Tips on humor writeups

[I had posted this last week but just realized that it is missing, I must have deleted it by accident. So here goes]

In this post, I shall put down my thoughts on how I go about writing humor. If it seems gratuitous, that’s because it is. I just could not think of anything else to write this week and hence I thought I might as well jot down a post on how I approach the ‘Laugh Out Loud’ posts that I write. Here are some of the rules that I have for myself

1. There is no such thing called ‘universal humor’ because humor is *always* context based and you cannot expect everybody to share the same context. So forget about trying to come up with a post that everyone will ‘get’.

2. Do not try to explain the context in detail. It kills the joke. Like I said, you cannot target everyone; people who get your sense of humor will keep coming back. At the same time, do not pick a context that is obscure and too specialized. For example, a pun that goes “Mary had a little lamb…for breakfast” would have a lot more people chuckling (except a few vegetarians maybe) than something like “Does Pavlov’s name ring a bell ?” which probably very few people would get.

3. Assume that your readers are at the same level of intelligence that you are – no more, no less. If you don’t have too many readers, then you are a gifted person...either way.

4. People ask me if the posts where I write about my experiences actually happened that way. Humor writing is to writing what caricature is to drawing. Is a caricature the exact representation of the person ?. No. If so, then is it false ?. No again. See, a caricature is an exaggeration of certain features that are slightly more prominent than the others. Humor writing is very much the same; you take a certain incident and then depict it with a different interpretation.

5. Humor is as much about the ability to get the person to ‘see’ what you are talking about, as it is about leaving enough to their imagination to complete the picture. Write such that it conjures up an image in the person’s mind. Then give just enough hints for the person to complete the situation in their mind. I use this technique the most.

6. Remember that the humor that you are attempting to put across should be something that made you laugh when you first thought about it. A forced attempt at humor is going to show easily. Some of my posts started off as a one liner in my head while driving.

7. Finally, the toughest aspect of humor write-ups is to come up with the right combination of words that will most effectively deliver the joke. This may seem trivial but I believe that certain word combinations can evoke a stronger response than others that mean exactly the same.

These are the rules that I work with. If you have any inputs on how you approach humor, do share them here.

Digressing a bit, it would be great to know who my readers are (other than a few who are forced to read my posts just because they happen to be my friends). Do drop a line to let me know if I am getting better or worse over time. Without feedback, it is difficult to judge if my posts have the intended effect.