting difficult or uncomfortable subjects head-on, writers can create powerful comedy that resonates with audiences who recognize the underlying truth of human suffering and anxiety. This doesn't mean being mean-spirited, but rather finding the humor in the shared human condition, even its darker aspects.

The outsider's view. Being on the outside looking in provides a critical distance that allows writers to satirize societal norms, institutions, and behaviors. This perspective, often born from personal experience, enables them to prick the big balloons and expose hypocrisy in a way that someone comfortably within the mainstream might not. It's about finding comedy in alienation.

4. Craft and Persistence Trump Natural Talent

Just get it done, but do it with craft.

Writing is a skill. While some degree of natural talent helps, becoming a successful humor writer requires dedication, practice, and honing your craft. This involves learning the mechanics of writing, understanding structure, and constantly working to improve your skills through repetition and effort. It's not just magic; it's work.

Persistence pays off. The most vital piece of advice is to keep writing and to come up with a great script or piece. Many successful writers faced years of rejection and worked for free before finding success. The ability to bounce back from setbacks and continue producing work is crucial in a competitive industry.

Learn the fundamentals. Before attempting to break the rules or develop a unique style, it's important to understand the basics of writing. This might involve studying existing scripts, taking classes in English or journalism, or simply practicing consistently. As one writer put it, you have to know how to paint figuratively before you learn the abstract approach.

• Learn the difference between its and it's.
• Learn the proper usage of who and whom.
• Learn the difference between their and there and they're.

5. Collaboration Sharpens the Work

When you get in a room with another person, you're both responsible for the result — assuming that there's a reasonably equal level of talent.

Shared responsibility. Writing, especially for television or film, is often a collaborative process. Working with other writers allows for ideas to be challenged, refined, and built upon in ways that might not happen when working alone. This collective mind can go off on unpredictable benders, which can be thrilling.

Benefit from different perspectives. Being around like-minded creative people allows you to hear a lot of different comedic voices, and you hear things you never would have thought of if you just happened to be writing alone at home. This input helps writers avoid their own blind spots and push material in new directions.

Learn from others. Working in a group setting, particularly early in your career, provides an opportunity to learn from more experienced writers and producers. This mentorship, whether formal or informal, can teach invaluable lessons about the craft, the industry, and the specific rhythms of comedy that are difficult to learn otherwise. It's a great sense of camaraderie.

6. Take Risks and Avoid Clichés

I don't like to replicate what I've seen done before — I don't like to give people what they expect.

Challenge expectations. Great comedy often comes from surprising the audience and subverting expectations. This means avoiding obvious punchlines, predictable plotlines, and overused tropes. It's about making a sharp left turn into the unexpected.

Avoid lazy humor. Don't resort to stock situations, straw men, and hokey resolutions. This includes avoiding clichés in language, character types, and plot devices. If you're going to get a response from me, I want to hear an individual point of view.

Push boundaries thoughtfully. While being edgy or controversial can be effective, it's important that the humor has a clear target and isn't simply offensive for its own sake. The most powerful transgressive humor often comes from an honest place and comments on real-world attitudes or hypocrisies, rather than just mocking vulnerable groups.

• Avoid "clammy" jokes (old, stale jokes).
• Avoid "schmuck bait" (preposterous plot ideas).
• Avoid obvious parodies of things already done.

7. Understand and Navigate the Industry

Never listen to execs. Just do your own thing.

Industry is complex. The world of publishing, television, and film is often frustrating and difficult to navigate. It's a business driven by numbers and perceived marketability, which can sometimes stifle creativity and lead to compromises that dilute the original vision. The system behind TV development is designed to fail.

Persistence in pitching. Getting your work seen requires persistence and understanding how the system works, whether it's submitting to magazines, finding an agent, or pitching scripts. Researching who to contact and tailoring your approach is crucial, as generic submissions are often ignored.

Protect your vision. While collaboration is important, maintaining control over your work is vital, especially in film and television where writers are often low on the totem pole. This might mean fighting for final script approval or choosing to work independently rather than compromising your vision for a studio project. As one writer put it, you're not allowed to tell the stories; the stories are just handed over to higher-ranking people.

• Do your research on agents/publishers.
• Send a personal note, not spam.
• Avoid props or overly flashy submissions.
• Be confident but not obnoxious.
• If you have a reference, use it.

8. Brevity and Editing are Your Friends

Less is more; it just works for everything.

Conciseness is key. Good writing, especially humor writing, benefits from being lean and efficient. Avoid unnecessary words, rambling explanations, and jokes that overstay their welcome. The goal is to get to the funny part quickly and effectively.

Embrace the editing process. Re-writing is where the art is; knowing what to save, what to throw out, what to embellish. Be willing to cut material you love if it doesn't serve the overall piece. Getting distance from your work helps you see it with fresh eyes and identify areas that need tightening or clarification.

Refine your rhythm. Pay attention to the timing and flow of your sentences and jokes. Whether writing for the page or performance, the rhythm of the language is crucial to landing the humor effectively. Bad rhythm is something you see frequently with amateur cartoonists.

• Trim when the piece is too long.
• Eliminate things you don't need.
• Pay attention to the rhythm of a joke.
• Avoid overly long stage directions in scripts.

9. The Audience is Your Partner (and sometimes your enemy)

To laugh is to be dominated.

Connect with the audience. Whether performing stand-up, hosting a talk show, or writing for print, establishing a connection with the audience is vital. This might involve creating characters they can relate to, acknowledging their presence, or simply being genuine and likable. You want to become partners with them.

Gauge audience reaction. Learning what makes an audience laugh, and what doesn't, is crucial for refining your material. This feedback, whether immediate (in live performance) or delayed (through reviews or sales), helps writers understand what resonates and what falls flat. However, don't let fear of offending dictate your creative choices.

Audiences want different things. Different audiences have different expectations and sensibilities. What works for a niche audience might not work for a mainstream one, and vice versa. Understanding who you are writing for, while staying true to your own voice, is a constant balancing act.

• Audiences can smell fear.
• Pomposity or authority doesn't work well with humor.
• Some audiences are "dumb clucks."
• Readers are not as prudish as editors think.

10. The Mystery of Funny Endures

The whole thing is a mystery — how one person can read a newspaper article and come up with ten jokes instantaneously, while another person could never — not in a hundred years — come up with a single joke.

Humor is inexplicable. Despite decades of experience, many veteran humor writers still find the source and mechanics of comedy to be a mystery. It's not something that can be easily taught or fully analyzed; it often feels like an instinct or a gift that appears spontaneously.

Trust your gut. While craft and practice are essential, there's an element of intuition involved in knowing when an idea or a joke works. Sometimes, the jokes that feel "just okay" are the ones that resonate most with others, while the ones you labor over fall flat.

Keep exploring. Because the nature of humor is elusive, writers must constantly experiment, take risks, and expose themselves to new experiences and ideas. This continuous exploration, rather than relying on formulas, is key to keeping the work fresh and discovering new ways to make people laugh.

• It's just something that happens automatically for me.
• You either have it or you don't.
• Don't analyze it too much, for fear of it disappearing.

Last updated: May 27, 2025