How To Improve Your Comedy Writing

It never really dawned on me, but I've been getting emails from people actually seeking my help in how to make their writing funnier.

Me - the guy who foamed at the mouth saying Johnny Manziel would transform the NFL back in 2014, and solidified his point by drafting him FIRST in his $100-entry Fantasy Football League (3-13, that year).  

I once told a kid he should try noodling for catfish because he had a tank on his ranch.  What I didn't know, was that "Kevin" was allergic to "water moccasins."  Nor did I know that elevating his arm above his head was the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do.  (By the way: he's fine... now.)

But if you've ever come to this site and laughed, these are the three tools I use for writing that content that got you chuckling.

TOOL 1: BE HONEST 

If you're going to write anything funny, you've got to be honest about your thoughts on the topic.  It's a little scary to do, especially if your readers and subscribers have titles like "mom," and "wife," but it's at the pole position on this list for a reason: it's an absolute necessity.

Two reasons.  First, if you are honest in your approach to the topic, your writing will be consistent.  Readers can sense fakery from a mile away; if you start writing about how big an idiot an athlete is, you can't suddenly start making excuses for them.  

You can't say, "He hits the ball harder than he hits his wife," and then a few lines later excuse him for for domestic violence because he grew up with an alcoholic father.  It doesn't work that way. 

It's not consistent with your view, and it will make the collective of your writing less funny because you pussed out.

The second reason you need honesty is because honesty makes your topic easier to write about.  

I'm not in any way saying you should be honest so you can be lazy.  Eff that ess, man.

But comedy writing (and performing) is a trade that involves constant editing and more editing.  Rewriting a line / joke over and over and over (and over) is a HUGE part of that trade.  If you're honest about your approach to the subject, all these steps will not only be easier for you, they will also be more enjoyable.

You wouldn't get into an apple pie eating contest if you didn't like apple pie, would you?

TOOL 2: SELF-LOATHING LOVE

I don't want this to become some self-help guide, but if you're going to write comedy, you've got to expose yourself.  They call it "giving your writing a voice," but I don't understand all that.  If my writing had a voice, it would be called 'speaking,' wouldn't it?

Instead of giving it a voice, give your writing a perspective; a background.  Let your audience know you're flawed, and they'll be able to see how those flaws got you to see the topic in your unique way.  Hell, that's why they come to you in the first place: because they want to see the world like you do! 

And there's another little benefit to self-loathing: it somehow... builds your credibility.  Sounds crazy, but people can't laugh at jokes from writers who think too highly of themselves.  If I wrote a joke about people who fart into the break room fridge, and you found out I thought highly of myself, I wouldn't come off as funny, I'd come of as a prick!

A little outward modesty will go a long way is all I'm saying.

​TOOL 3: YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Let's do the math real quick (I may bore you, but hang in there):

There are 125,800,000 households in the US (so say these guys) and according to the Pew Research Center, 84% of them have computers with internet access.  That means 105,672,000 homes have access to your writing.  If you reach even one-tenth of one percent of those households, you reach 105,672 homes where living, breathing people follow your writing.

Think about that: that's like being mayor of a funny city!  A small city lacking some of the amenities and behavioral health services the bigger cities enjoy, sure, but it's a city nonetheless.  

(And, since it's a funny city, it'll probably be a growing city, so sit tight:  you'll get Google Fiber one day.)

The point is, these are 105,672 homes that have people who think like you.  People who want to say what you say and how you say it, but haven't quite figured out how to.  

It's never just you, is my point.  You hate crossfitters begging for accolades on Facebook because of some workout when you know they're on their third marriage and can't remember their kids' birthdays?  Great!  According to statistics, there are 105,671 other people who feel exactly the same way!

So get to writing some funny.  Be honest, be vulnerable, and know you are never alone in your line of thinking.

The world needs more laughs.  The world needs you.     

Body hair in weird places.

I don't know how it is for women, but men get these patches - nay, thickets - of course black hairs that can be several inches long and have roots DEEP in our into our derma. 

It'd be one thing if these hirsute groupings were made of thick, straight hairs, but no-o!  That'd be too easy!  The hairs all curl up against each other, intertwining into a basket weave strong enough to hold a pen.  

I mean, you know... so I heard from a friend.

Shaving only makes these things angry, too.  They come back thicker and fuller... and I even think they spore.  You ever step on a fungus in your yard and that 'POOF' of dust comes up?  Those are spores - fungal "seeds" that go airborne to put that same fungus in someone else's property.  You shave these random wolf hairs, and it's like a new patch just pops up somewhere else.

"Hair around my nipple?  Oh!  That's right: last week I shaved my finger..."

And I know it's not EVERY man that goes through this.  I doubt Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise has mid-digital hair on one big toe (but not the other).  But for every one of those guys, there's a Hugh Jackman tweezing a course curly from just outside his ear canal.  (What's up, ladies??)

And can you imagine what Robin Williams had to go through???  What a nightmare!  His poor wife, hairdresser, or... daily mistress having to clean all that out of the sink... Yeeich!  It's not THEIR fault he hacked all those other comics' material!

('Flubber' WAS pretty good, though...)

See?  This is why I hate clothes.  They hide so many secrets.  It would have been great knowing this was a struggle for my dad and grandfather; something where some secret remedy had been passed down through generations.  Or, I could have prepared myself to do other things, namely dipping my body in hot wax once a week and having it ripped off when it's no longer moist.  It seems like the pain of being semi-flayed weights less on me than the embarrassment I suffer every time my shoulder braids whip my arms at the pool.

I'm not saying body hair is gross.  When tasteful, it exudes a certain masculinity women seem to like.  Big men, brawny men, the big Brawny towel man... A little forearm fuzz seems to give women a sense of safety and security.  

Why?  I have no idea.  As a guy, forearm hair is just another thing that can catch fire.

But patchy, coarse groupings of hair just... they serve NO evolutionary purpose!  What, like somewhere earlier in my genealogy I a swath of ancestors died because they couldn't regulate heat loss from their lower back?  

It sucks.

First, I was a fat kid.  Then in high school, acne and halitosis.  Now, as an adult, it's this.  

Can't a guy just take his shirt off at the beach knowing people are laughing at his chicken legs and not his new-found knee hair???