Hi! This is Adam here at Funny Biz Speech Writers. We've had an exciting couple of months. Why? Glad you asked. Mostly because we've had some fun and interesting clients come through our doors. They're virtual, electronic doors, but nonetheless, if we did have real tangible doors that people could walk through they would be made of heavy, old stained oak, hundreds of years old, twelve feet high and inlaid with ornate woodwork and complemented by the finest brass knobs. Okay enough daydreaming about my Victorian mansion where I will someday retire to smoke my pipe in the Drawing Room. Or draw pictures in the Smoking Room. Gee, I guess being wealthy and respectable has its dilemmas.
We had a great prior client return for a similar type of situation as before- a very high profile political roast. This client, a top political operative in Georgia, was part of a roast of one of the most famous US Representatives (Congressman, if you will. And you should) in the past half century. He is also known as a living saint in some circles and as a man made out of integrity (with a pinch of humility and a dash of righteous indignation). Roasting him was likened to roasting Gandhi. I just admit, sitting down to write roast jokes- which by their nature have to have a "victim," must "take down a peg" the receiver of said joke- of a man who was known for selfless public service and putting himself literally on the line, in harm's way, to advance his moral principles, was a really tall order.
I researched and thought about it and researched some more, and finally some good ideas came to me.Aspects of this man that were distinct enough to analyze and pick apart, but not the type of subject matter lending itself to inappropriately mean, vicious or risque. Once I'd cracked the right subject matter to exploit for comedy - based on info given to be my client, as well as various online searches I did- I started to feel it come together as the quality of roast that I'm proud to turn in to my clients and have performed in a room full of influential, high-powered people.
The client loved what I wrote and told me that an ex-Mayor of Atlanta may be contacting me because they Mayor themself also had to roast this acclaimed Congressman and felt like they were coming up a bit short in the comedy writing department. I got in touch with the Mayor, was sent a bunch of their ideas and angles on materials with which to roast the Honoree and I was off to the races. Once again there were some puzzles to solve, some needles to thread. But the work was done, and I managed to figure it out write a whole bunch of zingers that I felt proud of, staying true to the man's biography and inherent qualities. After their big event was told that both my original client and the ex-Mayor smashed it, got great response and had a blast delivering their roasts. Those are the kinds of client situations that make me feel extra happy with the line of work that I do. Nothing beats joy and laughter and I give that to people to shower on unsuspecting audiences.
I'll be writing more blog posts about other interesting, very gratifying client speech writing situations I've had, but that covers this installment. I have to go feed the cat, walk the dog, re-arrange my pens, ruffle the printer paper, wash the dishes, scrape the dust off the carpet with my shoe, fluff up the pillows and put my wife's toothbrush in the toothbrush holder. She leaves it out, just lying there on the sink. It drives me crazy. But she's great in so many other ways, I let the toothbrush thing slide. And just put it back in the holder every time I see it. And then she takes it out. And I put it back. And so on and so on.... And neither of us EVER mentions it. And maybe I've just described a working marriage. Got a funny speech or other kind of comedy writing need? Gimme a shout. If you leave your toothbrush lying on the sink, I don't wanna hear about it.
While comedy writers work for years to develop their craft, often sharpening their skills and learning from trial and error by writing and submitting scripts and jokes, or performing material on comedy club stages, there are a few basic "tricks" of the trade so to speak, or methods, that almost anyone can apply to add humor to their written materials.
Believe it or not, comedy writing, or "humor writing" as it's often called (when they want your expectations lowered), while demanding a subtle and inexact source of inspiration and instinctive feel, still uses a set of technical templates which you can learn fairly easily. In other words there is some underlying "science" to joke writing, besides the more mysterious "art" elements that gets added in with great comedic minds.
I will label, define and show examples of the various types of jokes commonly found in comedic materials and presentations.
EXAGGERATION
To exaggerate means to stretch, enlarge, or multiply something by a big enough factor that the effect becomes humorous by appealing to our sense of the ridiculous. We use metaphorical exaggeration all time in regular, idiomatic speech even when the desired effect is not laughs but to convey an extreme sense of something. For instance: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse," "We walked like a million miles," "I swear I'm going to kill you." Similarly, if you're writing a funny speech about some people you know, you could use these lines, based on qualities of theirs you want to really spotlight: "I don't want to say Robert's a fashion hound but he has 18,000 pairs of shoes and a tailor living in his garage." "Natalie is such a sports nut she bought season tickets to stickball." A lot of jokes are just blowing up an actual reality way out of proportion.
REFERENCES
Comedy writing is full of references.No one is expected to know everything about everything, but if you're going to write comedy you need to have a brain that absorbs at least a fair amount of data floating around out there- pop culture, science, technology, politics, geography, history, current events (old ones are good too!), food, consumer products and so on. We call these mentions of specific things "references". A lot of good comedy writing involves well chosen and placed references.
Specificity can be magic, too. For instance, compare "The guy walks into the Kalamazoo Elks Lodge with a bottle of wine," and "The guy walks into the Kalamazoo Elks Lodge with a bottle of '83 Chateau Bouef LaGeau." I didn't even look up a real wine name- I invented that! Real, researched references are great, and had it been an automobile make or a kind of large screen TV, real is important. But your average person doesn't know all the fancy wines out there, so my made up one works fine, cause it sounds kinda silly and pretentious, yet believable.
A significant component of comedy, believe it or not, is the research component. The majority of the words may be very non-technical thoughts, feelings and concepts you have the words for already, but just the "right" reference often makes the difference between a joke getting silence, doing okay or smashing with the audience.
References themselves aren't really a method of joke-writing, but they are a component of many of the specific methods we use, that's why I figured they deserved their own bold heading!
COMPARISON
Just comparing a person or thing to another person or thing can be very funny, although we almost always add a twist to the comparison. For instance we could write: "Kevin is like a frat-bro Orson Welles," or "Sheila reminds me of Oprah, minus 3 billion dollars, 100 lbs, and any good ideas."
Before getting to those those punch lines you would have set up ways in which Kevin and Sheila, respectively, do have something in common with Orson Welles and Oprah. Maybe it's looks, or career aspirations, or background. The twist adds the zing, the playful insult that makes for good roast jokes.
COMPLEX COMPARISON
There's another kind of comparison joke wherein you say that X makes Y look like Z. Just by simply taking the object of your comedic aim, and setting up an algebra equation, the other side of which contains 2 famous names, you can get big laughs.
For instance: "Darryl parties so much he makes Charlie Sheen look like the Dalai Lama." Or "Jenny drives so fast she makes Danica Patrick look like Queen Elizabeth." Okay, Queen Elizabeth hasn't driven herself in a car in quite a while, I'm pretty sure, but I think it's safe to assume that if Her Majesty did get behind the wheel of a Jaguar or Mini, she'd keep it very safe and sensible and on the motorway.
COMBINATION / HYBRIDS
This is a different from comparisons, although it might seem somewhat similar at first glance. The combination/hybrid joke does not rely upon famous references, it's more about general styles and labels, but you take one known style and then add a twist onto it. For instance: "Matt's a Southerner at heart despite living in NYC. He still loves barbecue.
Now he just eats it with truffle oil, mango chutney and a kale-walnut
reduction."Maria was in the Marine Corps, now she's a clothing store manager. It's not all that different. Push-up was a type of punishment. Now it's a bra."
DECOY & SILLY ENDING
This method really goes back to the root of a lot of comedy writing which is a set up which follows a straight, sensible path, and an ending which is absurd and silly (and unexpected) but which probably reveals some kind of truth about the situation nonetheless.
Examples of the decoy with silly ending are: "Denny attended Stanford
undergrad after doing diligent research and finding out they
have the best lawn croquet." Or: "Sylvia loves getting meeting her girlfriends for lunch in Brentwood, and her favorite part is punching the meter maid in the nose."
IN CONCLUSION
In summary, with these aforementioned tools you can start to do some effective and funny comedic writing, whether it be funny speech writing or just writing jokes. Of course, the more work and practice you put in, the stronger and more effective will be your output. It is also advised, if you want to have superior comedy writing product right away, and leave it up to someone of proven superior ability and results, hire a professional comedy writer, whether your need be for a private event, public happening or corporate function. Funny Biz Speech Writers are one of the best.
