writing techniques comedy

How To Write A Comedy Script or Screenplay

Welcome to the world of comedy scriptwriting, where laughter is the ultimate currency. Whether you’re an aspiring comedy writer or a seasoned storyteller looking to infuse humor into your scripts, this guide is your ticket to crafting comedic gold. In this post, we’ll explore the essential steps to master the art of writing a comedy script that leaves audiences in stitches.

1. Know Your Audience

The first rule of comedy scriptwriting is understanding your audience. Comedy is subjective, and what one person finds hilarious, another might not. Identify your target audience and tailor your humor to resonate with them. Consider demographics, interests, and cultural nuances to create a script that connects and entertains.

2. Develop Unique Characters

Memorable characters are the backbone of any successful comedy script. Inject quirks, flaws, and distinctive traits into your characters to make them relatable and amusing. Think about how each character contributes to the comedic dynamics of the story and play to their strengths for maximum comedic effect.

3. Embrace Timing and Pacing

Comedy is all about timing, and this holds true in scriptwriting. Master the art of pacing, build tension, and deliver punchlines with precision. Experiment with different comedic rhythms to find what works best for your script, keeping in mind that the well-timed pause can be as impactful as the punchline itself.

4. Use Misdirection and Surprise

Create anticipation by setting up expectations and then subverting them. Surprise your audience with unexpected twists and turns. Comedy thrives on the element of surprise, so don’t be afraid to lead your audience in one direction only to deliver a comedic curveball that leaves them delightfully disoriented.

5. Play with Wordplay and Dialogue

Crafting witty dialogue is a hallmark of great comedy scripts. Experiment with wordplay, puns, and clever turns of phrase to inject humor into your characters’ interactions. Dialogue should feel natural yet sharp, adding depth to the comedic experience.

6. Rewrite and Refine

Writing a comedy script is an iterative process. Don’t be afraid to rewrite and refine your script multiple times. Test your material with trusted friends or colleagues, gather feedback, and be willing to make adjustments. The more you fine-tune, the sharper your comedy will become.

In the upcoming posts, we’ll delve deeper into each of these steps, providing practical tips, examples, and exercises to hone your comedy scriptwriting skills. Get ready to embark on a laughter-filled journey as we unravel the intricacies of crafting comedic masterpieces, one script at a time.

James D. Creviston

James D. Creviston is a writer, blogger, comedian, and podcaster in Los Angeles. He is the producer of the wildly popular Clean Comedy Hour stand up show, as well as the co-host of The Clean Comedy Podcast. James has been doing stand up for the last three years and has performed in LA and NY at some of the hottest clubs. James is a former veteran of the United States Navy as well as a graduate of the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is an avid comic book, television, and movie nerd. James can be seen performing his clean comedy all over the United States and heard giving advice on his weekly podcast The Clean Comedy Podcast.

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Comedic writing: How to write a funny story

Comedic writing is hard to master, but understanding types of comedy, what makes a funny story work, the visceral ‘huh’ and more will help you connect with your readers’ funny bones.

• Post author By Jordan
• 2 Comments on Comedic writing: How to write a funny story

Funny, comedic writing is hard. Senses of humor vary in what people find amusing. Read a guide to how to write a funny story. Explore types of humor and comedy genres, humor writing tips from stand-up and comedy icons, and examples of different types of comedy writing. Bear in mind that these funny ideas and elements can be incorporated into just about any genre as well. The funniest writing comes from universal experiences that we are all familiar with. 

14 types of comedy

One of the challenges of comedic writing is that there are so many distinct types of humor. Read a quick breakdown of fourteen types:

• Jokes are short stories or one-liners that consist of a setup and a punchline. For instance, ‘My grandfather has the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban at the zoo’ ( via Bored Panda ).
• Situational comedy or sitcom is a type of humor that draws laughter from funny and absurd situations (e.g. farce which often features ludicrously absurd situations). Michael Frayn’s play Noises Off (1982), in which a technical rehearsal for a play keeps going wrong, sending its director into a rage, is a great example.
• Romantic comedy or romcom is a comic movie (or book) that finds humor in the development of a romantic relationship. When Harry Met Sally (1989), starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, is a genre-defining romcom.
• Dark comedy , also known as black comedy, is humor that finds the funny side in darker or more tragic subject matter. Caimh McDonnell’s A Man with One of Those Faces (2016) combines crime, murder and comedy.
• Cringe comedy is a type of humor that derives its laughter from awkward characters and situations, guilty pleasure, and personal distress. It falls under dry humor. Larry David’s HBO show, Curb Your Enthusiasm , is a peak example of this.
• Satire is a type of comedy that uses humor, irony, and exaggeration to expose society’s stupidity, bigotry, or other vices. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer is an example that uses humor to satirize but also indict the Vietnam War.
• Parody is the imitation of a writer’s style or genre with intentional exaggeration for comic effect. Tim Burton’s alien invasion spoof, Mars Attacks! , and Henry N. Beard and Douglas C. Kenney’s Bored of the Rings , which satirizes Tolkien’s epic fantasy cycle, are examples of this.
• Self-deprecating humor is when a comedic writer pokes fun at themselves. For example, they might use embarrassing experiences as material. David Sedaris’ comedic memoir/essays often find humor in his OCD, embarrassing childhood stories, and other self-deprecating subjects.
• Insult comedy is humor based on true, painful, or exaggerated observations about others. The comedy roast is a perfect example of this. Jeff Ross’ roast of Bruce Willis showcases this type of humor [warning: Strong language].
• Physical comedy is humor that uses the body, techniques such as mime or clowning for laughs. The films of Charlie Chaplin that use slapstick are an example.
• Surreal comedy is humor that uses absurdism or dream-like logic for laughs, such as Monty Python’s ‘dead parrot’ sketch .
• Wordplay plays with language, such as a pun or double entendre . Ex: Mae West’s quip: ‘I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.’
• Blue humor is adult, often provocative, sexual or deliberately in bad taste. For example, Mae West’s bawdier inversion of a popular saying, ‘A hard man is good to find.’
• Anti-humor uses bathos or anticlimax . The expected punchline is replaced with something simple, unfunny, or painfully obvious. The so-called ‘dad joke’ is an example – ‘A man walks into a bar … ouch.’

GET YOUR FREE GUIDE TO SCENE STRUCTURE

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Comedy genres in literature

What are the main comedy genres in books?

Satirical or political comedy

Think of Joseph Heller’s 1961 satirical anti-war novel Catch-22 . It follows anti-hero Captain John Yossarian and examines the absurdity of war and military life:

What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can’t all be worth dying for. Joseph Heller, Catch-22.

Comic essays and memoir

Comedic essays and memoir remain popular. Geoff Dyer is an example of an author in this category, having authored books such as Out of Sheer Rage : Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence , about all the ways the author avoided writing a book about the writer D.H. Lawrence. It is part- catalogue of procrastination, part-travelogue:

London is the worst. Lawrence realised this in 1916: London was ‘so foul’, he reckoned, that ‘one would die in it in a fortnight’. Since then it’s got even worse. Now it’s the world capital of flu. The sky in London drizzles flu, it rains flu. People from all over the world go there and get flu. Whether they come to see the changing of the guard, or to take ecstasy at raves, they all end up getting flu. Geoff Dyer, Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence .

Some non-fiction writers are just naturally funny, such as Bill Bryson and David Sedaris. Here the comedy is in the writing. Let’s look at an example from Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling: 

One of the things that happens when you get older is that you discover lots of new ways to hurt yourself. Recently, in France, I was hit square on the head by an automatic parking barrier, something I don’t think I could have managed in my younger, more alert years. There are really only two ways to get hit on the head by a parking barrier. One is to stand underneath a raised barrier and purposely allow it to fall on you. That is the easy way, obviously. The other method – and this is where a little diminished mental capacity can go a long way – is to forget the barrier you have just seen rise, step into the space it has vacated and stand with lips pursed while considering your next move, and then be taken completely by surprise as it slams down on your head like a sledgehammer on a spike. That is the method I went for.

Comic genre spoof and parody

Many funny books spoof a genre and its silliness, clichés, habits.

In Bored of the Rings , Frito (Frodo’s namesake) wonders whether he could just throw the One Ring down a storm drain and be done with it.

Comic fantasy is one type of genre hybrid that often uses parody. Sir Terry Pratchett is widely considered the master in how he lampoons elements of the fantasy tradition, such as outlandish worldbuilding elements, fantasy races, and plot tropes.

The humor category on Amazon shows just how eclectic comedy is in its inspirations and niches. From ‘Business & Professional’ through ‘Cooking’ to ‘Urban Legends’.

Many of the current humor bestsellers (as of March 2023) have some kind of censored curse word in the title (contemporary comedy often falls back on the un subtle art of not giving a f**k).

How to write a funny story: From comical concepts to comedy gold

As the types of comedy writing outlined above remind us, comedic writing runs from the deliberately lame to the edgy and risqué.

Read tips on how to write a funny story with ideas from of comedic writing in English in books, film and TV.

For a story to be funny, the concept must first hold enough potential for comedy.

Repetition and suspense are common ingredients of funny writing (and dramatic irony).

Zhubin Parang (producer and writer on The Daily Show ) says ‘the visceral ‘huh?’ is a key comedy element.

How and why do your favorite comedy books, TV shows and films make you laugh? Take notes.

A shtick is a comic routine, style of performance or gimmick (e.g. Diane Morgan’s shtick pretending to be an uninformed, idiotic interviewer).

In comedic writing, producing more material than required lets you choose the best jokes.

Browse through comedy titles for ideas (such as David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day or the Tolkien spoof Bored of the Rings ).

There’s that saying ‘brevity is the soul of wit’. Don’t make the path to the punchline too convoluted or meandering ( unless that in itself is the joke ).

Let’s expand on the comedic writing tips above.

Start with a funny concept

Just as a magical fantasy story starts with a fantastical concept, a laugh-out-loud story starts with a funny concept.

Scott Dikkers, founder and longest-serving editor-in-chief of the satirical news site The Onion , wrote a series of guides to comedic writing.

On comedy concepts, Dikkers says:

When you write humor, the core concept you’re writing about has to be funny. The core concept is, in fact, the most important part of your writing […] You need to be able to express your concept in a single line or sentence, with as few words as possible. Scott Dikkers, How to Write Funny: Your serious, step-by-step blueprint for creating incredibly, irresistibly, successfully hilarious writing , location 162.

How can you find a funny concept?

There are many ways to develop a comedy idea:

• Draw from life. What’s an absurd or funny-in-hindsight situation or experience that’s left you in stitches?
• Go where there’s feeling. What drives you nuts? What has always struck you as ridiculous, ludicrous, bizarre, infuriating? Many comedic writers turn bugbears and pet peeves into comedy routines. See Diane Morgan, ‘Boys are Always Popular when they’re Murdered’ , for example. Or Hannibal Buress on why jaywalking is a ‘fantasy crime’ .
• Read humor and drama. The wider the web of your inspiration, the more sources to draw on and the wider your field of reference.
• Play with comedy subtext. Comedy has subtext. For example, ‘getting’ a joke such as that Bored Panda joke about the grandfather who has the heart of a lion (and a lifetime ban from the zoo) requires us to understand the subtext (that ‘to have the heart of’ something has figurative and literal meanings). What laugh-bringing realization will your next funny line hinge on?
• Brainstorm funny ‘what if’ scenarios. What if a man tried to return a dead parrot to a pet shop (as in Monty Python), for example. What if absolutely everything at a funeral went wrong (to hilarious effect)?

Additionally, try writing your comedy concept as a single line as Dikkers advises. If you must explain the concept in paragraphs, it may be too convoluted.

Another important note to consider is that sometimes funny stories or anecdotes are funnier than actual jokes. See how you can incorporate these funny stories into your writing.

Joan Rivers, on channeling strong feelings into comedy:

Every comedian is furious. Age makes me angry. I’m unhappy at not being able to open packages anymore. I’m angry that libraries have gone. I hate children on planes. I’m very shallow, so they tend to be little things. To be honest, I think I was probably angry the day I was born, you know, about diapers or something. Joan Rivers, interviewed by The Jewish Chronicle, October 29 2010.

Comedy writing exercises

To find a funny story idea, try this exercise by humorist Donna Cavanagh:

Write down memories of past embarrassing moments and see if you can turn mortification into mirth. Donna Cavanagh, How to Write and Share Humor: Techniques to Tickle Funny Bones and Win Fans , 2016, Location 415.

Another exercise to find a funny story idea: Write down three things you find funny. Imagine a scenario involving who, what, why, where and when for each. Try to write a funny story idea as one sentence.

Example: 1. Funny orchestra mishaps [ Ed’s note: Funny incidents such as a brass player sneezing into their trombone ]. 2. Awkward situations that just get worse. 3. Human foibles.

Scenario sentence: A trombone player who’s allergic to dust is called upon to play in a historical building last swept in 1983 and the concert is a series of mishaps culminating in him sneezing into his trombone in the slow movement.

Develop comedic repetition and suspense

A lot of the success in comedic writing for stage or film lies in comedic timing. What are two kinds of timing in humor writing, two building blocks of funny stories? Comedic repetition and suspense.

Repetition in comedic writing

Repetition at its simplest level is like the ‘knock-knock’ joke’s structure of call and response: ‘Knock-knock… who’s there?’.

In comedic writing, elements that add hilarity through repetition include:

• Characters’ catchphrases, tics, and quirks. The way Elmer Fudd’s difficulty saying ‘r’ in Looney Tunes, for example, makes it funny when he starts ranting about Bugs Bunny and ‘wascally wabbits’.
• Repetition with surprise or comical circularity. For example, in the cult TV series Twin Peaks , James asks Donna, who’s visiting him in the sheriff’s holding cells, “When did you start smokin’?” when she lights up a cigarette. Donna replies, “I smoke every once in a while. Helps relieve tension.” James asks, “When did you get so tense?” to which Donna replies, “When I started smoking.”
• Running jokes and gags. Popular in humor writing for TV series in particular, running jokes ( such as Buster Bluth’s extra-mural lessons that haven’t taught him much at all in Arrested Development ) get finessed and added to with repetition, brought up and revisited in new contexts in a way that adds to their hilarity.
• Recurring theme. For example in the 1990s/early 2000s sitcom Frasier , it’s clear to us, and the rest of the cast, that Frasier’s brother, Nyles, is smitten with Daphne. But Daphne remains unaware of this, and this theme runs throughout the series until – spoiler alert! – Daphne and Nyles finally get it together.

Suspense and nervous laughter

Comedic writing shares something in common with mystery/thriller writing: The build up of anticipation, or suspense .

Campy slasher films, a sort of comedy-horror genre, often make audiences laugh. It’s the nervous laughter that ensues when characters make foolish choices that make viewers want to yell at the screen (‘Don’t go into that creepy house!). ‘Person makes stupid choice’ is an endless fount of comedy ideas.

Suspense in comedy builds from waiting for the punchline or left turn, the outcome of that choice.

If suspense in dramatic writing means anticipating the bad, in comedy, it’s anticipating the hilariously or embarrassingly bad (for example, waiting for parents’ reaction to their new son-in-law accidentally breaking a beloved relative’s urn in Meet the Fockers ).

Observe and embrace absurdity

Comedic writing draws on observing – recognizing – the absurdity of everyday life.

It may be the Sisyphean (a task that can never be completed) aspect of work or relationships, for example.

In an existential comedy scenario , a chef perhaps keeps getting a meal sent back to the kitchen by a fussy table with exceptionally petty demands, until she explodes in a comical or cringeworthy way.

Many jokes in stand-up and other forms of comedy writing have become clichéd (such as jokes about airline food being terrible) because they repeat what we know to be true. Fresh humor, by contrast, often makes the familiar experience or scenario (e.g. ‘meeting the parents’) seem newly absurd.

Often in comedic writing, there’s a thin line between pain and laughter. The schadenfreude or voyeuristic pleasure of others’ misfortunes becomes funny because its relatable. We feel the pain of the kid bowled over by the Labrador on the beach. Tweet This

Ed ‘s note: A friend would tell the funny story of going to an ice cream shop where a very disinterested shop worker leant on the counter, chewing gum. “You want a cone or a cup?” she muttered, after he’d made his choices of flavors. “Cup, please,” he said. She paused, chewed a bit. “Don’t have.”

Bizarre and absurd situations are goldmines for existential and other types of comedy showcasing human foibles, miscommunications and vices. Tweet This

Comedy writer and producer Zhubin Parang speaks of the ‘visceral ‘huh?” moment – ‘situations that don’t go the way they should, or people who respond to an event or idea in a different way than they should’, as in the ice cream shop example above.

This is something to mine for funny writing ideas .

Take notes on comedy books and shows

🗣️ What are your favorite funny books and TV shows?

Tell us your recommendations in the comments. You can learn a lot from comedy shows and stand-up comedy you enjoy about comic writing devices such as setup and punchline, or the unexpected turn. Tell us a funny anecdote. 

Comedic writing exercise: The anatomy of laughter

Take a piece of funny writing or a stand up segment and ask the following questions:

• What devices is the writer using for humorous effect? Is there wit and wordplay? Satire? Clever repetition? Irony?
• How does the writer use language to comedic effect? Is there a mix of high and low (e.g. formal and slang) language? Do they curse? Is there exaggeration or understatement?
• What part of the story or script did you find funniest? Why? Was it an unexpected word, phrase, outcome, revelation? An everyday object or experience the comic reframed in a new light?

Explore funny shticks

The word ‘shtick’ means ‘a gimmick, comic routine, style of performance, etc. associated with a particular person’ ( Oxford Languages ). It is of Yiddish origin, from the German word for ‘piece’, st ü ck .

In comedic writing, creating a character with a shtick supplies a range of scenarios to fill with funny material.

In the series Cunk on Earth , for example, Diane Morgan’s shtick is the setup that she’s an uninformed interviewer narrating a historical documentary about human history – art, culture, religion, conflict.

Her fictional character, Philomena Cunk, asks Oxford and Cambridge professors questions such as, ‘When the Egyptians built the pyramids, did they start at the top or the bottom?’

There are several funny aspects to the character that make up the shtick, including:

• Random anecdotes she throws in about ‘my mate Paul’ who gets into all kinds of tricky situations
• Deliberate mispronunciations (such as pronouncing ‘The Bible’ as ‘The Bibble’ or the ‘Soviet Union’ as the ‘Soviet Onion’)
• Responding with slang and ‘low register’ to academic interviewees who use much more formal language (e.g. ‘Yer jokin’!’ or ‘Are you havin’ a laugh?)
• Running bits/gags (every episode references and plays a segment of Belgian producers Technotronic’s song ‘Pump Up the Jam’, with funny and nonsense text overlays stating random or made-up facts)

Think of one of your favorite comical characters from fiction. What sayings, habits, physical gestures, and other quirks make up their ‘shtick’? Think of Douglas Adams’ aliens, who torture humans with their terrible poetry.

Talking of characterization, remember that even humor writing has to have realistic characters. TV sitcoms often have really silly characters, too silly to be believable. Think of the 1980s sitcom, The Golden Girls, for example. Rose Nylund (played by Betty White) is the daffy one, rather too gullible and naïve, which played into the humor of the show. While popular with audiences, her characters borders on being on the wrong side of believable. 

Write surplus comedy material

A good piece of advice on how to write a funny story Dikkers gives in his comedy manuals is this: Write more material than you need.

Just as stand-up comedians don’t share the jokes that don’t make it on stage, comedic writers – whether writing fiction or screenplays – don’t share the pages that didn’t make it to the final draft or production. Tweet This

Blooper reels are extra.

The benefits of brainstorming and churning out ideas , multiple options, are:

• Digging deeper than the ‘easy’ laughs. Churning out lines gets the obvious ideas out the way. Comedian and actress Wanda Sykes shared with Kevin Hart in a podcast that her audience expects more than the easy, obvious joke (and that bringing her self – her politics – to her comedy helped her create funnier, more original material)
• Surplus comedic material to select the funniest jokes. Zhubin Parang, who was head writer for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah , says, ‘You always need to tighten, tighten, tighten. Every first draft has way too many words, extra thoughts or side ideas.’ Writing extra material gives this tightening process more material to work with

Hint it’s funny from the title

Think of titles of comedic fiction and non-fiction, such as:

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
• A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
• Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan

These are titles with wordplay (e.g. Fisher’s play on the phrase ‘wishful thinking’), absurd humor (the idea of a hitchhiking guide to a place so gargantuan), droll and random humor.

Your title is an opportunity to both signal that your book is a work of humor writing, and to signal its contents (e.g. Fisher’s memoir hinting at the memoir’s one subject of substance addiction).

Make it accessible and easy to read

Finally, effective comedic writing doesn’t need ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ and highfalutin’ convolution. (Unless it’s the Ben Elton -penned sitcom about Shakespeare and his trials and frustrations, Upstart Crow ).

There is an accessibility of style often to comedic writing. We mostly get the joke (without excessive explanation). Except in a brand of ‘random’ humor that relies more on a ‘visceral huh’ than ‘setup’ and ‘punchline’.

Mostly, style services the humor. Savage, biting satire is concise and punchy. Screwball and madcap comedy goes off the rails more.

In the Irish comedy series Derry Girls , there’s a wordy uncle named Colm who drives everyone mad with his long-winded, meandering storytelling .

This ‘shtick’ recurs as a plot device (the group of school friends who are the main characters use him to get out of being arrested for trespassing, for example).

The humor here is in how inaccessible, uninteresting, and infuriatingly boring Colm’s stories are. It’s a good reminder that there’s always an exception to the rule. However, the situational humor when characters are stuck with Colm is easy to read – the absurdity of getting trapped in a conversation you don’t want to have is a relatable, comedic situation.

Think how you can slip one-liners into your story. Even if a story is serious and gritty, you can lighten up the tone by inserting humorous bits and pieces in a story. Clever wordplay and puns can add humor to your writing. Look for opportunities to play with language, incorporate double meanings, or create humorous juxtapositions of words.

What is your style of humor in your every day life? Use your natural sense of humor. Think how you can inject that into your own writing.

🗣️ What’s a funny book or show you found relatable and why? Tell us in the comments

Join Now Novel for writing feedback on your next humor piece, writing webinars, story outlining tools and more.

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Related Posts:

• How do you write a story using three-act structure?
• How do you write a dystopian story? 5 tips
• How to write the middle of a story: 9 tips

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

2 replies on “Comedic writing: How to write a funny story”

This was so fun! I especially enjoyed “highfalutin’ convolution” 😁 Here’s one of my favorites: “Every book is a children’s book if the kid can read!” ― Mitch Hedberg

Haha, I love that, Margriet. Thanks for sharing.

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Our top ten comedy writing tips from the experts

Latest posts.

Find out how to write something funny in our guide to comedy writing techniques

We all love reading books that make us laugh out loud, and many of us would like to write them too. If you’re blessed with the ability to make people laugh at your jokes, chances are you’ve thought about writing a funny book, or script, or stand-up routine. Making people laugh is a skill in real life, and in print it’s easier said than done – comedy writing is one of the hardest tricks for a writer to get right. But we can help you polish your comedy writing techniques and learn the craft of how to write funny.

The Comedy Women in Print Prize was launched by comedian Helen Lederer to celebrate and support funny novels by women writers. They’ve sent us their top tips for how to write something funny, and we’ve rounded up advice on comedy writing techniques from some of the funniest women writers and comedians in the business to go with each point. These women all know how to make people laugh out loud, so their advice on writing comedy is well worth taking!

1. The main character needs to have, or appear to have, an authentic voice. If the reader doesn’t connect to the tone, the laughs won’t come.

Exercise: Write an account of a time when you stood up for something you believed in strongly and in some way fell short. It could be a story about not taking part in a demonstration you really wanted to be on because you missed the bus, or how everyone laughed at your indignant emails about the dirty office kitchen. Remember the pain and let the humour come from your own situation.

2. Comedy occurs with the meeting of two or more clearly identifiable ideas that don’t match – ie are incongruent and it’s the juxtaposition of contrasting elements (ie the odd couple/cougar and youth/posh and less posh) Laurel and Hardy that make things funny.  So think ‘incongruent thoughts!’ 

Exercise: Write a list of clichés. Then write at least three variants on each one. Being utterly ruthless with yourself, discard all the variants that aren’t actually funny. When you have come up with one that gets a laugh, write a flash fiction to bring it to life.

3. Comedic scenarios often start with pain (enjoy yourself…)

Exercise: Think back to your teenage years and think of something that seemed really ghastly at the time. Start writing (without trying to be funny) and after 30 minutes, put it away. Do a new rewrite of the piece on several consecutive days and see how it changes. Is anything funny coming out of your bad experience?

4. Comedy dialogue needs to be believable to connect (read it out loud? Small words are very effective punctuation points to elicit laughs).

Exercise: Go to an café, or pub, or sit on a bus – anywhere where you can sit behind people who are talking and eavesdrop on their conversation. At some point you will overhear something that makes your ears prick up with its oddity or – even better – makes you snort with laughter. Remember the key lines of dialogue and write them down. What is is about the particular word use that got the laugh? Can you identify it? Now try and write an imaginary dialogue continuing from the phrases you overheard.

5. Ensure that conflict and jeopardy build… until you think it can’t get any worse… and then it does.

Exercise: Create a scenario where a minor detail goes wrong for a character. Then build it up, bit, by bit, into the worse possible outcome that could plausibly be linked to the first thing that went wrong.

6. Just when things are going well, introduce a left field element - unpredictability is fun. 

Exercise: Start writing something observational about everyday life. Something based in common experience – maybe of shopping, or relationships, or the internet. Then add something related that is unique to you. It can be as off-the-wall as you like – ie, a piece about car boot sales that veers off into how your obsession with collecting 1970s troll dolls has ruined your love life.

7. Why not leave your work for day and go back to it – edit and edit until the page is really lean – a good edit can turn normal prose into a very mean and witty piece.

Exercise: Take a piece you have written for one of the above exercises and ruthlessly set about covering it in red editing pen. Everything that does not actually contribute to the humour of the piece has to go! Then, after you’ve had a good cry and treated yourself to a misery doughnut, read it back. Is it leaner, meaner and funnier, or do you wish you’d never bothered?

8. Although surprise is needed throughout, if only to catch the reader unawares, be predictable in providing a three-act structure no matter how loose: Set up, Conflict, Resolution. 

Exercise: Take one of the pieces you’ve written for these exercises – one that you haven’t hacked to bits. Your job is to turn it into a story with a beginning, middle and end. Aim for 1,500 words.

9. Explore and enjoy character foibles and weakness – this will win sympathy and connection. A person in denial of their weakness is funny.

Exercise: Write a description of a person with an obvious character flaw or foible. So far, so easy. But your job is to write it to try and discover what makes this person tick. Once you have got under their skin, write a piece of interior monologue from their perspective – bearing in mind that they are not aware of the flaw or foible you are exploring.

10. Show don’t tell – the reader is intelligent and will lose interest if spoon fed or if the prose is over explained… key placement of comedic words are jewels, whereas trying hard is annoying (sorry to sound strict but you did ask!) 

Exercise: Think of something that has recently made you laugh and write it as if you were telling it to a friend. How are you going to convey it in writing? Give yourself 500 words and impose a ban on unnecessary elements (perhaps adverbs, adjectives, words that sound as if you ate the dictionary).

The Comedy Women in Print Prize will announce the winners in its published and unpublished novel categories in July. And way beyond then, these top tips on how to write funny will help you brush up your comedy writing techniques and be the funny writer you want to be!

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Comedy Writing—Tips & Tricks To Make ‘em Laugh

Trying to infuse your story with humor? Look here for tips on how to make your readers smile.

Writing comedy is no joke. Hitting the right comedic notes to make an audience laugh takes a little talent and a lot of hard work. Just ask any comedy writers. When done right, the funny situations, punchlines and witty dialogue come together to create a story that has your readers coming back for more.

What’s the secret to tickling your readers’ funny bone? Good question. Humor is not a one-size fits all situation, but there are a number of tactics you can use for joke writing to try to pry a smile out of almost anyone. The good news is you don’t have to be a stand-up comedy genius to write a good punchline or laughable scenario. A love of humor and the tips below will start you on the road to writing comedy.

‍ Humor Writing Terms To Know 

‍ Slapstick: Big laughs based on physical comedy. Think The Three Stooges.

Sketch: A short, pre-written comedy scene like a humorous one-act play. Think Saturday Night Live. 

Parody: Poking fun at an existing person or thing, usually by exaggerating a trait. Think Scary Movie.  

Punch up: To make a joke better.

Callback: A joke that references something from earlier in the work or repeats the same content from the first mention.

Double entendre: A punchline with two distinctly different meanings, often sexual in nature (but not always). 

Rule of thirds: A pattern comprising related beats, jokes, or movements heightened or repeated three times.

Heightening: Taking a concept and creating a pattern of increasing absurd, emotional, and/or physical points. Each one more humorous. Think Buddy’s eating habits in Elf.

Last man standing: A line that seems extremely funny when it’s written but that loses its humor the more it’s read or spoken.

Button/the dog barks (and everyone laughs): The final humorous joke that is intended to pack a major comedic punch right before the ending. Think the last “extra” scene after the credits roll.

Route one: An unsurprising or obvious storyline. This can be applied to characters or to the overall story.

Langdon: Named after legendary comedy writer John Langdon this is a joke consisting of three stages: (1) two elements are introduced, (2) a discussion begins that appears to be about one element, (3) it’s revealed the other element is actually the one being talked about. 

Gilligan (cut): A scene that contradicts the scene before it humorously, i.e. one character is fixing something at one time, and then immediately after it they break whatever they were fixing. The reference comes from Gilligan’s Island , on which the device was often used.

Ding-dong: A scene that plays out the logical conclusion of the scene before it humorously. This term originates from Laverne and Shirley , as they would often wonder in one scene who would do something before the doorbell rang and the people who would do it walked into the scene.

‍ 14 Comedy Writing Tips to Get You Started

1. Brainstorm funny stories and scenarios

Now you are saying that’s an obvious part of comedy writing. And it is. But that doesn’t mean it won’t take a bit of work. Try brainstorming ideas or topics that tickle your funny bone. Chances are, if you get a laugh out of something, others will as well. Take that concept and expand on it. How can you make it funnier? Grander? Sillier? Play the “and then” game and keep going until you run out of funny moments. 

‍ Pro-tip: Record yourself or you and your friends discussing a topic, so jokes and punchlines can flow without having to stop to jot them down. 

2. Be Authentic

It’s often said that truth is stranger than fiction, and real life scenarios are often the source of the funniest moments. Take stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld as a prime example. No one can doubt his ability to make people laugh. His sitcom Seinfeld was the number one TV show on NBC for years, and week after week viewers tuned in to watch a half an hour about…nothing. Jerry Seinfeld tapped into the everyday, authentic situations he observed in his real life and spun it into comedic gold to gain big laughs. 

3. Be specific

Writing comedy relies on details. The more defined, the better. Anyone can make a joke about a dog that can’t learn to sit when its owner is trying to train it. But add details to the situation, like making the dog a Dalmatian or a teacup Pomeranian and the joke writing is pushed to new realms. A Dalmatian who sits only when on its owner’s lap is a very different visual than a teacup Pomeranian. The same goes for walking and poop and scooping. 

4. Be logical

Don’t skip this step. I know you want to. Comedy is supposed to be silly so you shouldn’t have to conform to logic right? Sometimes the funniest moments can come from the most logical moments, as long as they are strung together in the right format. Too much of the same topic and readers might get bored. Instead, build up to and around the final punchline by leaving a trail of smaller incidents readers can follow like a crumb trail. Think Zoolander written by and starring Ben Stiller, where walking the catwalk is turned into a comedy classic.

Ask any comedian trying to make people laugh at their comedy show and they’ll assure you timing is everything. Inserting a funny word, phrase, sentence or punchline at just the right time, usually the last possible moment, acts like an exclamation point on the funny situation you are writing about. With this element of surprise and hopefully delight, you point readers into a new direction or offer them the comedic relief they need. Think almost any line Ron Weasley speaks in any Harry Potter book. 

6. Trigger points

No matter how funny your book, it’s essential to pace your jokes and one-liners, allowing for ebbs and flows for each comedic situation. Even the comedy greats have down moments that allow their readers to collect their breath. Pacing is the key element here. Compressing your jokes into a scene where they build off of one another, leading to a climax of laugh out loud moments is important. Triggering “the roll” as Jerry Seinfeld calls it, keeps the reader engaged in the scene, even if not all the jokes are hilarious. The combined effect of amusement keeps them reading.

7. Pick a few words

Many words on their own can be funny. It can be the way they sound, like hullabaloo or upsy-daisy or how they are spelt like macaronic (not a cheesy pasta dish but mixing two different languages together) or dongle, which sounds like it should be a fancy dog toy but is really a piece of hardware that connects a computer to another device. How to find these words? Try using a thesaurus. Find the word you need to use and then look at the options available. 

Pro-Tip: Check out the Dilbert Blog for list of inspirational funny words

8. Be different

A great way to find humor in a situation is to find a twist on a cliché. By setting up the basics of an expected, established scenario and then adding a twist at the last moment, readers will be surprised and engaged. This technique, sometimes called “reforming”, will have your readers guess at the next cliché set up. For example, In Judd Apatow’s The Forty-year-old Virgin , the writer takes the Cyrano de Bergerac premise and applies it to the concept of a helping man lose his virginity later in life. Hilarity ensues.

9. Be particular

By hyper focusing on one small detail in the greater scene, big laughs can ensue. Trying to outdo and out grandize a scenario can lead to readers being confused and missing the finer points of humor bound in the situation. With a little focus and the right amount of contrast, the image can be turned into a one off that readers will remember. For example, in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story written by Rawson Marshall Thurber, the premise of dodgeball as a sport starts the story off on a comedic foot. But by adding a coach who trains the team by throwing wrenches at them because “if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball” takes the comedy to new heights. 

10. Play on repeat

Often referred to as “the call back,” comedy writing often sets up a situation and alludes to the joke at a later date. For a TV show or book series, this might become a line or scenario readers expect to see, like with Ron Weasley and his hand-me-down articles that never quite work right. Fans will salivate waiting for these little Easter eggs and they provide a through line giving stability to a one off punchline. In a single book, these repeated cycles widen as the circle grows. For example, in Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore, the H in Jesus H. Christ is often alluded to and at the end of the book, readers get a satisfying answer that is simple, obvious and of course draws a laugh. 

11. Comedy is Tragedy Plus Time

Often credited to the great comedic personality, Steve Allen, this classic rule of thumb has become a standard. How many times have you heard the line “Too soon?” after a timely joke about painful subject matter. The truth is, there can be healing in making fun of a horrible situation. Harold Ramis, famously known for playing Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters, once had a job working in a locked psychiatric hospital. Mental health is a serious subject and should never be made fun of, however one might see how the experience sheds light on the human experience. 

12. Improvisation

Improvisation (often shortened to improv) is the act of making something up on the fly, without prior thought or planning. You’ll often find improv troupes performing shows at comedy clubs. On TV, Whose Line Is It, Anyway? Is a classic example of improvisational comedy. Try freewriting a scene without worrying about if the grammar is perfect, or point of view consistent. You can edit or rewrite all of this later. The point is to be writing jokes and exploring possibilities without inhibition, to see how a scene might play out before pruning it down to the best bits and ideal pacing.

13. Edit it

No matter what you are writing, there is no getting around the editing portion of the writing process. Believe it or not, being funny is hard work and takes a lot of effort. Hopefully, as you tell yourself the first time, you make yourself laugh and get in a few jokes or puns. But you need to run over those lines again and again to home in on the good stuff and leave out the extras that might bog down your punchlines. Try reading the book to a friend or family member and note what gets big laughs and what flops. Next, get someone else to read it to you and see how your words translate.

14. Borrow from the greats

While it’s illegal to plagiarize, and never a good idea to copy someone else’s jokes, immersing yourself in the works of the writers that make you laugh is always a great primer for researching how to write a rip roaring comedy. And what fun exploration it is. To kick-start your reading task, here are a few famous comedic authors to consider:

‍ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1) by Douglas Adams

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

‍ A few comedic don’ts

Good comedy is really a matter of taste and if you surveyed a hundred people, you most likely wouldn’t find a consensus on what is funny. Everyone’s sense of humor differs. However, there are a few areas to be cautious about: 

Don’t tell the reader something is funny. Avoid using qualifiers like “they joked” or “chuckled” or “they all laughed.” Let your comedy do the work for you.

Don’t go overboard. Once you’ve hit maximum funny, take the laugh and leave. Over-using a joke, punchline, or situation can drive all the comedy out of a scene. Christopher Walken demanding more cowbell is hilarious the first time you see it on SNL, but if some version of that sketch aired every week, it would grow stale in a hurry.

Don’t make your main characters annoying. One-note personality types that rely on a tired stereotype or overused trait have the potential to make readers put a book down. 

Don’t alienate groups. Stereotypes can often be a shortcut to comedy, but they can often turn off readers more than leaving them chuckling.

‍ Writing Comedy Resources

Seeking further advice on the topic? Check out these books on the topic:

‍ Comedy Writing Secrets: The Best-Selling Book on How to Think Funny, Write Funny, Act Funny, And Get Paid For It by Melvin Helitzer and Mark Shatz

‍ Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers by Mike Sacks

‍ Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy by Judd Apatow

‍ How to Write Funny: Your Serious, Step-By-Step Blueprint For Creating Incredibly, Irresistibly, Successfully Hilarious Writing by Scott Dikkers

‍ The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny by Steve Kaplan

‍ The Comic Toolbox How to Be Funny Even If You're Not by John Vorhaus

‍ The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom--The Comedy Writer's Ultimate "How To" Guide by Judy Carter

‍ Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

‍ A funny thing happened…

True comedies aren’t always about a hilarious situation, but about how a strongly defined character reacts to a bizarre situation. Unfortunately analyzing why something is funny is a lot like finding the ingredients to falling in love. It’s a mixture of magic, right-time-right place, and maybe a little luck. The point is to have fun (and maybe a few laughs) while writing.

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Quick links on this page:

• introduction
• comedy should be used to support an amazing story
• how to use humour in stories
• things to avoid in comedy writing
• learn from humorous films and books
• humour is subjective
• funny stories
• useful links to other comedy resources

Introduction

This post contains lots of comedy writing tips and advice to help you pen a successful funny short story.

I’ve used some real-life humour writing examples, taking extracts from my own published stories to clearly illustrate how the tips were used in practice to achieve success.

I’ve also highlighted some common mistakes made by authors trying to write humorous tales so you can avoid them.

ha ha ha haaa ha haah haha ha ha hah he heh heeeee ha haaaaaa he

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Comedy Should Be Used to Support an Amazing Story

Writing comedy isn’t easy. Many authors struggle to place humour so it sits naturally and unobtrusively within a story.

I run and judge To Hull & Back , a humorous short story competition offering a £1,000 top prize. Because of this, I’m fortunate to read all sorts of different styles of comedic stories from writers residing all over the world. The best funny short stories I read all have the following in common:

The writer uses humour to support a great story.

They do not try to be funny for the sake of being funny.

Think of a story like a roast dinner. The main focus is the meat – beef, lamb, pork, chicken or whatever. Gravy is used to compliment the meal. In this analogy, the story is the meat and the humour is the gravy.

If the beef is chewy, or the chicken dry, an awesome gravy is not going to make the meal enjoyable, even if it’s cooked by Nigella Lawson.

A story is the same. The characters need to be excellent, the plot gripping, the idea original and engaging, the presentation professional. The humour should simply complement the story, giving it style and making it more enjoyable to read.

The same principle can be applied to any style or genre of writing. For example…

Just because you have a vampire, a derelict castle, some screaming virgins and copious amounts of gore, does not mean you have created a horror story filled with suspense and intrigue.

Just because you have a handsome hero who can drive really fast without crashing, stand in the middle of gunfight without getting shot and blow shit up without hurting any innocent bystanders, does not mean you have an entertaining action thriller.

The story itself – its subject matter, its moral, its meaning – is the most important aspect of any successful tale.

me looking stunning with lights on my head, ho ho ho

How to Use Humour in Stories

I find the best way is through:

Let’s look at these individually. I’ll use some real-life examples in this section.

If you give your characters a sense of humour – particularly the central character whose viewpoint you are likely to be writing from – their voice can add a comedic tone to the story in a natural way. For example, they might make funny observations about events, the situation or other characters and use amusing synonyms.

In my story ‘ Devil’s Crush ’, the main character, Joshua, has a strong sense of humour – it’s all that’s allowed him to keep his mind after losing his legs at war in Afghanistan. This allowed me to add a tinge of dark humour to the story, despite its serious subject matter.

In the story, Joshua encounters a demon. This is his description of the demon when it first appears:

I know the demon is a he because he’s naked. He’s a he with the right to be proud of just how much of a ‘he’ he is. His skin is the colour of burnt rust, his body slender yet muscular and he wears a goatee on his chin more like the animal it is named after than a man. His two horns are long and curved like warped blades of molten rock, his hairline a mass of flickering flames and in his eye sockets are two glowing coals which ping and hiss like the embers of a dying fire in the breeze. He is the source of the acrid stench which fills the room.

The second sentence in this paragraph delivers an element of humour without detracting from the description. This comes from Joshua’s voice – the way he sees and describes things. As the story is told in the first person, I used this tone throughout. It’s not laugh out loud hilarious; it simply adds an amusing undertone that helps engage the reader. Joshua’s sense of humour also helps develop his character, adding depth and believability to a fantasy story in a subtle manner.

The situations characters find themselves in can be amusing. This is often used very successfully in sitcoms.

The danger here is making the situation slapstick in an unbelievable way, with characters acting out of character or a plot being manipulated to generate a laugh. This can feel unnatural and disengage a reader. While common in sketch shows, this is not appropriate for a short story. Readers expect more depth.

When writing, I find it’s the way the characters react to the situation that makes it funny, not the situation itself.

An example can be seen in the video below. This is a very famous scene from the UK sitcom Only Fools & Horses .

Del falls through the bar - famous Only Fools & Horses clip

It’s the way Trigger (played by Roger Lloyd-Pack) reacts to the situation after Del (played by David Jason) has fallen over that makes this so funny.

Here’s an example from one of my stories. In ‘Shot in the Head and Left For Dead’ the main character, Dave, is in a band. He’s playing at Wembley Stadium in London and half the crowd have turned into zombies. It’s the way Dave observes, describes and reacts to what he’s seeing that makes the situation amusing.

There’s a gore-fest of pandemonium going on in the audience that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. Half of the crowd are trying to eat the other half’s brains. The ones who are reluctant to have their heads ripped open are trying to run away and, or, kill their attackers with anything they can use as a weapon, including bits of other people. Things couldn’t be redder – it’s like a tomato puree production factory.

Before I can fully digest the scene, a mass of smoking devilry dives out of the sky and starts munching zombies like a ravenous bulldozer. It’s about the size of a three-bed semi. Its teeth are as big as buses and it stinks like sulphur.

I look at the rest of the band. None of them seem to be zombies, although it’s always hard to tell with the rhythm section. At the side of the stage I notice two of the roadies eating one of the sound guys, while my guitar tech is using a spare Les Paul to try and behead what used to be our A&R man. Everything is turning to shit faster than swill through a pig.

I grab Maiden’s arm. "Fuck the fuck," he says. "What the bastard?" Eloquently put. Kind of sums up what I was thinking.

"Noise," I scream. "We need to make lots of it."

He looks at me like I’m mental. To be fair, he might be right. Bollocks to it. This zombie-monster-fest is coming to an end. Now.

The events that are occurring are fantastical. Dave’s voice brings humour into the situation. The characters are confused, not acting quickly, which seemed believable to me. While the situation might be so ludicrous it’s amusing, the characters remain in character – they don’t act how I want them to act; they act how they should, given what’s happening around them.

I often write without excessive plotting as I find this allows me to develop characters naturally in this manner. I always write with an end in mind (it helps steer a plot in the right direction) but don’t plan the detail. It works for me. Why not try it yourself?

What characters say and how they react to what is said can be very funny. Dialogue is the method I use most frequently to add humour into a story.

‘Death of a Superhero’ is a story that contains a lot of amusing dialogue (it isn’t available to read online, but is in the 1st To Hull & Back short story anthology or you can hear it on YouTube ). While what is said is amusing, the main purpose of the speech is to reveal the story and develop characters.

In this story the main character is Death. He is faced by a recently deceased woman who is pretending to be Batman.

“You’re listed here as Doris Claymore,” he said.

“Never heard of her,” said Batman.

Death reached out and stroked the decaying blade of the scythe that rested against his desk. “This is quite simple, Doris. To progress peacefully into the afterlife, you need to confirm your name. It means I can be certain of who you are, what you’ve achieved in life and, therefore, where you should spend eternity.” Death dished out his best glare. As glares go, it was pretty impressive. In the past, it’d made stars think twice about shooting. “Can you tell me your real name please?”

“Already told you. I’m Batman.”

“How can I put this politely?”

“No need to be polite,” said Bat-Doris. “Got skin as thick as armadillos, us crime fighters.”

Given the invite, Death decided to be blunt. “Not only is Batman fictional, he…” Death left a pause which he hoped would scream with meaning, “…is a man.”

“You have breasts.”

“They’re pecs.”

“No, they’re breasts,” said Death, “and Lycra does little to mask their magnitude. I feel I should add that Batman was always depicted as an athletic individual, at the peak of physical fitness. Clearly, you’re not.”

A tear trickled from beneath Doris’s mask, suggesting her skin might not be as thick as she’d led Death to believe. “OK,” she whispered, “point taken.”

Despite the scythe, the rotting cloak and the distinct lack of flesh coating his crumbling bones, Death was a sensitive individual. He disliked causing upset. Most people found the experience of dying traumatic enough, without him being disagreeable.

In a more gentle tone, he said, “Good. What’s your real name?”

“Bruce Wayne.”

As you can see, the dialogue in this extract helps to develop character and reveal the plot, making the reader want to find out what happens next. Death and Doris have clear voices – Death has an underlying sense of humour, while the humour is Doris’s words come from her defiance to admit the truth. The question is, why is she behaving like this? Well, if you read (or listen to) the whole story you’ll find out.

'Death of a Superhero', a funny short story performed by Christopher Fielden

Things to Avoid in Comedy Writing

Being funny for the sake of being funny.

Don’t try and be funny for the sake of it. Humour needs to evolve and present itself naturally. If you chuck in a slapstick moment when your story doesn’t need it, it can disengage the reader.

For example:

Arthur is the central character in a story. He’s having to come to terms with how he’s slowly losing his wife to Alzheimer’s. The story is written in a humorous style – Arthur is an amusing character and his sense of humour allows him to find ways of dealing with the pain his wife’s situation is causing him.

If, during the story, Arthur is at B&Q and needs to urinate but is so desperate that he decides to use a display toilet and gets caught by a member of staff, is that funny? Does it fit?

Well, it depends how it’s handled.

If the situation is placed in the story to generate a laugh via bared willies in a busy shop and inappropriate torrents of urine, then no. The reader will not be able to suspend their disbelief. They will disengage from the story and ask questions like:

• Why didn’t Arthur just go to the toilet provided for customers?
• If he was that out of control of his body, wouldn’t he just wet himself?
• Why am I reading this story? I think I’ll stop…

The act Arthur is performing wouldn’t seem realistic or believable. Yes, I’ve seen very similar situations presented in stories submitted to the short story competition I run many times.

However, if Arthur acted like this on purpose, to gain attention or help, and the B&Q staff member was a kind young man named Jim who wanted to help Arthur, then the situation and their conversation could be presented in an amusing manner. It would have a point and add to the story, revealing character development and plot. In this situation, it’s not the bared willies and public urinating that’s funny, it’s the resulting conversation and reason behind the situation occurring in the first place.

Bodily Functions

In everyday life, farting, poo, wee and snot will always be funny. However, in writing, these subjects have been covered comprehensively for decades by extremely talented writers and actors. It’s very hard to come up with an original way of inserting amusing bodily functions into a story.

I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m simply saying be very careful if you do – make sure your story requires Grandma to fart, for example, rather than just putting it in there for the sake of it.

Because Pauly (a good friend of mine) is a teacher, I’ve been lucky enough to judge a children’s humorous writing competition for his school. 95% of the stories kids aged 7-9 write involve farting, poo, wee, vomit and/or snot. That’s what children find funny.

Bear that in mind when writing for adults. While some of us still smirk when we drop a violently aromatic guff in a confined space shared with a loved one, it doesn’t always translate into a gripping focus for a story’s plot.

When I judged the competition for the school, I did this short video for Pauly to show the kids. I thought I'd include it here as it's about humorous writing.

me, talking about comedy writing

Avoid clichés. When you read a lot of short stories, like a magazine editor or a competition judge might, you encounter a lot of clichés – the same hackneyed phrases, used time and again (see what I did there? I’ve highlighted it in blue in case you missed it…).

Clichés become clichés because they are commonly used. This means they are not original. They do not help a writer create a unique voice. They do not engage a reader. They are unlikely to help you become a published author. More often than not (I did it again, did you notice?) they will lead to stories being rejected.

Cliché doesn’t just refer to common phraseology. It also refers to overused themes and subject matters. For example, I find a lot of older writers tend to write about people struggling to come to terms with retirement:

• Wives that find their husband’s constant presence annoying
• Husbands who decide to take up DIY to fill their time and make hilarious (often not…) mistakes
• Couples realising they have grown apart now their children have left home and try to do something about it

I see these types of stories a lot in the competition I run. If you’re going to tackle a subject matter like this, you must come up with an original angle.

Below is a video by InkTears CEO Anthony Howcroft. It’s entitled ‘How to Win a Short Story Competition’. It’s worth watching the whole thing, but pay special attention to tip number 1.

Exclamation Marks

Exclamation marks do not make your writing funnier. If you use more than 1 at a time, they do not exponentially add hilarity to the previous sentence. In fact, they can have the opposite effect.

In my experience, many writers overuse exclamation marks, especially when trying to write comedy. There is plenty of advice on this elsewhere and opinions do differ. Still, the best comments I’ve seen are by Terry Pratchett and Elmore Leonard which were shared by the Guardian on Twitter.

The humour in a story should be natural and obvious. Exclamation marks should not be necessary for a reader to understand the joke. I don’t use exclamation points at all in my own short stories. When I edit the To Hull & Back humorous short story anthology every year, I remove them all. Am I right to do so? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.

Canadian author, Olivier Breuluex, recently took me up on the offer at the end of the previous paragraph. Our discussion was interesting, so I created a blog post from it. You can read it here .

Learn From Funny Films & Humorous Books

You can learn a lot from others. When you read a funny book, or watch a comedy film or TV programme, enjoy it, but ask questions:

• What makes you laugh?
• Is it the situation?
• Is it something someone has said?
• Is it how people interact?
• Is it the strength of character?
• Is it gags and jokes?

I find watching funny scenes a second time allows me to appreciate the techniques used to make someone laugh. First time through, it makes you chuckle. Second time through, ask yourself why you found it funny. You can then apply the same techniques to your own writing.

The authors I’d suggest reading are Terry Pratchett, Tom Holt and Douglas Adams. Yes, I like funny fantasy stories, and these gentlemen are the best in the field. Whether you like their style or not, you can learn from reading their work.

Here are a list of the funniest books I’ve read:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Paint Your Dragon by Tom Holt
• Puckoon by Spike Milligan
• The Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett (I think there are 44 novels in total – see reference here )
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (and all the sequels) by Douglas Adams
• The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend

TV Programmes

I think Only Fools and Horses is a great TV series to study. The stories are good, the characters incredibly strong. It’s usually the way they interact and talk to each other that makes the situation funny. John Sullivan had a talented way of switching from quite an emotional scene to something funny in a natural way. You can learn a lot building character from watching that programme – Del Boy and Rodney are incredibly strong and identifiable.

Others that have wide appeal and have been very successful:

• Absolutely Fabulous
• Fawlty Towers
• Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
• I’m Alan Partridge
• My Name is Earl
• Only Fools & Horses
• Police Squad!
• The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
• The Simpsons
• The Vicar of Dibley

Well, there are many. The ones that make me laugh the most are:

• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• Blazing Saddles
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
• Dr. Strangelove
• Dumb & Dumber
• Ghostbusters
• Monty Python’s Life of Brian
• Shaun of the Dead
• The Big Lebowski
• The Blues Brothers
• The Man with 2 Brains
• The Naked Gun
• The Pink Panther Strikes Again
• The Producers
• There’s Something About Mary
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Trading Places
• Wayne’s World

Humour is Subjective

It’s worth mentioning that humour is subjective. What one person finds hilarious might irritate another. You can never hope to please everyone when writing a funny story, so don’t try to. Select an audience and try and appeal to them.

For example, I tend to write fantasy stories, and add the humour via the methods described in this post. It’s not ‘laugh out loud’ hilarious humour, it’s more subtle and underlying, often giving the stories a dark undertone. This doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I have been successful with the style and had a lot of stories published.

So don’t give up if one person doesn’t like your work. Listen to a wide range of opinions before deciding whether your use of comedy works or not.

Funny Stories

There are a lot of comedy short stories available to read for free in the short stories section of the site. Many are written by me, but there are some by other authors. I am now publishing work from other writers. Please visit my submissions guideline page to learn more.

As a measure of quality control, every story featured on my website has been previously published, either through short story competitions, magazines or writing journals. So each story has been successful and deemed as being publishable by professional editors and competition judges.

Accompanying each story you will find information about how and why it was successful. This is to help other writers learn and apply tips and advice that are proven to work to their own writing.

You can also read lots of humorous short stories in the To Hull & Back anthologies. So far I’ve released two. At the time of writing I’m currently in the third year of running the competition.

You can learn more about the anthologies via the links below:

• To Hull & Back short story anthology 2016 contains 29 humorous short stories
• To Hull & Back short story anthology 2015 contains 26 humorous short stories
• To Hull & Back short story anthology 2014 contains 27 humorous short stories

Useful Links to Other Comedy Resources

Below are some useful links to other posts about writing humour.

• How Do You Write Good Comedy? by the Independent – features tips from comedy writers like Andy Hamilton, Graham Linehan, Holly Walsh and Ross Noble
• Comedy Writing Tips by the Guardian – concentrates on comedy script writing

How To Write a Short Story, Get Published & Make Money

If you found the information in this post useful, you might like my book ‘ How to Write a Short Story, Get Published & Make Money ’.

It contains lots of very detailed information about my experiences of writing funny short stories and getting them published. I use a lot of real-life case studies in the book, showing the reader whole stories rather than extracts, so they can fully understand how I used the different tips and advice to achieve success. I also share details of how much money I’ve made through writing, giving readers a clear idea of how much work is involved and what they can expect to earn from their own writing.

As always, your comments are welcome and I do my best to reply to everyone.

Please use the form below.

This page may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy .

Leave your comments

Please use the form below to leave your comments. All comments will be reviewed so won't appear on the page instantly. I will not share your details with anyone else. Most recent comments appear at the bottom of the page, oldest at the top.

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Shirley M I spent yesterday learning how to write horror stories so here is another option, many thanks.

Chris Fielden Thanks, Shirley. Good luck with your horror writing :-)

Steph M Useful, thanks Chris. I'm up to over 33,000 words now on my book Top Hat Man. Phew.

Chris Fielden Thanks Steph.

That’s excellent news about the book – quite an achievement. Congratulations :-)

Chris D Hey Chris, I have actually been thinking about the issue of comedy in the modern age a lot... there is an awful lot of political correctness out there and it is interesting to me to see that things that people of our age find (found?) funny severely disturb younger people. I have a number of different projects in various states of disarray no doubt some of which could get me tarred and feathered in certain quarters.

Paul B Thanks Chris, I'm going to start working on a humourous piece this week so thanks.

Chris Fielden Chris - I know what you mean. I tend to ignore being PC – I think it can go too far sometimes. As long as you laugh with others and not at them I think you can poke fun at most things without causing offence. That’s what I like to believe, anyway!

Paul - excellent, good luck with it :-)

Mark F Nice!

Jan D Hello Chris. Humour, as you so rightly say, is subjective. Fantasy and Science Fiction attempts at humour leave me cold. As does resorting to foul language. Wee and poo jokes are hilarious to children and old boys.

I think humour should be used to break down political, cultural and religious barriers. Let's all laugh at ourselves and others. Beneath every successfully funny joke lurks something sad or serious. My interest (I'm 65 soon) is in comedy script writing.

Wishing you continuing success with your short stories.

Chris Fielden Hi Jan, thanks for commenting. I agree - using humour to break down barriers is a good idea.

I wish you the best of luck with your script writing endeavours.

Chris D Thanks for the reply.

I was working all weekend on a long story (10,000 words!) which I have been attempting since 2013 and will eventually finish. In your experience, is there any kind of market for stories of such a length? It has the same kind of realism as your story about the war vet - it's just much, much longer. I know it is sort of a grey area between the short story and novellette/novella family, so I don't want to waste my time sending out to magazines that don't consider that length of story. Any advice most appreciated!

Chris Fielden Hi Chris. The market for stories around the 10K length is a bit limited – most competitions and magazines ask for anywhere up to 8,000 words. But there are magazines out there (and a handful of competitions) that accept stories of that length. You’ll just have to do a bit of research I’m afraid.

Luckily there are some good lists on my site which can help you get started :-)

Margaret M Dear Chris, thank you for your writing advice.  Do you like David Sedaris? I met him in Bournemouth and he was so... nice.  I am a sad elderly (66) woman, with almost constant hip pain and MS. Husband has ME, so you can imagine the fun we have some days.  I write most days and will enter your  To Hull and Back Competition.  At present have RSI, but what's life without whimsy? LOL

Chris Fielden Hi Maggie, sorry to hear about the MS and ME. I'll look forward to reading your entry :-)

Aimee J Hey Chris. Sorry for being a bit of a bother, but does sarcasm generally work well in regards to making a situation humorous?

Chris Fielden Hi Aimee. It can do - it depends on the situation, characters and plot. Just ask yourself whether sarcasm fits and adds to the story.

I think it's subjective really, so there isn't a yes or no answer to that question I'm afraid.

Billy C Thank you for this.

Chris Fielden No problem, Billy :-)

Jeanne J Hey Chris, do you know you're 'shot in the head...' link goes to a pink shopping site? Anyhoo, hope to send you something funnier that.

Chris Fielden Hey Jeanne. Hmm... nice shopping site. Looks like the old site the story used to be on has been hacked so I've removed the link.

Thanks for letting me know - muchos appreciated.

Cheri J Very helpful, thank you!

Chris Fielden No problem, thanks Cheri :-)

Nick B Hi Chris. Brilliant article. I'll be coming back to refer a number of times. As it happens, 2 of my favourite authors are Douglas and Terry. I love the Discworld series - especially those involving the Night Watch characters. I've just started writing again after a 10 yr break. I'm doing fantasy and attempting comedy with it. Two firsts for me. Thank you. Hope I can produce something you would be proud of.

Chris Fielden Thanks very much, Nick. It sounds like we have similar tastes when it comes to reading.

I like the Night Watch stories too. I saw a stage production in London and Paul Darrow (of Blake's 7 fame) played Sam Vimes. It was great.

Anyway. Good luck with your writing. I hope the 10 year break gave you lots of time to come up with some good story ideas :-)

Wesley W It seems I've been making people laugh anyway. I'm wondering, I've got a pile of flash fiction that might raise a laugh, and am thinking I might try one of them.

Chris Fielden Always nice to hear from a fellow humourist, Wesley.

Good idea re flash fiction. There are an ever growing number of opportunities for very short stories. I list many opportunities for flash here .

I hope that's helpful - good luck with your stories and submissions.

Linh N Do you know any comedy podcasts?

Chris Fielden Hi Linh. There are hundreds of them...

I'd recommend just doing a Google search so you can find some that appeal to you.

The BBC is quite a good place to start.

Zoe I This helped me learn a lot of things about writing comedy stories, thanks a lot to Christopher.

Chris Fielden You're welcome Zoe :-)

Ellie A The bottom two links in your "Useful links to other comedy sources" section no longer work.

Chris Fielden Thank you for letting me know, Ellie, very much appreciated. I have removed the offending links.

The copyright of the stories and content published on this website remain with the author.

Christopher Fielden and all the other contributing authors published via this website have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of these works.

The stories and articles on this site are provided for you to read free of charge subject to the condition that they are not, by way of trade or otherwise, copied, lent, sold, hired out, printed or otherwise circulated in any format without the author’s prior consent.

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How to Write a Comedy Script

By Paul Keegan

Writing a script for comedy can be an intricate process. There’s a long way to go from the moment you conceptualize an idea to the moment that idea is realised.

A comedy script shares plenty of similarities with other types of genres, but there is one major difference – it must be funny. While horror scripts rely on scares and action scripts rely on excitement, comedy script’s bread and butter is laughs.

And that’s the purpose of this guide – to provide you with guidance on how to write a comedy script.

(This guide assumes that you have already got the general idea of what you’re going to write about.)

Understanding what a script is

So, you’ve had a killer idea for a comedy TV show, film or play and you want to start scripting it. What is a script? A script is everything: all of the elements – audio, visual, behaviour/movements and dialogue – that are required to tell a story through movies or TV.

Over the course of this guide, hopefully you will get a clearer picture of how to go about putting together a script for your idea.

Familiarize yourself

A good place to start is by looking at other scripts. This will put you into a script-writing mind-set.

You don’t have to source new scripts – find one for your favourite movie or television show. You will gain access to many of these online, simply search for a title’s script. Examine it carefully, the way it is written: descriptions, dialogue, actions.

As you are reading through the script, try and envision how each scene plays out. If you go back and watch the material, it will more than likely closely resemble the script in terms of dialogue, location, behaviour and aesthetics.

Think about how you could apply this to your own script – putting down exactly what you want to get from your idea, and how it should play out.

The technical stuff – formatting your script

Your set directions, dialogue and scene details need to be descriptively explained and clearly formatted in your script.

For many creative types, the formatting is an afterthought, but look at any script and you’ll realise that there’s a protocol which you’ll need to follow to make your text universally followable.

The technical aspects – like page size, font, indentations, emboldened words – should remain consistent throughout, so decide on how you’re going to lay the script out, and continue to do so throughout.

Fleshing out

A great idea is nothing more than an idea until you’ve fleshed it out as a concept. It’s a great starting point to have the idea – at least you have some indication of where you will end up. It’s a matter of finding out how you go about turning your idea into fruition.

You can work forwards or backwards as long as you have some form of starting point. This could be an integral part of the script, or even a minor joke that you want to feature – it’s still a starting point that you can expand upon.

Think audio and visually – what will sound and look good. Will it work with your idea? How could you make it more so?

Write down everything that you would like to happen within your script as a rough exercise – you can refine it later.

Outlining your story – 3 acts

Once you’ve got at least the essential elements of what you want to happen in your script noted, you can begin to put the story together.

Every script should have 3 components – a beginning, a middle and an end. It might seem cliché and obvious, but sometimes looking at your story in 3 parts can be very helpful.

What’s important at this stage above all-else is that you’re figuring out what happens and where it happens within the script – don’t get bogged down in the minute details of the comedic elements of the script, they can come later.

Your introductory part should do just that – introduce the viewer to pretty much everything. The characters, the setting, the tone and at least part of the story. This part needs to be very strong as it will be the part that catches people’s interest. If someone doesn’t like the beginning of something, they mightn’t see it out until the end.

In a comedy script, it’s important that what makes your characters “funny” is evident from an early stage. Think of all your favourite comedy shows and movies – within the first scenes, the tone for the character and the production has been set. With this being the case, it’s integral that the beginning of your script is very strong.

That’s not to say the next two parts aren’t either! The middle section is the longest and is, without putting it too bluntly, the means of getting from the start to the end.

Your middle section of the script takes what you’ve set up in your first section, and takes your characters on some form of journey (doesn’t need to be a literal journey).

In a comedy script, this part of the story is where you can fit in parts that simply won’t work in the intro and conclusion. Character development can take place during the middle section, and there should be continuity throughout (presuming that’s what you’re going for).

Once you’ve reached the final section of your script, it’s time to tie things up. Thinking about your favourite comedy shows and movies, this usually ends in some form of a resolution.

Characters & settings

In a comedy script, character is essential. Again, thinking of your favourite productions, I’d wager you were drawn to them by the characters – Ron Burgundy, David Brent, Chandler Bing – interesting and relatable characters can be the making of a classic comedy (that doesn’t mean they can’t be ridiculous).

Some things to take into consideration when forming your characters – make your characters “human”. A lot of comedy is routed in relatability, so at least some characters in your script will need qualities that resonate with the audience.

Characters are probably more important than anything else. The setting can come completely after the characters have become formed.

Perhaps when it comes to setting, you can choose somewhere relatively mundane, a place where comedy may not be expected. Some of the most popular comedy shows and movies ever made have been set in unlikely settings – government buildings, newsrooms, coffee shops – the world is your oyster when it comes to setting.

Another important element of choosing a setting for your script will be how plausible it will be to pull off – is the location you want possible? Would it be safe to film there? Questions like these are the bane of creativity but should be considered nonetheless. Ideally, the less locations necessary, the better.

Inject comedy (and sequences)

The story’s blueprint is there, now you’ve got to begin adding the elements that will bring it to life. A comedy script needs some comedy, that should be a given.

What kind of comedy is up to you – it could be slapstick and outrageous; or subtle; or a blend of both. That’s up to you to decide.

Once you’ve got your characters, your setting, and an idea of how you want to story to play out, you can begin looking at the project with a view to adding laughs wherever possible.

Comedy can be found almost anywhere, so think carefully about what you want your characters to do and how that could be funny. Sometimes it can be something as simple as a funny action that will brighten up a sequence.

Don’t oversaturate your script with jokes. Oftentimes, one particularly good bit is better than 5 average bits.

What scenarios will your characters find themselves in? How did they make their way into them, and how do they make their way out? These questions will act as a platform to create comedic scenes within your script.

Writing scenes

You know your story and you know where the comedy is going to come from, now it’s time to start writing the scenes. I suppose when you think of a script, you think of a collection of scenes, so this is an integral part. Even though it’s a big part of the script creating process, you already have the bulk of the work done, it’s just a matter of articulating it.

Although you’re putting your story into acts, and then your acts into the scenes, you don’t necessarily have to have solidified your dialogue at this point. Also at this stage, don’t limit yourself to writing something because you think it will be too much or takes too long – excess content can be dealt with later.

Comedic dialogue

Dialogue – at least in part – can be left until closer to the end of the script-creating process. This is especially the case with comedy writing, as your dialogue will need to be refined repeatedly so that your comedic elements have the maximum amount of desired effect.

Obviously, the type of tone you’re going for will influence the dialogue. As a writer, it’s important to understand how important dialogue can be in a script. If it’s too cliché or cheesy, it will be immediately obvious to nearly everybody reading it. It doesn’t need to be overly-complicated, but it must be interesting and succinct.

Dialogue can be used as a majorly defining feature of a character. An audience will base their perceptions of a character based on what they look like, and what they say. Take this into consideration when adding dialogue to your scenes.

As mentioned in the comedic sequence section, watch out for joke over-saturation when writing dialogue. There’s nothing wrong with laughs coming thick and fast in a comedy script (in fact, it’s generally encouraged) but it can be better to have one memorable large pay-off as opposed to a few hit-or-miss bits.

Editing process

So, at this point you’ve got: Characters, settings, scenes and dialogue – you’ve got a comedy script. The problem at this stage, is there is almost definitely too much content. You’re going to need to cut down on some of your ideas, or perhaps remove entire scenes.

Begin cutting away what’s not needed. This is easier said than done – after writing it, and putting your heart into it, it can be difficult to cut. However, for the sake of the script you’ll have to put your pride to one side, be ruthless, and edit.

Analyse your story and scenes and see what is necessary and must stay and what could potentially go. Is a scene not funny enough? Not completely relevant to the story? You might need some help with coming to these conclusions, and this is where the next part of the process comes in.

Impartial opinion

A second opinion will be essential for your script. It’s very easy to become disillusioned with your story and characters, and what’s good in relation to them and not, so getting an outside viewpoint will hopefully give you an indication as to what people who aren’t you might think.

You’re going to want impartial, constructive feedback on your script from someone who’s opinion you value. What do they think? Is it good? Is it funny? What’s good/bad? Would they like it if they came across it on their television? Could they see it being a reality? What would they change? So many questions, that you’ll only get the answers to if you share it around.

Tell them to be honest and to tell you what they think – even if it’s negative. It might hurt when they say parts of your script are weak, but it will help in the end.

When you’ve got feedback on your script, it could potentially be time to refine once more. Take what you’ve been told, what works, what doesn’t and improve your script where possible. Do this as many times as it takes until you’re truly satisfied with the finished product.

Hopefully by this stage your comedy script is approaching completion. Once you’ve got the finished script, it’s up to you what you choose to do with it, but at least it’s written.

Writing a comedy script can be a difficult process, especially starting out. It can be difficult to articulate your ideas in a funny way in a script, but the more you do it, the more proficient you will get.

Want to learn about writing stand-up? Take a look at our post entitled How to Write a Stand-Up Comedy Routine .

How to Write a Comedy Script is an article from Writing Tips Oasis . Copyright © 2014-2017 Writing Tips Oasis All Rights Reserved

Paul likes to think he’s funny sometimes. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @paulpaulkeegan

I prompted AI to summarize Google's 45-page book about how to write the best AI prompts. Here are the key takeaways.

• Google  handed out free guides on how to write successful AI prompts for Gemini at Google I/O.
• The booklet covers best practices for Google Workspace and gives examples for various professions.
• Some tips include drafting 21-word prompts that include persona, task, context, and format.

Google handed out booklets about how to write successful AI prompts at its big summer developer conference, Google I / O .

But you're still in luck even if you weren't one of the developers or press in attendance — Google has a free PDF version available for download on its website.

The guide breaks down how to best write AI prompts for Gemini for the company's Google Workspace apps, which include Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Meet, and Google Slides.

But there are some great takeaways in general for writing AI prompts.

It lists some helpful tips, like how the most successful AI prompts average around 21 words, and users should refrain from making them too long or too short. The guide also went over the four key points to hit in every prompt to receive the most useful responses.

The guide showcases how different roles can use Gemini to improve productivity. For example, an HR manager might use Gemini to create a script for an onboarding presentation, while a sales representative may use it to create an elevator pitch for a client.

Related stories

While the digital version is only 45 pages long, we uploaded the booklet to Google's Gemini to see the biggest takeaways (yes, we prompted AI to summarize a book about AI prompts).

Here's what it said in response.

Gemini for Google Workspace: A Guide for Busy Professionals

This guide is a comprehensive resource for anyone who wants to learn more about using Gemini for Google Workspace to improve their productivity and creativity. It covers a variety of use cases for different roles (Recruiter, HR Manager, Marketing Manager, Project Manager, Sales Manager) and provides specific prompts and examples to help them leverage Gemini's capabilities.

Key Takeaways

• Gemini for Google Workspace integrates with various Google Workspace apps (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet) to assist with tasks like writing, organizing, summarizing information, creating visuals, and more.
• Effective prompts for Gemini should include Persona (who you are), Task (what you want to achieve), Context (background information), and Format (desired output style).
• Gemini can be used across various departments to improve productivity and streamline workflows.

Additional Tips

• Level Up Your Prompt Writing: The guide offers additional tips to help you improve your prompt writing skills. These include breaking down complex tasks into smaller prompts, using constraints to generate specific results, and tailoring your prompts to the desired tone and audience.
• Stay Up-to-Date: The guide recommends checking workspace.google.com and workspace.google.com/blog for the latest information on Gemini for Google Workspace.

Overall, this guide is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to learn more about using Gemini for Google Workspace to enhance their work within the Google ecosystem.

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

Watch: AI expert explains how to incorporate generative AI into your business strategy

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Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

Jonathan Lambert

If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

Is this some kind of joke? A school facing shortages starts teaching standup comedy

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

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Feeling artsy here's how making art helps your brain.

"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

• handwriting

Celebrants share their tips for writing heartfelt wedding vows

Whether you're not great with words or public speaking terrifies you, writing wedding vows can be tricky.

"[Writing vows] might be the one thing that gives couples the most angst of all about their wedding day," says Jen King, a writer and marriage celebrant from Mullumbimby, on Bundjalung country in northern NSW.

"You're exposing your vulnerabilities in front of all your guests. You're showing your emotional side."

So how do you get the ball rolling? And what should you include, and avoid?

Why writing wedding vows can be difficult

Eddie Lemos Couto is a marriage celebrant in Boorloo/Perth and says couples should feel welcomed to reach out to their celebrant for help.

"A lot of people know exactly how they feel about each other but putting [that feeling] into words is a different matter," he says.

"Not everyone is good with words. I [tell couples], 'It's a good thing you are hiring someone who is — I can help you."

Your celebrant may be able to provide questions, prompts, links to inspiration, and offer to read over your words and provide feedback.

There are templates you can find online, but all of the celebrants we spoke to recommended at least putting your own spin on things.

How to get started

Brooke O'Donnell, a Palyku woman and celebrant also based in Boorloo/Perth, recommends getting started on your vows early.

"If you're planning a wedding that is a year away, start writing," she says.

"Some people are good at winging it, but I wouldn't recommend that for most."

When writing vows, Ms King suggests imagining you are telling your loved one why you want to marry them.

"You're telling them … how they make you feel, what you will bring to the marriage, and what you are looking forward to together once you are married," she says.

She says to "tune everyone else out" and write it as though you are speaking directly to your partner.

"It's not about anyone else except you and the person you are about to marry."

Although in blended families, Ms O'Donnell says you might like to acknowledge stepchildren and what you promise for them also.

How long should wedding vows be?

There are no strict rules, but if you're looking for a ballpark length, Ms King recommends 200 words.

"First of all, everyone wants to see you get married, and then get to the bar and start drinking," she says.

"You could tell [your partner] more in a card.

"Pulling out the most important things for vows will have the most impact."

Mr Lemos Couto says he will tailor a ceremony around how long a person's vows are. The only time he asks couples to tweak is when there is an imbalance.

"I might tell someone to write less or write more when … someone is talking for five minutes and the other for five seconds," he says.

What you shouldn't write in your wedding vows

Mr Lemos Couto says people should be careful to avoid making promises they won't be able to keep.

"Don't tell them you will stop smoking. Don't say 'from this point onwards I will go to the gym every day'," he says

Cliches should also be avoided, Ms King says.

"Things like, 'When I see you, my world lights up.'"

Lastly, don't forget to say 'I love you' in one way or another, Ms O'Donnell says.

She has commonly seen people "forget to state the obvious".

"The number one thing is you can't really get it wrong [if] you say you love the person.

"Sometimes the most very obvious things are actually all you need."

You can be playful — but it's not comedy

Ms King says vows don't have to be all heartfelt and it's OK to have some fun with it.

But she warns turning the whole thing into a "comedy act" can fall flat with your spouse.

"You can imagine in front of all your friends, you feel awkward, so you turn it into a bit of a joke to get some laughs," she says.

Mr Lemos Couto says some couples take unique approaches, such as "ninja vows", which is when partners write each other's words, and read them aloud during the ceremony for the first time.

Alternatively, some couples choose to be private with their vows, and exchange before or after the ceremony in the form of a letter, explains Ms O'Donnell.

"[For those couples] I will just do the legal vows, and they have said their personal vows in secret."

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Andy samberg-led ‘the robots go crazy’ from directors radio silence lands at amazon mgm.

The comedy pitch package has Andrew Lanham ('Shang-Chi') writing the script.

By Ryan Gajewski

Ryan Gajewski

Senior Entertainment Reporter

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Andy Samberg is set to star in a comedy feature from the directing team known as Radio Silence .

Amazon MGM Studios has landed the comedy pitch package for The Robots Go Crazy , with Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett attached to helm the film and Samberg attached to star, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Plot details have not been disclosed, but the movie is described as an action comedy.

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'road house' sequel with jake gyllenhaal in the works at amazon mgm studios, andrew garfield to join julia roberts in luca guadagnino thriller 'after the hunt'.

Andrew Lanham is writing the script and will executive produce. Lanham, who previously worked on the scripts for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Just Mercy , is repped by UTA, Kaplan Perrone and Ziffren Brittenham.

After appearing in the recent Hulu release Self Reliance , Samberg can be seen later this year alongside Kate Winslet and Josh O’Connor in Lee , a biopic of World War II photographer Lee Miller. Samberg recently voiced roles in the animated features Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers .

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett directed Abigail , the vampire flick that Universal released last month , after previously helming the two most recent Scream films and 2019’s Ready or Not .

During a conversation with THR ahead of the release of Abigail , Gillett explained that they weren’t looking to waste any time before landing their next project.

“We like to not just wait around,” he said at the time. “I think it is about how the wind is blowing for us creatively and what is interesting to us in the moment. So who knows what follows Abigail , but we’re going to be looking real soon.”

Deadline was first to report the news of Amazon MGM Studios landing the new package.

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