0:02 well comedy is essentially anything that
0:03 makes you laugh that itself and come in
0:05 many forms and genres ranging from
0:07 stand-up to talk shows to films all the
0:09 way to inside jokes you have with your
0:11 friends with all these different mediums
0:13 where we consume comedy very few people
0:14 have ever tried to create something
0:17 funny themselves and if you ever do you
0:19 realize it's very very hard none of your
0:21 ideas are original none of your
0:23 sentences are interesting and whenever
0:24 you think you have at least something
0:26 funny when you say it out loud you get
0:28 flashbacks to Hamlet in high school
0:29 English even if you wake up in the
0:30 morning and decide you're going to
0:32 become funny by learning the rules of
0:34 comedy that ends up being about as
0:36 useful as decided to become good at math
0:38 by remembering the numbers in reality
0:39 the way that funny people make something
0:41 funny is not by filtering content
0:43 through an elaborate rule set and having
0:45 jokes come out the other end but by
0:48 starting with one tiny idea even just a
0:50 word and building on it they take one
0:52 boring sentence and turn it into one
0:54 interesting sentence then into a funny
0:56 sentence then into a punchline then they
0:58 add a setup to get there then they do it
1:01 again and again continually regrouping
1:03 and rehashing material until finally
1:05 they have something to perform or a show
1:06 to release but if you're sitting there
1:08 with a blank Word document or empty
1:09 thoughts wondering how you're gonna
1:11 write anything creative how do you even
1:14 come up with even an original boring
1:16 sentence let alone an interesting one or
1:18 a real joke and that brings us to the
1:20 first goal of comedy writing which is
1:22 going from literally nothing to
1:24 something anything that's funny
1:26 and that means starting with the
1:28 simplest possible form of joke which is
1:30 a setup to establish a premise and a
1:31 punchline that breaks the audience's
1:34 expectations so let's take the easiest
1:35 type of setup that you get every day
1:37 which are questions so here's the
1:45 question thing you do in your kitchen so
1:46 now the problem here is not only do you
1:47 have to break the audience's
1:49 expectations you have to do it in a way
1:51 that still fulfills the initial premise
1:54 the setup has established otherwise the
1:56 joke isn't funny and this creates a
1:58 comedic dilemma out of the infinite
2:00 number of things you could respond with
2:02 some are funnier than others so how do
2:04 you generate and narrow down the range
2:05 and the first thing you need to do is
2:07 establish what are the audience's
2:10 expectations and in this case it's very
2:11 obvious it's something you would
2:13 physically do in the kitchen but
2:15 more complex than usual so let's start
2:17 generating responses by adding an
2:20 additional layer each time what is the
2:21 most complex thing that you do in your
2:24 kitchen make a big cake this is
2:26 literally the most complex thing you've
2:27 done in a kitchen and it's not funny
2:31 build a giant rocket ship this might be
2:32 the most complex thing you can think of
2:37 done in a kitchen again not funny what
2:38 is the most complex thing that you do in
2:41 your kitchen make microwave noodles this
2:42 breaks the audience's expectation of complex
2:43 complex
2:45 it's not that funny but it is
2:48 interesting argue with my wife this
2:50 breaks the audience's expectation of
2:52 what is usually done in a kitchen it's
2:55 not that funny but it's interesting what
2:56 is the most complex thing that you do in
2:59 your kitchen sometimes I ask myself of a
3:00 half carton of eggs is considered a meal
3:02 this breaks the audience's expectations
3:04 that what you were doing was physical
3:07 and their expectation of complex and
3:09 it's sort of funny so then what have you
3:11 broke the expectation of complex the
3:12 expectation of physically doing
3:15 something and the expectation of what is
3:18 usually done in a kitchen I think kind
3:24 of sort of cream units the most complex
3:42 so after generating a joke the next step
3:44 in building something comedic is one of
3:46 the most important which is delivery or
3:48 how you tell the joke the reason this is
3:50 so important is because no matter how
3:52 well a song is written if you can't sing
3:54 the song is gonna be complete garbage
3:56 and this is a lot harder than you think
3:58 because for good delivery you also need
4:00 a good setup here's an example of a bad
4:02 setup and bad delivery which comes quite
4:05 naturally I have a problem right now I
4:08 have too much pickle juice leftover at
4:10 home so what I've been doing is putting
4:11 the extra pickle juice on my sandwiches
4:15 to make them taste better so this joke
4:16 is actually technically structured
4:18 correctly you establish a premise you
4:20 state your position on it which sets an
4:21 expectation and then you break the
4:23 expectation in a way that still
4:25 satisfies the premise setup punchline
4:28 it's technically a joke the issue is is
4:30 that it doesn't flow at all it sounds
4:32 like I'm reading the joke the language
4:34 is super boring the audience is confused
4:35 because after the second sentence
4:37 everyone is wondering why you have too
4:39 much pickle juice not what you're gonna
4:41 do with it so you have to close that
4:43 loop before moving on to the punchline
4:45 in essence it doesn't sound right and it
4:47 doesn't make sense here's a better version
4:51 I have a situation in my apartment right
4:53 now have a surplus of pickle juice in my
4:57 apartment too much pickle juice laughter
4:58 the pickles of all I don't like throwing
5:00 out the pickle juice excess feels
5:02 wasteful so lately I've been differing
5:04 my fingers in the pickle juice and I
5:07 flick it on my sandwiches for flavor [Music]
5:14 so a key takeaway that all comedians
5:16 employ is always committing to the joke
5:18 if you start mumbling or lose confidence
5:20 in your delivery the audience always
5:22 senses it and you lose them you see that
5:24 a lot when someone is telling a joke or
5:25 story in conversation because they're
5:27 trying to gauge their audience's
5:28 reaction to see you they're still
5:30 listening which is a mistake you have to
5:32 always tell the joke with the assumption
5:33 everyone is going to listen because
5:35 that's what makes people want to listen
5:37 if people still ignore you or interrupt
5:40 you have to rethink the material not
5:42 deliver the joke more timidly hoping for
5:44 encouragement here's a segment of one of
5:46 Louis CK's bits where the delivery is
5:48 the crux of the joke the most important
5:49 part being his use of complete silence
5:51 that most people would be scared to use
6:00 out of fear that get interrupted okay
6:03 like of course of course children who
6:06 have nut allergies need to be protected
6:09 of course we've to segregate their food
6:12 from nuts have their medication
6:13 available at all times and anybody who
6:15 manufactures or serves food needs to be
6:27 but maybe maybe if touching and that
6:36 of all people you'd think you know the
6:38 damage you can inflict for a misplaced
6:40 nut so one more example of a good
6:42 delivery is comedian Norm Macdonald who
6:43 often has jokes that fall in the
6:46 category of so bad they're good but he
6:48 delivers them with so much confidence
6:49 you know it's absolutely calculated
6:51 here's an example is this two-hour
6:54 season finale of Melrose Place there's
6:56 this movie coming out yeah title
6:58 undetermined at this point chairman of
7:00 the board oh all right
7:07 do something with that usually the board
7:09 is felt Bo re do [Applause]
7:21 [Applause]
7:24 so once we have a setup and a punch line
7:26 and you can deliver it well and get a
7:27 laugh you have to be able to revise the
7:29 joke one of the most important
7:30 techniques that you can use to improve
7:32 your comedic writing in speech is
7:34 increasing your specificity for example
7:37 saying there I was in my car hoping it
7:38 was powerful enough to make it up the
7:41 hill isn't nearly as funny as there I
7:43 was in my four-door Fiesta hoping the
7:45 gradient wouldn't crack 15 degrees or
7:47 saying that's the saddest thing I've
7:49 ever seen is not nearly as funny as
7:51 sadder than a club thumb girl who loves
7:54 pistachios a little bit niche there but
7:56 you get the idea for another example if
7:58 someone asks if I love football I could
8:00 say yeah one of the higher-ups in the
8:02 NFL could kick a kid with his shoes on
8:04 and I'd still watch the game on the
8:06 weekend which isn't very funny it's
8:08 actually kind of mean but when you're a
8:09 lot more specific what they would have
8:12 to do to get me to stop watching you
8:14 know I love football you want the
8:16 Commissioner could literally punt a baby
8:24 across this office and what you might
8:25 notice there is the language bill Byrd
8:27 uses is actually far more brutal than
8:30 what I used but it's somehow way funnier
8:31 and what you'll find is that refining a
8:33 joke and adding specificity to make the
8:35 punchline hit harder you run the risk of
8:37 offending the audience as an example if
8:39 you replace the word punt with kill in
8:42 the previous example it is absolutely
8:44 not funny at all even though you would
8:45 literally accomplish the same thing
8:47 which brings us to one of the most
8:49 useful rules of thumb in comedy which is
8:51 no subject is off limits as long as your
8:53 joke is funnier than it is offensive and
8:55 Pepsi doesn't pay your bills the theme
8:57 being you can't laugh and be offended at
9:00 the same time so in addition to
9:01 specificity the next element that is
9:03 essential to good delivery is the
9:05 cadence of the joke this is an area
9:07 where literary skills are actually
9:09 useful because to me cadence is just so
9:11 much about how you write the words as it
9:13 is about how you say the words and
9:14 there's really no way of teaching this
9:15 because what you're aiming for is the
9:18 precision of writing with the fluency of
9:19 speech and this is why most stand-up
9:21 comedians improvise their setups and
9:23 have their punchlines memorized to the
9:25 word ultimately you just have to
9:27 practice a lot read a lot listen a lot
9:28 and you get better because it's
9:30 fundamentally a matter of taste the same
9:32 way inexperienced decorators these
9:34 colors and shapes go together
9:35 you're trying to do the same thing with
9:37 words one of my favorite exercises is
9:38 taking common feelings that are
9:40 difficult to express and then shorten
9:42 them down to be brief and punchy which
9:43 is what a lot of the word of your
9:45 British comedians do an example is
9:47 instead of saying feeling sad in
9:49 hindsight you could use debilitating
9:52 retrospection or sadness when I remember
9:54 instead of not bad you can use
9:56 repressing melancholy these are the
9:58 techniques that got us Internet cliches
10:00 for always sad like crippling depression
10:02 and constant despair which are now all
10:04 common parlance in the British and
10:06 Canadian lifestyle so I think with that
10:08 anyone who gets started building
10:10 something funny it might only be enough
10:11 to write one line that's worth two
10:12 laughs but that's where you start
10:14 literally that's where you start one day
10:16 you'll find yourself with four or five
10:18 and then you can use the same techniques
10:19 to tie them together into something
10:21 bigger eventually you might get to the
10:22 point where you need to learn further
10:24 skills to realize a bigger goal like how
10:26 comedians such as Bo Burnham went from
10:28 singing funny songs on YouTube to entire
10:31 hour-long musical performance and then
10:32 to directing his own movie or how the
10:34 Simpsons started the shorts that weren't
10:36 even that funny and then went on to the
10:38 most celebrated cartoon ever made it
10:40 really for myself the thing that I love
10:41 the most about comedy compared to most
10:43 visual or literary arts is that you
10:45 can't fake it you can write bad fiction
10:47 make uninteresting paintings or take
10:50 cliche photos because artist's objective
10:51 you can shelter your ego from criticism
10:53 and even think your profound because no
10:55 one could or cares to prove you wrong
10:57 but when it comes to comedy if you're
10:59 not good no one laughs no one has a good time
11:00 time
11:02 no one says well at least though I think
11:04 you're talented and you realize it's not
11:06 the world that doesn't get it it's you
11:08 and I think the pursuit of being funny
11:10 does best show that it isn't about
11:12 giving up or trying again it's about
11:15 giving up or getting better so I guess
11:19 I'm saying comedy is like cancer so I'll
11:20 leave it at that [Music]
