The New Comedy Writing Step by Step by Gene Perret

Author:Gene Perret
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Linden Publishing
Published: 2007-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Jokes that Are too Wordy

Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” That still applies today. Be stingy with your words. Say only as much as you must to effectively convey your idea. Why? Because each straight line or setup that you offer the audience is a promise of a punch line to come. Your audience begins anticipating the reward at the end of it. The longer you make them wait, the more you have to deliver. If it’s too long, they’re all sitting there a bit impatiently thinking, “Boy, this had better be good.” Why create that kind of pressure for yourself and your jokes? Here’s a wordy joke about buying a puppy:

“My husband went out and bought a puppy. When he got it home, it wet in the living room. It wet in the dining room. It wet all over house. He calls it a puppy; I call it a bad kidney covered with fur.”

That long setup is unnecessary. Everyone knows what puppies are famous for. There’s a great old joke where someone says:

“I just got a dog.”

“Does it have papers?”

“Yeah, but he never uses them.”

Everyone understands that joke even though there was no mention of the dog having accidents in the living room, dining room, and all over the house.

The worst problem with verbiage in a gag, though, is that it telegraphs the punch line. It robs the joke of its surprise. Because the puppy example dwells so long on the dog’s bad habit, the audience sees the punch line coming. They anticipate it. And you also risk giving them so much time that they just might compose a better punch line than the one you deliver. Make your point, but don’t beat it to death.

Sometimes you’ll find that a punch line needs a lot of setup and try as you might, you simply can’t cut down the words. Here I offer two options: A) make sure that the punch line you deliver is worth the extended buildup; B) cut the buildup by delivering part or parts of it in smaller, softer jokes. Here’s a case where you might note that you have to add jokes to make your routine flow a bit more smoothly. Each joke you write can also act to set up those to follow.

As an example, let’s refer back to a joke we discussed in Chapter 9. It’s a good gag, but the setup is awkward and long. It reads:

“Most of you know that Doc Wilson and his wife have seven lovely children. And all of Doc’s friends know that he is constantly fiddling with his pipe. I spoke to his wife of twenty-eight years before the banquet and asked her if that annoyed her—that her husband was constantly playing with that pipe of his. She said to me, ‘No, Gene, not at all. After seven children, I’m for anything that keeps his hands busy.’ ”

There are a lot of words used to get to that punch line, but they’re necessary to explain the humor.

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