A singer does scales, a runner stretches muscles. Are there ways to limber up for 'being funny'? Mental exercises or the like?
Are there ways to limber up for 'being funny'?
Sometimes I feel more ready to start writing after watching a bit of one of my favourite comedies.
I don't think so. My ideas come at all sorts of different times.
Copious masturbation and watching a lot of sitcoms/sketch shows until an idea "comes to you".
That and not worrying about writing something funny. Just hitting the keys can be hard enough. 
I think if you can have your first definite funny line/gag for that first scene completely decided in your head before you sit down to start something, then that can make it easier to embark upon.
I normally watch the telly for an hour (normally the news) have a spot of dinner, basically unwind, then my mind feels set to shoot the funnies.
I always find it hard to write the funny when I'm angry and frustrated and the voices are talking to me. Normally after I've murdered a prostitute I feel relaxed again... with often hee-larious results. 
Abstain from telling home truths for as long as possible.
(They inevitably start, "I'm not being funny but ....")
Don't overestimate the value of being funny.
Being funny can certainly keep you in work as a TV comedy writer but to get your first break you really need to be having sex with (or, at a pinch, promising sex to) a producer.
Has anyone done a James Cotter gag yet?
No?
Ok then, me neither.
I find the Venga boys to be highly condusive.
Where is James anyway? I'm yearning to hear how the beta-version testing of Jeremy Spicer went. Hope there's not been a Hadron Collider-like setback with the character development process.
Quote: sootyj @ November 17 2009, 11:10 PM GMTI find the Venga boys to be highly condusive.
I find the Cheeky Girls to be highly conductive.
As Matt will attest, I simply cannot write sitcom without an erection.
The best thing to do is to break off writing half way through a scene. That way when you come to it fresh the next day you have already started and are up and running.