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How to Write Funny
- Your Serious, Step-By-Step Blueprint for Creating Incredibly, Irresistibly, Successfully Hilarious Writing, Book 1
- Narrated by: Scott Dikkers
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Entertainment & Performing Arts
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This entertaining and sharply written guide - for both beginners breaking into comedy and professionals seeking to improve their sets and advance their careers - examines the work of great comedians such as Louis C. K., Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Izzard, Moms Mabley, Hannibal Buress, Sarah Silverman, Richard Pryor, and more as a means of illustrating the most important techniques of performing and writing stand-up.
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Can you learn how to write comedy? Absolutely - anyone can. Scott Dikkers will tell you how. He's co-founder and longest-serving editor-in-chief of The Onion, the world's most popular humor publication, and founder of The Onion Training Center at the Second City in Chicago. He's also a number one best-selling humor author and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. In How to Write Funnier, he tells you everything you need to know to start writing funny stories, how to write funny scenes, and how to write funny sketches.
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Book good, me likey!
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Creative work doesn't come with a guarantee. But there is a pattern to who succeeds and who doesn't. And engaging in the consistent practice of its pursuit is the best way forward. Based on the breakthrough Akimbo workshop pioneered by legendary author Seth Godin, The Practice will help you get unstuck and find the courage to make and share creative work. Godin insists that writer's block is a myth, that consistency is far more important than authenticity, and that experiencing the imposter syndrome is a sign that you're a well-adjusted human.
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Publisher's Summary
The definitive joke-writing handbook
Learn comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes. See why Amazon reviewers call How to Write Funny "one of the best books on humor writing."
Author Scott Dikkers will tell you how to write jokes. He’s a master joke writer, founder of the world’s most popular humor site TheOnion.com, number one New York Times best-selling humor author, professional public speaker, and successful cartoonist. Scott created and leads the “Writing with The Onion” training center at the famed Second City in Chicago. His students have been hired for the top comedy writing jobs in TV and won dozens of Emmy Awards. He’s consulted with top entertainment companies like NBC, Comedy Central, and Pixar.
This easy-to-follow guide lays out a clear system and simple formula for how to write a joke that will get big, milk-coming-out-of-your-nose laughs, reliably and repeatably. You'll learn...
- The three sure-fire ways to generate funny text
- The 11 different “Funny Filters” and how to use them to write jokes
- The secret to getting rid of writer's block - permanently
- And many more humor writing tips, tricks, and techniques
Create any joke using the Funny Filters, the 11 fundamental building blocks of humor:
Funny Filter 1: Irony
Funny Filter 2: Character
Funny Filter 3: Shock
Funny Filter 4: Hyperbole
Funny Filter 5: Wordplay
Funny Filter 6: Reference
Funny Filter 7: Madcap
Funny Filter 8: Parody
Funny Filter 9: Analogy
Funny Filter 10: Misplaced Focus
Funny Filter 11: Metahumor
If you've wondered how you can start writing jokes, how to tell jokes to your friends, how to add humor to your writing, how to add jokes in a speech, or how to add humor to your presentation, this book spells out the simple joke writing formula professionals use.
How to Write Funny is for you whether you want to find a comedy writing job or just want to learn how to tell a joke.
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What listeners say about How to Write Funny
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-07-06
Great step by step guide
The author did a wonderful job of breaking down different aspects of comedy and provided concrete exercises. This book is filled with great techniques and ways of analyzing humour. I'm looking forward to its sequel. Narration was excellent.
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- tomas
- 2020-02-06
it's alright
It's alright. I definitely didn't hate It but I didn't find it super helpful either.
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- Marlena
- 2019-08-30
incredibly helpful ! this book is my bible!!!!!!!!
this book is straightforward. I am so grateful I discovered it! it's my bible! highly recommended
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- J. Genovese
- 2019-02-04
What I expected
Wasn’t looking for a comical piece about writing for standup which many other books on audible seem to be about. This is exactly the “how to” guide for writing funnier by using a simple formula. Subtext + funny filter = funnier writing.
10 people found this helpful
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- JASON B
- 2020-07-22
RUN don’t walk away from this one
One of the worst book I’ve listened to in a long time. Author likes to give you a bunch of cliffhangers and analogies, but never anything concrete on how to write funny. Instead, he pretends like he has the magical formula on how to write funny but guards it with his life by asking you more questions. Book is a frustration nightmare that will make you want to destroy your phone and give up listening to books completely. Only thing useful about this book is the refund policy.
2 people found this helpful
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- T S
- 2019-06-22
Unlock the tools
Nice to hear the comedy techniques spelled out ... now I’m inspired to go finish that screenplay!
2 people found this helpful
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- Joseph Frazier
- 2020-08-17
Great Listen to know more about the Comedy Process
I enjoyed this thoroughly and have been writing comfortably ever since! I plan to listen to this a few more times. So much to take in and easily digestible.
1 person found this helpful
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- Timmy the G
- 2020-07-09
practical advice
I liked the clear easy to understand techniques outlined for writing funny. His message is you don't have to be an inspired comic genius to write funny. Just follow these guidelines and work hard.
1 person found this helpful
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- NikNieb
- 2020-01-27
Fantastically concise and quality advice.
I never write reviews on here, but I think I'm going to start, especially if I continue to find gems like this one. I'm a funny guy. At least I think so. And I know what funny is... instinctually. But having it spelled out like this was great. So many moments of "Oh, THAT'S how that works!" and "That's how that's done!" I appreciated the straight forward approach and I will be looking for the follow up books to go more in depth.
1 person found this helpful
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- avidbuyer
- 2020-01-25
Very informative with good exercises to prime the funny mind
Coming back to sketch I listen to this in the car . how dikkers explains the different types of funny filters helps the novice comedy writer. I also took a class in which he went into detail about how to make money in the comedy biz. Overall he is great resource and you will get your money’s worth !
1 person found this helpful
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- John Nelson
- 2020-01-19
Great comedy toolset
Take it from the pro, Scott really delivers in this book with all the steps to achieve your comedy writing goals. If you're as big a fan of the Onion as I am, this is a great book
1 person found this helpful
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- Michael A Giannulis
- 2020-01-09
Really loved this book
The 11 filters are very smart and definitely help comedians or comedy writers to create better jokes and observations.
1 person found this helpful
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- Eric Smith
- 2019-11-25
Funny Writing Can Be Taught!
This is an easy-to-follow guide for improving your humor writing. I listened to it twice!
1 person found this helpful