Quote: Tony Cowards @ February 8 2011, 11:12 AM GMTIndeed you did Mr B and again by putting two different ideas together, 1) that a Griffin is an animal made up of different species and 2) that the BNP is against mixed marriages/heritage/multiculturalism.
If I can run with what you're saying there, I think what you mean is that David Bussell might just be the finest gagsmith of his or anyone else's generation.
I'm beginning to worry about one BCGer
His name is Griff-in.
Hooray this has become the lame ass Nick Griffin lamo gag thread.
The pie loving, queeraphobic MEP must be over the moon that anyone remembers him.
Quote: David Bussell @ February 8 2011, 11:15 AM GMTIf I can run with what you're saying there, I think what you mean is that David Bussell might just be the finest gagsmith of his or anyone else's generation.
example ironic overstatement.
Example ironic insult
Example ironic self aware joke, e.g. the elusive anti joke
Quote: sootyj @ February 8 2011, 11:16 AM GMTI'm beginning to worry about one BCGer
His name is Griff-in.
Hooray this has become the lame ass Nick Griffin lamo gag thread.
That ain't no gag!
Yeh it isn't is it really more a lamo insult.
Wish I'd been insulting you, your name is catnip for insults.
Stott of the Antarctic
Don't Stott the music
UnStottable
Pull the Stottle back
Don't Stott me now
Stottle bricks
Stott Pilgrim vs the world
Stottle Cock
Stott's Law
and Stott's your lot.
Some good advice already Sam but perhaps something else that might help would be to try and aim for some kind of endgame. What I mean is do you fancy telling gags, or perhaps you might prefer to be more observational (i.e. the things and trends you see when you're out and about). You might be more interested in a more surreal approach or you may want to include some element of physicality (falling about or maybe props or visual material) in your act. You might even like to mix and match these different styles.
But the point I'm making is that once you choose one or more it will perhaps make you look closer at those areas and then you can try and find the jokes in them.
Another idea might be to take a joke and then take it apart then use it as a template. Maybe substitute the subject and punchline with something that makes you laugh. Say for example Tony's excellent joke:
BNP leader Nick Griffin was pelted with eggs yesterday, the most annoying thing for him was that they hadn't separated the whites.
Might lead you to the following joke without plagiarising Tony's idea.
PM David Cameron had a bag of flour thrown at him yesterday when visiting his mother, Downing St have released a statement saying that nothing was harmed except his mother's pride.
Not as good or snappy but hopefully you get the idea.
It's a bit like learning an instrument. When I was a bit younger than you I was learning guitar. I started off by copying my heroes' guitar solos note-for-note. At first I sounded identical to them but then little by little I started to mix and match various styles and ended up with my own.
As others have advised. Check out your favourite comedians, maybe buy one or several of their stand-up DVDs, buy a book on gag writing (there must be tons of them) but most importantly start writing stuff down and just see what you come up with. Then when you've written some post them up on the Critique section on these forums and then see what others think.
Quote: sootyj @ February 8 2011, 11:25 AM GMTYeh it isn't is it really more a lamo insult.
Wish I'd been insulting you, your name is catnip for insults.
Stott of the Antarctic
Don't Stott the music
UnStottable
Pull the Stottle back
Don't Stott me now
Stottle bricks
Stott Pilgrim vs the world
Stottle Cock
Stott's Lawand Stott's your lot.
Those aren't insults! Work harder, Sooty! Stott rhymes with snot, do something with that. Snotty Stotty.
Snots to easy.
It also rhymes with Bott.
Jimmy Carr's book "The Naked Jape" has excellent chapters on all aspects of writing jokes and I'd also recommend Logan Murray's book "Teach Yourself Stand Up Comedy" which contains lots of 'games' which can help to get thoughts flowing.
One of the hardest things to do is look at a blank page/screen and try to write jokes, to make it easier you need something to work from.
If I'm suffering from (joke) writers block I'll look at the BBC news website or even random pages from Wikipedia and then try to write jokes about those subjects.
The other thing to remember is don't be afraid to write rubbish, no-one writes brilliant jokes every time, in fact as a rough estimate I write about 20-30 (or even more) jokes for each one that makes it into my stand up set, oh and never throw anything away as those "rubbish" jokes can often be reworked into comedy gold when inspiration hits you later (or when your joke writing skills improve).
Back when I wrote for 118 118 I always wrote twice what I needed so I could drop half.
Quote: Griff @ February 8 2011, 11:14 AM GMTOr, shortening and moving the punchline to the end - "BNP leader considers name change after realising 'Griffin' is a hybrid of two different species" ?
Great observation BTW Dave. You have to send that into Newsjack. If, like, radio credits are of any interest to you.
That is an improvement. Do Newsjack take one liners then? Because that accidental joke is literally all I'd have to send them.
They do but I'd rewrite it as nick barred from edl protest because of name makes it more relevant
Quote: sootyj @ February 8 2011, 10:05 AM GMTWell there's 7 basic forms of joke of which I can only remember about 3.
e.g.
1 twisted expectation
My dog has no nose How does he smell? Disgusting
By mentioning the nose we're expecting one meaning of the word smell, but infact we get the other (which is related to another feature of dogs that they smell).
Similary I was on a course of antibiotics, didn't learn anything.
Incidentally these are also examples of course of double entres words with 2 meanings. e.g. raw/roar or hoe/ho (laugh)/ho (prostitute).
Another type of this joke is the list of 3. That is 1 joke establishes an idea, the second maintains and the 3rd subverts so for example.
There's 3 ways to do your taxes, the right way, the wrong way and the 7 years in Strangeways (also note how the use of a similar word "ways" helps maintain the structure)
Type 2
Exageration. Just what it says, so for example.
My mother in law is so fat her blood type is ragu.
Type 3
Puns just words that sound similar or have similar meanings.
When I want to defrost my chops I waggle my little finger at them, it's a microwave
What sings the blues and sends email Chuck Blackberry.
But when writing your own it's often best to start with the observation or punchline and work backwards.
or
Start with a question and answer it. ie "my dads so mean he...."
Then if writing things for standup just expand and mix it into a narrative.
This is a lot better than the Richard Herring article.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ February 8 2011, 12:37 PM GMTThis is a lot better than the Richard Herring article.
Get a room, you two. This love-in's getting a bit too syruppy for my liking.
Chip why don't you go and call a black gentleman a spade.