Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler. – Albert Einstein
When it comes to being funny and making people laugh, one theory stands apart from the rest and that theory is SURPRISE.
Why do people laugh? In the book Comedy Writing Secrets, Mel Helitzer shares that psychologist Patricia Keith-Spiegel has identified two primary reasons for laughter, one of which is surprise. The other reason is superiority but for now, let’s focus on surprise.
Surprise is the focus for a couple of reasons:
- Mel Helitzer actually includes surprise as a necessary element of humor. So, it’s not just a theory, it’s a necessary ingredient.
- In The Ten Commandments of Comedy, Gene Perret boldly proclaims that, “Surprise is such an essential element of comedy that if your joke, story, anecdote, or piece of business doesn’t have a twist or a surprise to it, it’s not comedy.”
And, SURPRISE just so happens to have a mechanical element that allows anyone who understands it to use it to make people laugh.
How do we surprise people?
We are going to create surprise by using our audiences’ human nature against them.
In the book Understanding Interpersonal Communication: Making Choices in Changing Times, the authors discuss something called the listening gap. Basically, we can understand up to 800 words a minute but most people speak in the 150 to 200 words a minute range.
As a result, our audience is ahead of us. Each member is creating a visual and even anticipating or expecting what is going to be said next.
It’s human nature and cannot be avoided.
In addition, all the words and phrases we use have an expected and assumed meaning behind them. Likewise, out tone and body language add to that expected, assumed meaning.
As a result of the “listening gap” and the assumed meaning of words, we can play with this visual and assumed meaning and “surprise” them when we don’t agree with the visual or assumption.
For example…
If I asked you, “Do you ever wake up grumpy?” What am I asking you? It’s not a trick question. I’m asking you “do you ever wake up in a bad mood” which is the assumed meaning and that assumed meaning carries with it assumed responses.
What if we twist the assumed meaning? What if our answer is “No, I just let him sleep” or “No, I just let her sleep.” If we answered that way, we would get a laugh.
Why?
Because we twisted the assumed meaning and created a surprise.
The key skill then to creating a surprise and generating a laugh is to recognize the assumed meaning and expectation.
The second sub-skill is to twist the assumed meaning to be something else.
An Example
Brian Kiley: “The other day our boy talked back to my wife. She told him to do something and he said “No. I don’t want to.” So I had to pull him aside and said “Listen, you have to…”
Up until this point, what is the assumption? What is the expected or acceptable way for Brian to complete the sentence?
Right.
Now that the expected conclusion is formed in your mind, you are primed for a twist.
The other day our boy talked back to my wife. She told him to do something and he said “No. I don’t want to.” So I had to pull him aside and said “Listen, you have to…”
Here is Brian Kiley’s twist: “ … teach me how to do that.”
Note on timing: the three dots, an Ellipsis, is used to indicate a pause and allow the audience time to solidify the assumption and expectation in their mind prior to twisted it for the laugh. See…Timing can be taught and learned too.
Creating Surprise
To generate a laugh by using surprise, the idea is to twist the statement’s expected meaning until the statement has a new meaning.
The literal interpretation is a common way to twist a statement:
“I just flew in from Chicago and boy are my arms tired.”
“Call me a cab.” “Ok, you’re a cab.”
A common way to twist a statement is to use exaggeration.
Brian Kiley: “My wife is the one who talked my into shaving my head, she said I’d look much younger and I do. I now look like I’m a week old.”
We can also twist on double meanings of words.
Rodney Dangerfield: What a childhood I had. Once on my birthday my ol’ man gave me a bat. The first day I played with it, it flew away.
We can twist with an afterthought:
Rick Olson: My wife and I were about to embark on this bicycle ride with 8,000 other cyclists. That is a lot of spandex.
We can twist by clarifying the meaning:
Jim Gaffigan: Babies are a lot of work, I try to pitch in, I do diapers. I don’t change them I just say ‘you need to do this diaper.’
Statements often contain expectations or assumptions centered around: who, what, when, where, why, how.
Who: Rick Olson
I love high-heels and I beg my wife to wear them. She finally agreed and said this weekend she would… let me.
What: Brian Kiley
One thing I remember, we used to do something called family night, where we set aside one night a week for each of us to spend a night with a different family.
When: Brian Kiley
You want your kids to be perfect and they’re not my wife told me today that my daughters been shoplifting and now I have to deal with that…I’m going to wait until after my birthday.
Why: Brian Kiley
I call my wife pumpkin because she always gets smashed around the holidays.
How: Brian Kiley
I found out today that my wife’s parents are coming to visit and my wife hasn’t mentioned anything yet. I can just tell the way the animals in my neighborhood are behaving.
Time to practice.
Statement: When I cook I use wine.
Assumption/Expectation(s):
Humor Lines:
1. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Why 10?
Simple. Sometimes we quite too early and miss out on the best joke. Also, when we start a creative act we tend to be “in our heads” and simply spending a little time in the act allows the process to really gain momentum.
Also, if you remove the burden of being good and go for quantity, you will have more fun and will enjoy the process.
Finally, because John Vorhaus says so in his book The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny even if You’re Not.
John Vorhaus, THE RULE OF NINE:
For every ten jokes you tell, nine will be trash. For every ten ideas you have, nine won’t work. For every ten times you risk, you fail.
Depressing? Not really. In fact, the rule of nine turns out to be highly liberating because once you embrace it, you instantly and permanently lose the toxic expectation of succeeding every time. It’s that expectation, and the consequent fear of failure which give your ferocious editor such power over you. Remove the expectation and you remove the power. Simple, clean; a tool.
Go for 10.
Outstanding article. Thank you for your help! Keep goin’
Stinking brilliant!!!
I loved learning what it takes to be a comic. I love to laugh and make people laugh. here were my practice answers.
1. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
2. I meet a lot of Italian women that way.
3. I just have to remember to pour it out of the bottle first
4. Actually, I use wine in everything I do
5. It makes food poisoning fun again
6. I got into the habit when my wife used to cook
7. My wife insists that I do
8. Since it’s made with grapes. Yah, instant salad.
9. I don’t buy pancake syrup anymore.
10. It helps me forget how bad a cook I am.
Thank you
These are all great Claudio. Thanks for sharing!
frfr. You must bee a funny man claudio. Here’s mine. I was proud of it too. Until you posted… 🙁
1. Sometimes I even put it in the food
2.But only when the water gets cut off
3. I just started doing this and let me Say, I’m always in the kitchen
4. She’s our family chef
5. My favorite dish is called liver destroyer
6. How much? Depends on my mood
7. the recipe calls for flour. But whats the fun in that
8. That was until I got fired from taco bell
9. most if the time, it’s the only ingredient
10. I make the communion at my church
wooo you do better then me, I only did 8 of them, and I am not as great!
1. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
2. Other use food
3. my mom use water
4. when I bored I also use wine
5. sometime I use my hand
6. when i drink also use wine
7. when I wake up I also use wine
8. when I watch tv Also use wine
If I use enough “whine”, people quit asking me to cook!
Pretty weak. Think that’s one of the nine!
Ok, this is my new favorite thing.
So often when I read people explaining humor, it’s never funny. But this concise little article is both powerfully informative and really entertaining. Your examples are genuinely good.
1. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
2. Why? Wine not?
3. If I use enough, maybe people won’t notice my cooking
4. What do I use it for? Who cares? It’s wine!
5. In fact, sometimes I just skip the cooking, and stick with the wine
6. I whine, “Honey, why don’t you take me out to dinner?”
7. I use a little bit in the pot, and a little bit for me, and a little bit more for me, and a little bit more for me…
8. It adds great flavor to some dishes, but makes my chocolate cake taste kind of funny
9. Everything tastes better with wine. Except ice cream.
10. They say it is good for the heart. My heart must be the healthiest in town!
Awesome Article. I really enjoyed how you were able to bring different concepts together and share them. The rule of Nine is now apart of my being.
This was a fun exercise. Here are my 10 answers:
1. It helps children get to bed faster
2. And when I drink I use Salt and lemon
3. It makes burnt food taste fine
4. to give an unpronounceable name to the dish later
5. It makes my husband’s snoring bearable
6. and serve it to the higher authorities first
7. The stories that come out are of the highest order
8. It makes my wife rant less
9. And when I eat, I order
10. And save up some time drinking
10.
This is a wonderful article and so much resonates with how I started with twists for handling my anger with my son. Here are my 10:
When I cook, I use wine
1. I keep it on the slab for colour
2. Sometimes my maid uses it.
3. It works better than nursery rhymes for my brat.
4. Seeing it hung, makes me feel better.
5. I throw it along with the left over.
6. My hands look beautiful that way.
7. And my family is polite to me the entire day.
Thanks.
1. Ensure diners get intoxicated not to know the toxic taste.
2. For wine and dine rhyme.
3.
4.
1. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
2. Well it’s not possible to cook sober.
3. Actually, I always put it near sugar jar.
4. Because wine makes me not to whine.
5. My wife even liked the potatoes fried… in wine.
6. It also helps to eat the food.
7. I use it to make my wife drunk , so that i can actually order the food.
8.
9.
10
Thanks for advice has changed my life
This is going to be an exercise I will use all the time. Thank you Here is my answers
1. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
2.Because it helps me stay focused
3. It helps as a timer, It takes exactly 30 minutes to finish the first bottle
4. I use it to clear my palate as I taste the food for quality and if it is done
5. It makes the taste better
6. One glass at a time
7. And Cheese
8. Doesn’t everyone?
9. Even long after the meal is done
10. Because I Love to Cook, I make sure I cook every night
Love this article. Thank you Rick Olson
I opened an account just to say, this article was a total waste of good Wine! Some of us love the flavor in our morning orange juice too.
When I cook, I use wine.
1) Because AA said I could no longer drink wine. They never said don’t eat it.
2) When my wife cooks, she uses seasoning.
3) I haven’t used wine for ten years, which is how long I’ve been married.
4) Otherwise I’d feel bad finishing off the bottle.
5) When my wife cooks, she uses beer. When we cook together……let’s just say sometimes we don’t finish cooking the meal.
6) I used to use enioreh n
When I cook, I use wine.
1) Because AA said I could no longer drink wine. They never said don’t eat it.
2) When my wife cooks, she uses seasoning.
3) I haven’t used wine for ten years, which is how long I’ve been married.
4) Otherwise I’d feel bad finishing off the bottle.
5) When my wife cooks, she uses beer. When we cook together……let’s just say sometimes we don’t finish cooking the meal.
6) If the food still tastes bad, we light it on fire, use it as a burnt offering, and pray… that the pizza delivery person gets to our house safely.
7) But my wife doesn’t think making Mac N Cheese counts as cooking.
8) And if the food still tastes bad, we light it on fire and the kids roast hot dogs on it.
9) At first I didn’t know that less was more. The first couple of times I used wine to cook, you could have used the food to fuel a rocket.
My some “humor” statements below, let me know what you think.
When I cook I use wine, then i even forget i was cooking
When I cook I use wine, i wonder why my chicken curry taste so bad
When I cook I use wine, then i end up watching netflix with no food
When I cook I use wine, i wonder why there is fire all of sudden
When I cook I use wine, and i become a drunk chef
When I cook I use wine for entertainment to only realize i have been kicked out of the kitchen
When I cook I use wine to help my wife calm down
When I cook I use wine to relate chef pain