I’m working on my comedic writing skills with the help of this book. It’s got a TON of exercises that force you to work and flex some rarely used muscles.
The author also challenges you to write way more than you think necessary, in the hopes that you’ll get one or two gems in the list of 50 that you just wrote.
Below are sample set of some of the exercises, it’s a fun process to work through, though these first few exercises are not necessarily the types of comedy I’m drawn too. It’s fun to think about comedy in a different way.
Ten Tom Swifties
- “Kathy you’re a bitter old woman,” Jake said shrewdly.
- “Looks like this one was killed by a hammer blow,” the detective said bluntly.
- “Doctor, I need a boob job,” she said flatly.
- “Honey, thanks for changing the light bulb,” she said brightly.
- “I’m so hungry for donuts,” Tom said with his eyes glazed over.
- “Your father died,” the doctor said gravely.
- “I can’t answer that question”, the defendant said blankly.
- “Brad, please don’t pop your knuckles,” his mom cracked.
- “Tony, have you seen my ruler?” his wife asked measuredly.
- “Chef, I have to tell you these frog legs are fantastic,” she croaked.
Visual Jokes
As if there were cartoons but you’ll create the visual in your own mind.
One lone sock left in the bottom of the washer.
“Marco!”
Two cherry tomatoes sitting on the cutting board next to a full salad bowl.
“Okay, let’s come up with a code word in case one of us wants to leave early.”
A pair of reading glasses sitting on a table next to sunglasses.
“Wow, nice tan, have you been on vacation?”
The number one on a page next to the number three.
“Nice boob job.”
An evergreen tree next to a deciduous in autumn time.
“Listen Carla, I’m not going to have sex with you so you can just put your clothes back on.”