How to Write Funny by Scott Dikkers

Scott Dikkers book, How To Write Funny offers up several methods to produce comedy with a focus on satire. Scott is a prolific comedy writer with extensive work at the Onion. Bob Cress from Cress media has brief online course Write Funnier that has some tips similar to those in Scott's book with brief video clips.

Scott advises going after the powerful people and avoiding attacking people who are already afflicted.  He introduces the 11 funny filters that can be used alone or combination to produce comedy.  The best comedy has an underlying subtext that is never overtly revealed. 

I appreciated his general description of the clown (right brain) and the editor (left brain).  The initial daily free writing exercise lets the clown to produce wildly creative and mostly bad comedic topics or ideas. After setting aside these written notes for a period of time (usually at least a day). The editor brain reviews the mess and attempts to tease out the comedic gold from the useless rocks and sand deposited in the original writing.

This book was recommended to me by Brook Preston my Writing for Satire online instructor from Second City.  The classes were challenging but rewarding. The Ms Preston and the classmates provided suggestions for improving the comedic focus of each assignment. I found Scott's book to be a good reference to apply techniques to improve the structure of a comedic premise. Feel free to periodically check my writing blog at ngcarlson.site for examples of short humor lists and essays from the class.

The formula for Internet fakery, Scott Dikkers - 5 min. 

Lee Camp interviews Scott Dikkers - 27 min.