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