How to come up with a real joke? There is an algorithm

Hello all readers! Lyudmila Redkina is with you. Have you ever heard the following proverb: “In whom humor causes evil, the mind is unlucky!”? It didn’t just appear; folk art has always told the truth. Indeed, people who do not understand humor and cannot joke have a rather difficult time in life. I'm not talking about vulgarity or jokes now. We are talking about good, subtle humor that does not make fun of a person, but notices funny moments. Comedians are loved everywhere, they are quoted, remembered, and people go to their performances with pleasure. Today we are talking about practice: how to come up with jokes so that everyone laughs at them and respects you.

COMPLETE LIST OF HUMAN SKILLS

Setup

The setup tells the first story, creates context. The beginning of a joke can be anything. We took an example from Greg Dean's book:

This morning I got up and ran 5 miles

There is nothing special or funny in this story. We need a second part. But how to come up with it?

There is usually a difference between what we hear and how we understand what is said. The man begins the story: “This morning I got up and ran 5 miles.”

Here's how we interpret what was said:

A man got up early, did a running workout outside, and ran 5 miles. He's probably disciplined and goal-oriented.

There is much less information in the setup, but the imagination wants to complete the detailed picture - this is how our brain works. Specific guesses vary from person to person, but something will be so logical or stereotypical that most people will think about it.

Author's task:

Predict how his setup will most likely be thought of.
Find the key assumption (what everyone will think about).

Preparing material for jokes

We constantly devour television shows where experienced and talented comedians delight us with new, topical funny stories. And perhaps you would also like to come up with a joke that many of your friends would appreciate. This is understandable - funny stories help us adapt to a new environment, react more calmly to stress and live easier.

Coming up with jokes on the fly is quite difficult for a beginner, so you need to start with material for your humor. Of course, for any joke you need to develop a sense of humor. It will help you find great material, notice funny moments and be cheerful in communication.

How to find material for jokes:

Notice that what most interests listeners is what they respond to with laughter. Choose topics that interest not only you, but also those around you. For example, about the weather: “The women were so good this year that they got Indian summer, Indian autumn, Indian winter!” Or again: “People who said goodbye to the winter at Maslenitsa - where the hell did you spend it?!”
Look at famous people performing stand-up and what themes they play on. Determining the theme is the beginning of the joke.
Try to find topics that are interesting to many people. Medical anecdotes are difficult for electricians to understand (although commonalities can be found there too!). The more diverse topics you find, the more often you can talk about them in different groups.
News and situations from your own life can make people a lot of fun. To intrigue, immediately come up with a title that would convey the meaning of the joke. For example: “I am an ace in the house (title). When my wife asked me to drain the compote, I took out a colander and drained it. Who knew that the compote should be left..."
If your main goal is to learn how to joke so that everyone can laugh, try not to touch on controversial topics: race, religion, illness.
If you appreciate a joke and suspect that it may offend someone, it is better not to say it out loud.

When you have studied the material and gained a little experience, you can easily and quickly come up with funny masterpieces.

Connecting link

The link helps make an assumption.

You can ask yourself the question: why, when reading the setup, did I assume this?

The key assumption is that a person runs because he trains.
The link is the reason why a person runs.

There may be more than one assumption, but the author needs to find the key one.

Write jokes

The next stage is creating jokes based on the prepared material. And for this you need to know the general structure of the elementary unit of humor. Comedians distinguish two main components in it: setup (setup) and punchline (punchline). The setup creates a certain picture in the viewer’s head, and the punchline destroys it, while causing surprise and laughter.

Here, for example, is a joke by British comedian Milton John: “I met a girl on the Internet, put balloons under her window: “Will you marry me?” Then I saw her face, and the question deflated by itself.”

We think you can easily guess where everything is. It is important to remember that the statement must contain relatively reliable facts. Its task is not to surprise, but to lull the listener’s vigilance. The greater the contrast between the setup and the punchline, the funnier the joke.

Important tip : If things get tough, try making jokes with someone else. This will give you an influx of new ideas and help you look at your creations from the outside.

Punchline

Now we need a punchline - a second story that will cause laughter. Due to what? The key assumption (the reason for running) will be incorrect. The viewer will experience surprise due to the destruction of expectations.

What other reasons could there be for running?

I was late for something.
Running after someone or something.
I was running away from something terrible.
Caught the criminal.

Let's take an example from the book again. Greg Dean suggests the following as possible continuations of the story:

The battery in my car died, and when I tried to push start it, it rolled down the mountain, and I ran after it

At this point, the viewer/reader realizes that his original assumption was wrong. The story itself is already becoming quite funny, because the hero acted stupidly and something bad happened to him.

You can leave the story like this, but you can turn the second part into a real punchline. There is room for improvement here.

Competent presentation

Now attention! In order to convey a funny story well to the listener, it is important to present it correctly using a special formula:

Setup (installation from English) + Punchline (shock wave from English) + Relevance coefficient

Now let's take a closer look.

The setup is the beginning of a joke that intrigues the listener. This part should be said in a normal voice, as if narrating.

Punchline is a blow with the second part of a joke in such a way as to “finish off” the listener with laughter. This part is presented as emotionally and expressively as possible.

Relevance factor – it is important to take into account the current interests of the public. “Soaked” situations are no longer interesting to anyone. You need to keep your finger on the pulse and take new events and stories for jokes. There is also a subtext of immorality here. If your humor is immoral for the company, no one will laugh at it. He will be perceived negatively, and they will bypass you and look askance.

It is also important to evaluate the intrigue of the group. If they don’t listen to you, then don’t try to joke - this can play a bad joke on you: your idea will either be stolen, or you will no longer be perceived as a person who knows how to joke. It is important to be creative here to remain respected in the group. It helps you gauge the relevance factor and people's attention to your jokes.

For clarity, let’s analyze the joke according to the described structure, starting with the relevance coefficient. There are a lot of memes on the Internet that you can use to make jokes for stand-up comedy or a blog. The topic, for example, about diseases will be relevant. So: two doctors are talking:

– Maybe we can check it again, I feel sorry for the guy?!

- Yes, they’ve already checked it 10 times, tell him somehow gently, with understanding. (this is a setup that should be pronounced softly, in a normal voice, you can add a little drama)

– I’m very sorry, but we cannot extend your sick leave! (this is a “shock wave”, after which laughter should follow. Whether there will be laughter or not depends on the coefficient of relevance, intrigue and your emotions during the speech).

Joke optimization

Using the setup as an example, we know that the brain completes the picture if you leave room for imagination.

The shorter and more elegant the wording, the brighter the reaction of a person who understands that he has been deceived.

To improve your joke you need to:

Reduce punchline to a minimum.
Achieve better wording.
Try to move the climax to the very end.

Here's what Greg Dean came up with in his book:

Never push start your car if you are alone on a slope.

We managed to omit the details that the battery had run out and we had to run for the car. All this will be completed by the brain of the viewer/reader. If after the punchline the viewer again needs a second or two to comprehend and formulate an assumption, the effect will be stronger.

Final joke:

This morning I got up and ran 5 miles. Never push start your car if you are alone on a slope.

Yes, this is not the funniest joke, but it is given as an example.

Final scheme:

Training from Pavel Volya

Also, learning from a person who has walked this path will help you become witty and learn to joke. Under no circumstances should you listen to amateurs who shout at every corner: “Pay me and you’ll get rich!”

For me, such a person is Pavel Volya. According to official data, in 2022 he earned more than $2 million from humor.

His online course “Humor 3.0” in 1.5 months will take you to a whole new level of ability to joke and use your sense of humor.

What will be the results:

you will find in yourself a state of lightness and playfulness, irony, which will liberate you;
master skills that will allow you to start making jokes more often and more accurately, both in everyday life and on stage (if you sometimes perform in front of people);
you will begin to take yourself, the people and events around you less seriously;
You will become a more interesting conversationalist.

The course consists of video lessons, each lesson has a practical and theoretical part. You study the theory - get a task - complete it - move to the next level.

The training is conducted by curators:

Alexey Lyaporov is a creative producer at Comedy Club, the author of the script for the film “Our Russia: Eggs of Destiny.”
Ilya Romanko is a creative producer and author of the Comedy Club, the author of the sketch comedy “Our Russia”, and has been involved in humor professionally since 1998.
Alexey Poimanov is a screenwriter for the “Big Difference” project, a screenwriter for the “Slaughter League” project, and has been making humor professionally since 2006.

Ilya Romanko makes a wish between Alexey Lyaporov and Alexey Poimanov
Cost – 12,000 rubles.

And I can help a little. I’m giving you a promotional code for a 25% discount.

PRT3081CBA

If during the first lesson you decide that the course was not suitable for you, your money will be refunded.

After registering for training, a girl from Pavel’s team will contact you and answer all your questions regarding the training. You will discuss payment terms with her.

Also in this article you will find reviews of all courses of the “Willpower” project from Pavel and Laysan Utyasheva.

Great Russian language

The surprise effect can be created in another way. The Russian language is replete with many synonyms (words denoting the same concept). Therefore, when considering various options for how to write a joke, you can use this feature.

Readers probably remember an episode from the famous Soviet film “Gentlemen of Fortune,” where Yevgeny Leonov’s hero teaches bandits to replace obscene words with literary analogues that sound strange from their lips. This is a great example of how to come up with a joke using various expressive means of the Russian language.

Stand-up: how to learn

You can start mastering stand-up as a genre in parallel with working on your sense of humor. If you don’t have your own jokes yet, you can practice someone else’s. How to learn stand-up? You can do this yourself!

How to learn stand-up:

Learn the text of the joke by heart.
Choose a place where no one will disturb you for at least a couple of minutes.
Turn on your phone's video camera to record.
Stand up straight, don't slouch, don't look at your feet.
Say the joke text with pace and expression.
Highlight the stressed word (the place where you laugh) with intonation.
Lightly stretch the stressed vowel in the last word of the joke.
Review the recorded video with a dose of self-irony and self-criticism.
Note the mistakes made (posture, gaze, intonation, pace of speech).
Correct them in the next take.

By the way, you can work on intonation by studying a special lesson “Intonation” as part of the course “Voice and Speech Development”. If you prefer a career as a screenwriter and would like to offer your services to the leading TV shows in the country, you should know the principles by which humorous shows are built.

Learning by example

Television and the Internet provide an opportunity to get acquainted with the work of famous people, and comedy programs provide performances by the most popular comedians. Many comedy programs for every taste can be seen on almost every channel. Find a few performers that seem funniest and most interesting to you.

Follow their work, look for information, study the format in which they present their jokes. You don’t need to copy all the techniques of this or that comedian, just be inspired by their ideas, and you will definitely become one step closer to the world of professional humor.

Examples of jokes and exercises for developing a sense of humor

First, read some examples of jokes:

Exercise for writing jokes

Right now, come up with the third bar to the easy preparations presented below, and they will become your first author's jokes. Don’t try to make them extremely funny, the main thing here is that you feel the model and your brain retains it.

I love girls (men) who are beautiful, smart and...
More than anything in the world, I love running in the morning, working out in the gym and...
A balanced diet means good health, well-being and...

I hope it worked out for you, if not, sign up for the free webinar, where we will do it together.