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Q&A Tips for humor writing

1) Pick any one item and take it to an extreme. "Organizing is good." Okay, can I alphabetize my spices? (bad example. I actually do that.) Uh, can I sort my vegetable drawer by size and then...

posted 14y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T11:59:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/1420
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:11:54Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/1420
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T01:11:54Z (almost 5 years ago)
1) Pick any one item and take it to an extreme.

"Organizing is good."

- Okay, can I alphabetize my spices?_(bad example. I actually do that.)_ 
- Uh, can I sort my vegetable drawer by size and then by color?
- How about putting the living room furniture in rainbow order?
- Where do I file the cat, under P for Pet, F for Felix domesticus, or O for Ollie (his name)?

2) Slip in some judicious puns. For example, if you're comparing shredders, you might write that you don't want to get snippy, but Brand X is really a cut above, and anyone who doesn't think so simply isn't all that sharp. (Caveat scriptor: your mileage may vary.)

3) Take a metaphor and run it off a cliff of absurdity.

"Okay, so imagine that your desk is an elephant, and you're going to eat it one bite at a time. So first you start with a foot, represented by a desk drawer. The file folders are the toes, and the tabs are the toenails. Any punched-out holes, lost post-its, orphaned notes, or faded fax cover sheets would be elephant toejam. That's probably kind of nasty-smelling, but don't worry; just crumple the whole thing up and make a toejam football out of it, and throw it into the nearest wastebasket."

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-02-06T02:03:07Z (almost 14 years ago)
Original score: 18