SECRET OF A JOKE

 The joke comprises of the setup (causes you to expect one thing) and the punch line (surprise
you with another thing)
 Everything that you imagine to exist but are not directly perceiving is an assumption  the need
for human to make sense of everything  but there is not much information  assume
 The aim of the punch is to shatter the target assumption

MECHANISM

 Target assumption is the key assumptions under which the setup is built on  the effectiveness
of the setup depends on how well you target the assumptions  there may be many
assumptions in the setups but the target assumption is the one that is directly shattered by the
punch line
 The target assumption talks about one thing and the punch presents an unexpected
interpretation of that thing. It must be the idea upon which the second story line is built
 One thing is interpreted in at least two ways. The setup may be discussed in different aspects,
each aspect may be a connector  the connector or the central idea is the one that can be
interpreted in various ways  the more ways the central idea is interpreted, the more jokes we
have

HOW A JOKE WORKS:

 a joke requires two story lines: the setup creates the first story line which is built largely upon
our assumptions when we do not get enough information that forces us to expect one thing.
The punch line creates the second story line surprises us with another thing  we must target
at the normal assumptions that people will normally think of  then surprise them
 You may not need a setup because the target assumption already resides on the minds of the
audience, when the information is universally accepted  all you need to make a joke is a
punch line  we must target at the unconscious assumptions that people make every day 
when people assume something, you have got a big chance of setting up a joke
 You may not need a punch line as well where the setup leads to the inevitable and obvious
punch
 A setup and a punch is not always necessary  we only need to be alert about the
assumptions they made ( THE CONNECTORS)+ the ABILITY to interpret one thing in two ways
 All you need is 1st story and the target assumption, connector, 2nd story line and the
reinterpretation

Everything has many possible interpretations. An interpretation other than the assumed one is called re-
interpretation.

 Words can have different interpretations due to its various meaning

  Objects can also be interpreted in many ways

Every joke-writing system lends itself to writing one-liners. The vast majority of jokes come from the
social situation without any setup. Firstly, we will deal with Joke Inspector

JOKE MAP: helps you decide on the topic, define punch-premise, setup-premise to write joke setups :
one thing that you should never ever try to write about is what you guess the audience may think is
funny

The jokes are in details  should not find a joke on a broad generality  narrow it down, you can never
be too specific  5 steps

 Topic: single topic presenting something wrong  the topic should not be funny and not about
opinions  it should be painful topics or unfunny at all  potential comedy hides in the most
unlikely place – painful things  write about something you or someone else consider wrong --
 Association list: smaller aspects, specific things that you can think of relating to the topics
 Punch premise: a negative opinion about a smaller aspect narrow it down to a specific
concept called punch premise from the association list cannot contain an example which will
narrow down the topic to the specific area of that example
 Setup premise: opposite opinion to the punch premise  changing the opinion to that opposite
of the punch-premise  don’t use setup premise as setup itself if not, you can only get one
joke if you have good setup premise, you should be able to write a whole bunch of setups
 Writing setup-premise  the joke is always from good to bad (directly opposite) or from bad to
worse (opposite by degree)  always moving towards the negative ends  comedy is about
two conflicting ideas collide

Surveying material: from topic to setup  YOU MUST EXPLORE BY ASKING QUESTIONS

 List some topic: what is something that I am interested in?  list some random issues  IF WE
STUCK OF IDEAS GO BACK TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE AGAIN
 Select one topic and select an association list: what are things that I can think of related to the
topics?  choose one issue and generate some specific ideas about that issue  IF WE STUCK
OF IDEAS GO BACK TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE AGAIN
 Create several punch premises: what are the negative opinions about smaller aspects of my
topic?  it must be a negative opinion, it must be negative and it cannot contain an example 
IF WE STUCK OF IDEAS GO BACK TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE AGAIN
 For each punch premise, form a setup premise: what are some opposite opinions to the punch
premise?  find the opposite, positive opinion to that punch premise’s negative opinion
 Choose a setup premise and write a list of setups: what are some examples that can express my
setup-premise thinking of examples and statements that express the setup premise  use
creativity and imagination as if the setup-premise is true  keep it as short as possible but must
contain the information  IF WE STUCK OF IDEAS GO BACK TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE AGAIN
JOKE MINE: digs into the setup and uses the target assumptions, connector and reinterpretation to
create a punch. Steps:

 Select a setup and lists all the assumptions: what I am assuming about this statement?  don’t
need to try to generate all of them  find the most obvious one or the one that can be
reinterpreted to provide the most humor  don’t choose obscure assumptions that most of the
audience don’t make  IF WE STUCK OF IDEAS GO BACK TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE AGAIN
 Pick a target assumption and identify the connector: what is the thing that causes me to make
this target assumption?  one of the aspects of the setup  should ask more questions to find
out the assumptions and the aspects related to the setup  IF WE STUCK OF IDEAS GO BACK
TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE AGAIN
 List some reinterpretations for the connector: other than the target assumption, what can I
interpret about the connector?  IF WE STUCK OF IDEAS GO BACK TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE
AGAIN
 Choose one interpretation and compose a 2nd story: relative to the setup, on what specific
situation could explain my reinterpretation?  the reinterpretation is usually not a punch, it is
the central idea for the 2nd story  the reinterpretation is derived relative to the setup 
making up the situation requires asking a lot of questions (if the aspect we choose is reason 
keep asking why..)  IF WE STUCK OF IDEAS GO BACK TO THIS STEP AND CHOOSE AGAIN
 Write a punch line to express or communicate the 2 nd story: in addition to the setup, what
additional information should we add in to convey the message for the 2 nd story  write the
punch in the way that you usually write or talk  as few words as possible  design many
versions and choose the one that is funniest to you

 what you have to do is to provide enough information for the audience to get the 2 nd story 
there is no right way to do  can use voice, words or facial expressions or even acting

POLISHING WHAT YOU HAVE: don’t polish it while you are coming up with it  if not, you will kill your
momentum and leave a lot of tunnels undiscovered

Brevity is levity  remove all the unnecessary information Conservation of energy: the energy spent
on thinking is taken from energy used for laughing

End the punch with the reveal of pivotal words, phrase or action that represents the reinterpretation 
it must be at the very end  if it is at the beginning, they will also laugh but they will stop to hear to
speak