Mastering Humor Writing: Tips, Techniques, and Examples for Speeches and Debates

1. Humor writing in speeches Adapted for Speech & Debate

2. When do people laugh • When they are surprised • At the misfortune of others • At shared experience • At the absurd or the ridiculous

3. Publications’ use of humor • Some publications specialize in humor • Some use it along with other content • Some use humor as spot features • Some as a regular item in columns

4. Some humor writers • Dave Barry, Calvin Trillin, Garrison Keillor, Ian Frazier, Alice Kahn, Patrick McManus, Roy Blount Jr., Al Franken, Art Buchwald, James Lileks

5. Where do they write • Miami Herald, New Yorker, Time, The Nation, Arizona Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Lose Angeles Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune

6. Stand-up comedians/ celebs • Tim Allen, David Letterman, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, Cathy Guisewite, Matt Groening, Scott Adams

7. Humor writer’s ability • To form images and word pictures, • Surprise or unexpected finish or resolution of the story • Build up to the end by taking a small step at a time to tell the story • Allow momentum to grow • Combination of jokes, break punch line

8. Four elements needed • A funny opening • Colorful narration • Colorful characters • A concise plot

9. What good humor avoids • Do not want off-color or sexist humor • Do not want taking mean-spirited shots at others • Do not want ethnic jokes

10. Tips for good writing • Idea should be covered by a single theme • Develop the characters in the speech • List the bits of humor - the jokes • Start writing and rewriting frequently

11. How humor writers make humor work • Exaggeration • Understatement • Surprise • Life’s little problems

12. How humor columnists make humor work • Humor in the news • Constructing a comic reality • Attractive beginnings and endings • Puns and word play

13. Humor writing techniques • Satire and parody: Ridicule a subject’s vices, excesses, abuses, follies, stupidities. One should always be considerate of social power imbalances before taking on another’s culture for humor.

14. Humor writing techniques • Exaggeration: Overemphasize, enlarge, distort, to make a point. Must have a reason for overstatement. Must know when to stop. (“Doing research” = flipping TV channels)

15. Humor writing techniques • Contrast: Incongruity. Show unreasonable & unsuitable situations. Something expected and routine becomes unexpected/ non-routine. (Planned holiday becomes a mess)

16. Humor writing technique • Understatement: Works to create emphasis and reaction on the part of the reader. An intentional, softer comment will draw attention when it is contrasted with the expected. (95 degree temperature: “A little warm outside”)

17. Humor writing techniques • Asides: Short messages in parentheses or other form to communicate on a quasi-private level. Used in acting or footnotes. Often seen in comedy when comedians present a situation in reality, and then comment on it.

18. Humor writing techniques • Irony: Employs contradictions through writing tone and subject. Focuses on the direct opposite of what is usual or expected. Outcome of story is different from what is expected by readers. Distance between what happened and what should have happened or what is said and what is intended.

19. Humor writing techniques • Puns: Play on words to provide double meaning. Unless it’s original, this doesn’t work well.

20. Humor writing techniques • Logic and Consistency: Correct reasoning through induction or deduction. Crazy behavior and absurd conduct makes much of American humor. But humor must maintain internal logic. Continue absurd premise. Don’t change focus in middle of story