Hari's Corner

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The ingredients of good humour

Filed under: Bits and Bytes by Hari
Posted on Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 22:01 IST (last updated: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 @ 21:34 IST)

Not a full post, but more like a filler. I thought I'd just jot down my ideas/ingredients for effective written humour.
  1. A funny idea/concept. Or any serious issue that can be twisted enough to make it funny or satirical.
  2. A smart punch line. Too much rambling will ruin the humourous touch.
  3. At least two different levels of humour - one working on the idea itself and the other with the language usage and delivery mechanism. This can be a bit tricky and might not always work out.
  4. A picture or two for effect if necessary.

Straightforward jokes that you read in pocket-size joke books are totally different and unrelated to what I'm talking about. I admit that I'm not very good at spontaneously inventing the kind of jokes you tell at a party among friends, but I do love exploring off-beat humour and parodies.

And while I do enjoy reading regular jokes, I think a lot of them tend to be repetitive and obvious while parodic humour has much a wider scope for individual creativity. More importantly I believe any kind of humour needn't rely on any single technique or method to be effective.

4 comment(s)

  1. Interesting! Did this come from the Papa Hari School of the Obvious? :D

    Good summary, though!

    Comment by Sudipta Chatterjee (visitor) on Fri, Jun 6, 2008 @ 06:30 IST #
  2. Yes it did.

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Fri, Jun 6, 2008 @ 08:36 IST #
  3. Nice post and very true!

    Comment by ray (visitor) on Fri, Jun 6, 2008 @ 15:12 IST #
  4. Thanks, Ray. :)

    Comment by hari (blog owner) on Sun, Jun 8, 2008 @ 09:07 IST #

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