Sunday Picture Post 34
How To Be Funny: List of Joke Fodder
by Jaden
photo credit: Steve & Jemma Copley
WHAT IS FUNNY?
This is a serious question when it comes to writing and there are many ways to go about achieving humor. One aspect was covered on the August 16, Sunday Picture Post 24 about seeing, recognizing, and accepting the same things that your audience sees, recognizes, and accepts.
Laughter is a release of pressure, often, from awkward unpleasant situations or dialog.
Each time I laughed, I made a note about what type of humor and situation caused it. Some of these were in real life, but most were from watching TV and movies. Some were accidental humor that erupted naturally out of a situation, but most were scripted or said by a person who was trying to make someone laugh.
JOKE FODDER
- Absurdity
- Misunderstanding
- Misconception
- Miscommunication
- Exaggeration
- Extreme beyond reality, doing the impossible
- Weaknesses
- Flaws
- The underdog, always the loser
- Unexpected behavior
- A conflict in reality
- Doing the wrong thing
- Defiance
- Rejection
- Failure
- Mishaps
- Play on words, double or triple entendres
- Confusion
- Unpleasant things: odors, health issues, tics, disorders, financial issues, flaws, cheating, in-laws, voices, habits, disturbances
- Current issues related to products, politics, celebrities, trends, drugs
- People trying to outdo each other
- Pointing out someone’s b.s.
- Contrasting personalities
- Trying to be covert and getting caught
- Having the opposite result of one’s intentions
- Trying to be something the character is not
- Going where character is not welcome
- Disasters and messes
- Forbidden behavior
- Fighting authority
- Irony
- Repetition
- Physical extremities
- False compliments, saying the opposite of what is obvious to everyone
- Sarcasm
- Shortcomings
- Accidents
- Rants
- Character out of his element
- Stating the obvious
- Rude behavior or dialog, saying those things you wish you could say but don’t because of expected manners
- Saying the thing that everyone is secretly thinking
- Dog pissing on leg
What did I miss?
Watching a movie or sitcom, all of the above might be funny because you have a safe distance from the reality of it, but you intimately relate to the situation. In your own life, do you laugh, cry, or want to punch a wall when these things happen to you? Your reaction to a situation determines your personality type. Clearly, the more you can laugh at your own hardships, the better off you will be.
What makes you laugh?
Read more about how to write humor:
Sunday Picture Post 24 / How to be Funny
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HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SUNDAY PICTURE POST
For The Sunday Picture Post, we flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday, I post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, using the image above, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
Comments
18 Responses to “Sunday Picture Post 34
How To Be Funny: List of Joke Fodder”
Got something to say?
I probably have laughed at all of those things in my own life, as well as laughed at myself having been in all of those situations. Well, not all of them, but there’s definately humor to dig from in those situations. I find myself laughing at a lot of things, some which make no sense but to me alone… But the laughter I enjoy most comes from comedians and hearing my friends and family laugh at something I find funny too. For me its like adding fuel to fire.
As for the Sunday Picture, all I could come up with is a scene: Tim had done a blunderous act at his job, and his boss asks “Who does this clown think he is?” This sends Tim to a flashback of childhood being referred to as a clown when he really didn’t want to participate, with the words of his mother “You aren’t going to be a clown for the rest of your life,” which is what people constantly refer him to in a negative way.
Since writing that, I think after such a remark from the boss, I’d have Tim go on a ramage in the style of “Falling Down” but as a comedy and with a happy ending, probably succumbing to his latent career as a clown. Or death. This one was another tough one for me, thanks.
t.sterling — Tough for you, eh? You had me laughing. You did great with it. I could just see the guy going into a Buster Keaton shtick in the drab office. Very funny.
So, you have had a dog piss on your leg?
I have.
Oh, wait, nevermind, that was just a drunk teenage me.
I substituted dog piss for bird crap, and instead of my leg it was my shoulder. At the time I was feeding birds with a friend, and I thought said friend threw bread at me when I had my back to her. I was mistaken as I heard a few birds in the corner of the park giggling and saw them pointing at me before flying off to tell their friends probably.
And at times I already feel Buster Keaton-esque in and out of the office, trying my best to look as emotionless as possible, I’m just missing the prokpie hat.
t.sterling — Laughing! Yes, I have had the bird turds too. So gross.
Ack, humor is the hardest to write! For me, it either happens or it doesn’t and I feel like I have no control over it. Although, I have to say, now that I think about it, I don’t believe I’ve really made a conscious effort toward it. I’ll have to try to do it purposefully next time!
Melissa — Like anything, humor can be learned. Take any one of those things from my Joke Fodder list and make a joke situation. You can do it, I know you can.
I’ve been told that comedy is hard to write. So far I’ve had the desired effect, other times it’s my delivery (when performing) that fails. For some I think humor comes very naturally, but I agree it can be learned and used as a dangerous skill.
Speaking of dangerous, I don’t mean to get morbid again, but I was reading on Wikipedia about real people who died laughing. It started to scare me a little because I was laughing so hard reading what they were laughing at, I didn’t want to be the first person who died laughing about people who died from laughing.
t.sterling — A dangerous skill? Do elaborate.
Is there a better way to die than laughing? Elaborate on that too, how someone died laughing?
Well it reminded me of the Monty Python sketch involving the funniest joke in the world. Laughter is a lovely thing, but apparently it’s been documented that people have died from too much of a good thing. So if someone or a group of people were able to keep someone laughing for so long, it could prove to be fatal. My sources come from Snopes and Wikipedia (fatal hilarity), but my favorite story is this:
“On 24 March 1975, Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King’s Lynn, England, died laughing while watching the Kung Fu Kapers episode of The Goodies, featuring a Scotsman in a kilt battling a vicious black pudding with his bagpipes. After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell’s final moments so pleasant.”
So I don’t know if that’s the best way to go out, but at least he was happy. I prefer peacefully in my sleep. I’m not sure what my laughter limits are, but I’ve laughted for about 10-15 minutes with my cousin several times and can understand how one could die from hilarity when breathing becomes difficult. I wish I could explain what was so funny, but it ends up being a you-had-to-be-there event. What I do know is it started with a comment or a story someone (usually me) tells, and my cousin’s infectious laughter that follows.
t.sterling — You got a few more laughs out of me with that story. Dying laughing is a pretty sweet way to go. Yes, sometimes you can laugh so hard your gut hurts and you can’t breath. I did that a lot in my youth over really silly nonsense, usually it was the late night giggle attack during a sleepover while making weird noises and absurd comments.
Behind the Rainbow Wig – a documentary on the strange world of young clowns in Mexico.
Washed Out
Arco Iris Convention – press session. Question and answer period for the pint sized entertainers.
The tears and drama of making others laugh, voiced by the children of Mexico, forced to entertain by their carny elders.
RNW — Welcome back! Nice title. Yes, definitely a documentary. Good choice. Really interesting pitch.
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[...] How To Be Funny: List of Joke Fodder [...]
Hi Jaden
Though I’ve been writng for my own pleasure for many years , I now have an opportunity to have my work viewed by an Independent Film Company.
I wish to do a movie that follows a 24 hour timeline, but i’m unsure as to what that entells. Is there a particular structure for a movie following the 24 hour timeline?
I love your concise breakdown on Script Formatting. Any help you can give on this would be deeply appreciated.
What do you think about Independent Film Producers?
Robin —
Thank heavens for Independent Film Producers! Yes, they are great. Without them, movies might be all calculated and predictable. Independent Film Producers have far less money than the big studios so they have to be more crafty and cutting edge with their movies to get noticed and to make up for the lack of a big budget luxuries. They also have less people to report to and can make more exciting choices.
As a writer, you won’t get nearly as much money from an Independent producer as you would from a studio producer for your script, but you might have more creative input into the movie and might have more fun.
Hollywood loves time constraint movies.
You can WRITE TIME in several ways; here are 3 examples:
———-
EXT. VENICE BEACH – NIGHT
Dark empty beach.
TITLE CARD:
9:32PM, Venice Beach, California
Jack walks into frame. Looking around, he anxiously awaits for someone.
………..
With a TITLE CARD, that means the text underneath it will appear as text on the screen over the image of the action.
Using a title card might be good to add tension for the audience when a character himself does not know that he is under a time constraint. For instance, we know the earthquake hits at 4am, but our character in the film does not know. Title cards are good for that.
———-
Another option:
EXT. BEACH – NIGHT – 9:32PM
Standing on the beach, Jack looks around: no one is there. Jack looks at his old pocket watch. Close-up on the time. Jack is antsy and scared, looking more agitated now.
………..
Putting time in the SCENE HEADING really only helps the film production crew to keep filming on track, not so much to help the audience or the character in the movie. It would just let the crew, production set designer, and wardrobe know that all clocks and watches should be set to that time.
———-
A third option for time:
EXT. BEACH – NIGHT
Standing on the beach, Jack looks around: no one is there. Jack looks at his old pocket watch. Close-up on the time shows it is 9:32pm. Jack is antsy and scared, looking more agitated now.
———-
Hope that answers your question on time.
Good luck!