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PaulDouglas
Joined: 27 Feb 2012
Posts: 9
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 Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 7:11 pm Post subject: Joke formulas |
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What are they?
There's the "pull back and reveal". So you tell people you're picking your nose and eating it and stuff then reveal you were on a bus or somewhere else where people saw you.
There's the double entendre, right? Where you talk about having sex with someone but pretend you're eating a sausage and stuff.
In the main I've heard more lectures against "joke formula" than anything else. What are these dreaded things that all comedians warn against? I wanna at least know what I'm not supposed to use.
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SmartComedy
Joined: 05 May 2012
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sure I read/heard somewhere that there is only 1 joke. (might have been Jimmy Carr)
You set up an assumption.
Then
You break the assumption.
I've found this VERY basic formula works for practically all jokes, both visual and verbal.
Now I'll wait for everyone to list jokes that don't fit the formula...
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Sean Cosgrove
Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 152
Location: London
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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Am I being naive to ask why it matters?
You tell a joke - it gets a laugh - you keep telling it.
You tell a joke - it doesn't get a laugh - you stop telling it.
Oh, and you make sure it's not too "samey". Yes, that comes down to formula, but surely you just "know". no?
Or am I being silly? |
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PaulDouglas
Joined: 27 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Sean Cosgrove wrote: | Am I being naive to ask why it matters?
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Err ...
You can kind of say that about anything really.
I'm personally interested because I'm new to this stuff and as I said in the op people lecture you against these formula without really explaining what they are.
| SmartComedy wrote: |
I'm sure I read/heard somewhere that there is only 1 joke. (might have been Jimmy Carr)
You set up an assumption.
Then
You break the assumption.
I've found this VERY basic formula works for practically all jokes, both visual and verbal.
Now I'll wait for everyone to list jokes that don't fit the formula...
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I read that once. It really annoyed me at first. I think because it's true. There are more elaborate formula which build on that premise I think.
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Sean Cosgrove
Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 152
Location: London
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe that's just it. I have not yet heard anybody lecture me or anyone else against certain formulae.
When I've asked for feedback, though, I tend to get, "you'll know if you're doing well because they laugh. If they don't, you've got a problem."
So maybe my question should have been, who are these people it matters to? Is it people who've done comedy courses? I haven't, you see, so maybe that's where our experience is different. |
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PaulDouglas
Joined: 27 Feb 2012
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Sean Cosgrove wrote: |
So maybe my question should have been, who are these people it matters to? Is it people who've done comedy courses? I haven't, you see, so maybe that's where our experience is different. |
I see.
I guess it's just interesting to me because I'm fascinated by the writing side of it. I've read a few books on the subject and am really drawn to the idea of being able to write good stuff.
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Sean Cosgrove
Joined: 14 Feb 2012
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Location: London
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Is something making you think you're currently NOT writing good stuff then? |
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AlexHylton
Joined: 08 Mar 2012
Posts: 15
Location: Staffordshire, UK
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 12:03 am Post subject: |
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Hmmm. Think i'm going through the 'hating the formulae' phase.
I've been going to gigs as a fan every week, soaking up the different styles, approaches and technique used by comedians to squeeze laughter out of an audience. I always thought I had a half-decent grasp on recognizing why something was funny and got a laugh, as well as enjoying a joke.
In fact, it's only now that i've started and i'm starting to write stand-up that I realise that all jokes can moreorless be boiled down to the same principles.
When I wrote my first 5 mins, I thought of the story/approach I wanted to make, and imagined a fictional comedian telling the story (Probably a mix-up of my favourite comics in the genre I recognize myself to fit) and imagined the sort of approach the comedian would have to my chosen subject. I wrote this down, turned it into a sort-of set, and then attempted to analyse why each line was funny, If I couldn't think why, It didn't make it into the set. (Unless I had REAL faith in the line, inwhich case I would sneak that line into conversation with someone and see what happened then. Usually it doesn't get anything which restores my faith in the analysis.) |
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PaulDouglas
Joined: 27 Feb 2012
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 12:07 am Post subject: |
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| AlexHylton wrote: | Hmmm. Think i'm going through the 'hating the formulae' phase.
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Yeah, I'm not advocating them. Just wondering what they are...
I get what you mean about watching comics and it sort of feels a bit "hack" in places. Like there are sort of shortcuts to a laugh that people use. It's a grind for a comedy fan but seems to get laughs.
| Sean Cosgrove wrote: | Is something making you think you're currently NOT writing good stuff then?
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I think it's always possible to improve. 
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Sean Cosgrove
Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 152
Location: London
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| Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 2:03 am Post subject: |
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It's not formulae as such, but one thing that gets on my tits is the number of comics who start their routine with a variation on, "I know what you're thinking - I look like X but also a bit like Y." That, and the "post modern" reference, "I got hit on the head last week and my flat mate said, "did it hurt?" and I said, "no, because it didn't really happen and I made it up for a comedy routine!"
Both very lazy, but everyone's doing it so it must be right, I guess. |
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Daley
Joined: 20 Jan 2012
Posts: 128
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| Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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| The 'I know what your thinking' self deprecation is the laziest opening to a set, even audiences who are not particularly savvy do not want to hear that 4/5 times in one night from as many comics. |
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Sean Cosgrove
Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 152
Location: London
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| Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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| I've actually thought up quite a good way to sabotage it as an opening, but am afraid to trial it onstage in case it pisses off every single other act on the bill! |
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Ash-LT
Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 1186
Location: Edinburgh
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| Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Sean Cosgrove wrote: | | I've actually thought up quite a good way to sabotage it as an opening, but am afraid to trial it onstage in case it pisses off every single other act on the bill! |
You shouldn't be worrying about what will piss off other acts on the bill. If it's good, funny, and subverts the form successfully, then if they are good enough acts they will understand what you are doing and will enjoy it, and if they are not, then fuck 'em, they shouldn't be cluttering up comedy nights.
What you should, on the other hand, be worrying about is whether it actually is good, funny and subverts the form successfully. Because here's the thing, the reason "I know what you're thinking" lines are so ubiquitous, is because they are funny. (Or, at least, the accurate ones are, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people wonder where the laugh is as an audience sits there thinking "no, we weren't thinking that, you look nothing like what you have just said".)
A good "I know what you're thinking" line should clue into what the audience is likely thinking, ie that you look a bit like X, as well as adding a surprising twist that takes them slightly beyond what they had already thought. If an act can do that, then a laugh is guaranteed. And as such, why the hell not? That's what you are there for, to make the audience laugh. They don't care if it's hack or cliched or lazy, they just care if it was funny or not. And as such, your "good way to sabotage" it, unless you can find a way to make sure the audience understand that that is what you are doing, and unless it actually is fucking funny, may well be met with a stony silence which will make a prick out of you rather than the people you were aiming it at.
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Paul Savage speaks Easy
Joined: 05 Dec 2007
Posts: 1492
Location: Wolverhampton
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| Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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Gary delaney has a brilliant one for that. He'd been on a bill where 5 acts had done that set up to start.
He came out and said " I'm Gary Delaney. I know what you're thinking, I look like the love child of John Delaney and Anne Delaney" |
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ChristhePurchase
Joined: 01 May 2012
Posts: 77
Location: Milton Keynes
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| Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| I know what you're thinking, I hope this guy's funny and I could really do with a piss |
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