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Audible Writing comedy is like the battle of Stalingrad. One joke gets a setup, the next gets a punchline. If the setup falls, then the next joke better
pick up the setup and follow through with the punchline because any joke found retreating
will be shot! The battle can only be won through attrition
no matter how many jokes fall flat in the process. That’s how serious I am about teaching aspiring
writers the brutal, merciless, and often thankless art of humor writing. Why not? One would think that a channel that focuses
on educating with humor would be perfect for a lesson on writing comedy? This is, of course, a common misconception. All of my writing advice is genuine. I don’t know why everyone keeps call this
channel satirical? Comedy doesn’t work when delivered with
sincerity, only when the comedian is laughing at their own jokes. Why I take this channel and myself 100% seriously. TWA JP is in no way an exaggerated persona. It’s not like real JP is a broken shell
of a man, cynical and all too aware of the dark nature of the world. Whoa! Where did that come from? Sorry about that. That darkness just leaks into the script sometimes. I’m sure it has nothing to do with my own
personal approach to humor writing. Let’s just repress that like my freshman
year of high school and get on with the lesson on humor writing! Now that the thing about humor is that it
is completely objective. If someone doesn’t find one of my jokes
funny, then there is something wrong with them! This means that writing comedy has nothing
to do with finding a style that works and everything to do with blaming others for not
having a sense of humor. Did the audience still not get the joke? Then we’ll have to explain it to them. Humor writing is kind of like a puppy. It loses all of its appeal when you open it
up to show how its insides work. But don’t worry. I’m sure the audience members that didn’t
get the joke will be able to stitch that puppy back together. It could never be that maybe, just maybe,
they did actually get the joke, but didn’t find it all that funny. Could it be a problem with the tone? Did I lighten the tone enough to create an
atmosphere for the jokes to land properly? How could it be the tone? Life is already a pointless march towards
the inevitability of decay and entropy. Oh I’m sorry. Some of that darkness trickled out again. What was I saying before my bout of nihilism? Oh yes. Tone. There is no need to consider tone or to worry
about floating the tone through sheer quantity of jokes. If one joke doesn’t land, then stop the
show until that’s sorted out rather than just move on to the next. It’s not like the one or two knockout jokes
are built upon the graves of many many unfunny to middling ones. Come to think of it, maybe humor writing is
more like trench warfare with human wave tactics? Speaking of tactics, what else can I try? Airplane food jokes? Complaining about flying and how it makes
my arms tired? Beating the booing heckler to death with my
mic? Oh look! It’s the rule of 3. The rule of 3 is a common writing trick of
creating a list of 3 things and having the last one stand out as absurd. The inherit contrast makes the absurd thing
stand out all the more which is why I’m going to put a stop to that. Contrast could never be used to make things
stand out more clearly. I refuse to use contrast in this video the
same way I refuse to accept any innate goodness in the world. Oh there’s that darkness again. Excuse me while I cram my emotional baggage
just out of public view. Okay. Where was I? Oh yes. With contrast ignored, the tone flailing,
the joke explained, and with no distinctive style of my own, what happens when a joke
finally does land? Well be sure to run that joke into the ground
through overuse faster than you can say The Love Triangle! Callback humor and running gags work best
when exploited to the point of exhaustion, worked more until the joke is dead, turn the
joke into a horse to kill it again and beat it, then resurrect the dead joke through the
foul art of necromancy to keep abusing it until finally even the joke’s bones have
withered into dust or fossilized, decayed into oil, and fracked. Keep using that joke until the overuse of
the joke becomes the joke and then overuse that joke! I call this joke rotation and was developed
by bronze age comedians to keep their humor fresh. Then suddenly! A chicken! That’s on fire! LOL Random! It’s funny because it comes out of nowhere! Random humor was great when I was a teen and
still had a waning sense of whimsy. Now though all of the lol random’s comedic
effects must punch through several layers of solid jaded exterior to get through to
my curmudgeonly core to elicit some kind of emotional response other than mild irritation. But that doesn't mean that it can’t be used
that as crutch in an attempt to appeal to older audiences who usually like jokes that
have more effort put into them than making fart noises. I mean it’s that or you can do what I do
and just recycle your own jokes every year and hope no one notices. Besides, I may be a bitter washed up cynical
hermit, but I’m sure the rest of the world has a more optimistic outlook right now. It’s not like humor is all about outlook
and perspective. I mean which of the following descriptions
are funnier? Unique comedy prodigy sensation and internet
superstar JP Beaubien? Or internet pseudo celebrity and pitiful love
triangle man. I mean the first one is a little to too humble
for my tastes, but it’s clearly the better option. Looking at something mundane and describing
it in a highly unusual way will never result in comedy because real comedy is all about
punching people! Yes. In comedy they say never punch down, but that’s
bad strategy because you never attack high ground. Besides, if I punch up to a heavier weight
class I might hit someone who can actually hit back. Better to always punch down and make fun of
people suffering because of circumstances that are beyond their control. One easy way to determine if a writer is punching
up or down with their comedy is to ask if the target being punched suffers from a poor
choice made because of either stupidity or a moral failing, or if their distress comes
from something beyond their control? For example. An aging, increasingly irrelevant internet
pseudo celebrity is off limits because he is simply too handsome, amazing, and humble
to make fun of. However a wheelchair bound veteran suffering
from clinical depression and terminal cancer is a-okay for me to pick on. I’m sure everyone will easily side with
me on that one. If you want a real easy target be sure to
go after those in the LGBTQ community and have fun poking that hornet’s nest. Now what about racist jokes? Telling racist jokes is like trying to walk
on a tightrope, except that tightrope got cut around a decade ago and now just leads
to a deep pit full of cancel hashtags. Since not even I’m willing to sarcastically
recommend telling racist jokes, all I can say to any comedian who still insists on doing
so is good luck. I’m sure you’ll find yourself in good
company eventually. It’s not like changing science and social
understanding applies to acceptable targets of comedic scorn. Society marches on, but a good humor writer
refuses to change with the times. Then how should a humor writer handle taboos? Treading upon societal taboos is more art
than science. The artistic part of it is either reveling
in breaking the taboo well past the realm of common sense and with no thought or to
simply never break any taboos and make the jokes so unbearably bland and sterile that
they could be safely told at the stuffiest church. Using comedy in a way that comments upon the
taboo, either highlighting some aspect of it or showing it from a different perspective,
is highly discouraged and it might make a few people in the audience react negatively
who were offended that the taboo was mentioned at all. We must stop the show because a few humorless
people complained rather than focus on the catharsis gained by the rest of the audience. Finding that sweet spot where the humor is
racy, but not raunchy is a difficult task that a humor writer can safely ignore. Walking that line can even be ignored when
engaging in gallows humor. Now sometimes the humor from dark humor comes
from the audacity of making such a joke at all or that the joke is so bleak and brutal
that it simply seems too outrageous to take seriously. Burning down one orphanage is a tragedy, burning
down 100 is outrageous. Burn down a million and I start wondering
where all of these orphanages are coming from? But we can ignore all of that because a better
way of using dark humor is as a smoke screen to weasel out of trouble after telling an
offensive joke. Why use humor as a tool to entertain and a
way to highlight just how stupid society is, when it can instead be used as a predatory
weapon to keep weak people down and to inflate my already monstrous ego? Humor can never be used as a way to keep my
own internal darkness at bay by making light of my self serious attitude when I get too
broody. Because true dark humor doesn’t come from
racist or edgy jokes. It comes from confronting the cold, empty,
and uncaring universe and the vile darkness that lurks in the heart of all humanity and
laughing defiantly in its stupid self-serious face. And if that doesn't work then just make fart
noises. CULT LEADER: Excuse me, sir. Have you heard the bad news? The stars are right and soon Cthulhu will
rise from the depths and… CONSPIRACY GUY: Still all going according
to ARG! CULT LEADER: Is this a bad time? We can come back later? KNIGHT: Mysterious hooded person! Quick! Take this video’s sponsor and flee before
ads end the TWA expanded universe! CULT LEADER: Certainly. We can’t have ads end the world. KNIGHT: Exactly! CULT LEADER: That’s Cthulhu’s job. KNIGHT: Wait! What? GENERAL: Ah ha! I tracked the hippy knights back to their
loathsome commune. And look. It’s this video’s sponsor, Audible. But what’s that racket back there? CULT LEADER: Oh that? There seems to be some kind of battle going
on. GENERAL: A battle! Where! Why wasn’t I invited? SOLDIER: Focus, general. The sponsor. GENERAL: Right! Sorry. Budget first. Hand over Audible unless you want to find
yourself on the wrong end of one of our nation-building endeavors. SOLDIER: Sorry, general. They’re noncoms. CULT LEADER: We actually have tax exempt status
in the Federation. GENERAL: Blast! Last thing I need is another warcrime inquiry. Besides, Audible is great because I can just
relax of listen to an audio-book after a long day of bombing space-communists. Or I can listen to an audiobook while bombing
space-communists and multitask. I can’t imagine what you cultists would
use it for. CULT LEADER: Listen to The Call of Cthulhu
of course. GENERAL: What? That garbage! Battle of Book Reqs GENERAL: Try listening to a real audio-book
like Starship Troopers. CULT LEADER: I prefer the Shadow Over Innsmouth. GENERAL: Old Man’s War! CULT LEADER: At the Mountains of Madness. GENERAL: Honor Harrington! CULT LEADER: The Dunwich Horror. GENERAL: Ender’s Game. CULT LEADER: That’s more YA, really. GENERAL: ARG! This is pointless. TWA fans are lucky because they can go to
Audible dot com slash Terrible or text Terrible to 500-500 to start their audio-book adventure
today, but you lot can just hand over the sponsor now or say hello to lieutenant chainsaw! He got promoted just last week. CULT LEADER: Oh. You want to fight? Why didn’t you just say so? *Tentacle noises ensue* CULT LEADER: Did I do it right?
