Introduction

We're going to do impressions of some different comedy writing styles, including puns, ‘set up and flip’ jokes, power plays, and limericks. To give us something to write about, we'll use this picture as inspiration.

One of the features of Writelike is to examine how things are written.

One of the best ways to ruin a joke is to examine it.

So, some of the laughs may be ruined for you because we break down the writing. Gaining writing skills is worth it, though!

Comedy is entertainment that people find funny, of course. No great revelations there.
It might not make you laugh—everyone’s different—but comedy aims to amuse in the same way that horror aims to frighten.

There are different types of comedy:

Physical (aka slapstick) - people falling over, funny facial expressions, etc.
Self-deprecating - poking fun at yourself.
Surreal - weird, absurd, nonsense, silly stuff.
Improvisational - making jokes up on the spot; comedy without a plan.
Wit-wordplay - twisting language around to make it funny. This includes puns.
Topical - Humour based on current events.
Observational - Poking fun at everyday life.
Dark - Comedy about things that are normally depressing.
Toilet - Laughing at bodily functions. Fart jokes, basically.

We’ll look at some of these types in this lesson.

We'll do five exercises. For each exercise, you'll get a snippet in a particular style of comedy writing, and then an example showing how you could apply that style to the image.

Once you submit, you’ll be able to read and react to responses from others in your group.

If you're ready, let's write!

Comedy Genre (Middle Years)