Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Comedy Writing

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Currently, I teach an improvisational comedy class in Arizona and I'm putting together material to teach a stand-up comedy class. In addition to performing stand-up, I've bought and read over a dozen books on stand-up. I've learned that the hardest part is writing funny jokes. If someone found the magic formula and published it, they would make serious money.

I bought this book before anyone reviewed it because it promised to help me write jokes. In addition, Colin Quinn, who is a very funny comedian, wrote the forward to the book. I own a number of Dummies books and I have been satisfied with their content and organization. I assumed that the Idiots people could also deliver. I'm an idiot for assuming so.

Written on the back cover of this book is the promise to give "Foolproof advice for writing scripts, feature films, plays, cartoons, stand-up jokes - even working humor into your presentations at work." If this book could do all that, I would expect it could also go to the bathroom for you.

Here are a few examples of this book's "foolproof advice":

"When you're writing comedy for the theater, keep the stage in mind. Theater writing is all about fitting the story onto the stage where the action will take place (page 9)." Except for about 8 pages later in the book, this is all the foolproof advice you are going to get for writing a play. That's not even enough advice to see a play much less write one.

"The Universal Joke Formula: Premise + Point of View + Twist = Joke (page 46)." Simple formula, but there's no information on how to write the twist, which is the punchline in a joke. The book lists 19 popular twists (e.g. Antonyms, Double entendres, Exaggeration) but no definitions, examples or detailed instructions are given on how to write the twist.

The worst advice was an A to Z list ". . . that could tell you if a piece was funny or not (page 174)." Are there really 26 points to evaluate funniness? And would 26 points be best organized alphabetically? Point "F" was pretty useless: "F is for Funny. The material has to be funny before someone will buy it."

If you are looking for good books on comedy writing, I recommend "The Comedy Bible" by Judy Carter, "How to Write Funny" by John B. Kachuba and "Comedy Writing Step By Step" by Gene Perret.

Wow, it's amazing how different people can read the same thing and get different results. I'm a NYC writer (Theatre) and I picked up this book because I wanted to put more comedy into my writing.

I learned and then some!!!

The book layers information in the first part. Basically it is a deconstruction of humor -- what's funny and finding your own individual sense of humor. It's the roll up your sleeves part of comedy writing -- getting useable ideas, and seperating the rich concepts from the common ideas.

Part 2 is an overview on comedy construction -- not genre specific, but the universal components that every writer who uses humor must master in order to write something that's funny.

The "UJF" -- Universal Joke Formula is simple and easy to follow, and amazingly complete. As for the assertion from an earlier reviewer that the writer didn't cover "Twists," there's an entire chapter dedicated to twists. Anybody can understand the concepts and examples the writer used in the twist chapter,and it is simplified as much as possible -- after all, this is an idiot's guide!

Part 3 focuses on the artistic elements of comedy, from basic language to emotional exploration of a joke. This is the one section I wish was longer. I understand that an idiot's guide has to be basic knowledge in an easy reference form, but I do believe that the writer's opinions on art were wonderful and direct. I would have liked to have gone deeper in the artform with him.

The craft of comedy is the next section. The author does a wonderful job pushing the basics of comedy construction. This is basically polishing, editing, and revision before presentation to the buyer. It contains one of the best chapters on comedy editing I've ever read. As for the A to Z list being too simple -- again, it's an idiot's guide. The writer has to pack it with the simple rules. What the reviewer fails to point out is that the author also has complex information in the book as well. (Like the reason why most double entendres fail is that both possible meanings have to end in a punch line. If the "naughty" ending is funny, and the other ending isn't, the joke fails because the naughty joke becomes too direct.)

Part 5 goes for application. Here's how to do it for theatre, here's how to do it for stand-up, etc. Again, I wish it was longer, but as an overview it was perfect. Just to be clear - the pages on playwriting are very good. I can't judge the others because I don't work the mediums, but playwriting is on point.

Finally, don't overlook Appendix B -- "Something to do Every Day." Quite possibly the best tool I'ver ever seen to jump start the writing process.

Overall I loved the book. The subject matter was interesting, and the writer's style was effortless. I'd read more of his writing, and I believe I will be a better writer when I follow his advice.

And that's the reason why I purchased the book.

I've never been compelled to write a review on amazon, but I feel I must warn others from purchasing this book. It is a complete waste of time. It is an exercise on the part of the author to say absolutely nothing in so many words. There is nothing funny in the book. The examples of his writing and of others' writing are horribly not funny. Throughout the book are lame cartoons that are not funny. Save your time and money; there's nothing practical in this book.

I gotta tell you, I usually hate how to books. The writer usually takes a superior posture and makes it seem like the reader is an idiot. With that said, I want to learn how to write comedy, and Colin Quinn is one of the funniest guys I know, and he did the book blurb, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I'm glad I did. First of all, it was an easy read - very funny at times, and I could easily understand everything in the book. The next thing is, it works. All the things and exercises worked like a charm.

For me the best part was the pages on Sitcoms. I actually feel like I could write one. Everything about the chapter was clear, right down to the way the page should look!

Anytime you can have a fun read, and learn, you're ahead of the game.

There is a school of thought that you shouldn't write about comedy because disecting a joke makes it horribly unfunny. This book does something amazing, it details all the basics, quotes some funny stuff, and lets the reader find his own comedy style as a writer.

It covers everything from getting the idea, to editing the piece, and it does it as a broad look at comedy instead of a narrow look at screenplay comedy or comedy for books. This allows you to get the basic knowledge to try out these different styles, and then research further once you know what genre you want to write in.

I got a ton out of it.

This book delivers and then some. This is easily one of the best comedy writing books I've read in a very long time and it's for the person who really wants to make a run at his dream so sooner of later someone gonna have to take a shot at it as the person about me did. And who did it come from? An Improv person, Improv and Writing are two different animals.

Jim makes no bones about it it that you have to bring the talent to the table, if you can do that, this book is for you,
It lays all the aspects of comedy and the business, a must read for anyone.

Jim isn't improv class teacher whose now trying to teach Stand-Up.
Jim's a doer, he toured with Sam Kinnison, Bill Hicks, Chris Rock, Colin Quinn, Andrew Dice Clay and way to many more to mention. He's one of the top respected comedians, comedians in the country, coast to coast.

The last mistake you want to make is listen to an Improv teacher
trying to now try his hand at teaching Stand-up, Jim's been in comedy for 20 years and has written some of the most recognizable lines in the movies today, you wanna learn about writing and performing comedy listen to someone whose done it, and been very successfull at. No other author on comedy writing brings what Jim did and does to the table.

This is a great book.

Wow! I've long been a fan of comedy and wanted to write it. I picked up this book on a lark. It covered sketch, stand up comedy, sitcoms, everything! The examples were easy to understand, and very funny. The book was also filled with great quotes from people I heard of. Good job.

I was blown away by this book. There were so many details and specific ways of doing things that I felt it was more like a text book then an Idiot's Guide.

The book starts by giving an overview -- what's funny, how to write emotionally, finding what's universal in the concepts. Then it moves onto structure. It actually shows how to take your concepts and form them into jokes.

Then it moved onto the applications of the comedy into specific styles. Like how to put it into sitcoms, as opposed to stand-up or on stage. Some of the things repeted from genre to genre, but if you just wanted to read the sitcom chapter, you wouldn't be lost. Each chapter was indipendent. It may make for a bit of repitition, but it is wonderful if you're using this as a quick reference tool.

My favorite part was the examples. The author took pains to pick shows and comics that are familiar to the audience. You can turn on the TV and find these shows, or buy the comedy albums. Last year I got a book on stand-up and had no idea who half the guys mentioned in the book were.

Overall I'd say this book was both a fun read and had easy access to the information.

It's money well spent.

I like that the writer (Jim M.) takes the writing of comedy seriously, it doesn't mock those who want to learn but encourages in all the right ways. The book itself is witty and gives you top-notch instructions on how to create funny. although a lot of the references are a little outdated for me, it's still good stuff.

...and this is the line where normally you'd read something amusing and think "yea, that seems like a good book" but i'm an expert procrastinator and haven't gotten around to writing anything funny just yet.

The book arrived quickly and was exactly what I was looking for. It came in perfect condition and was what i wanted.