20 Comedy Dos And Don’ts From Movie And TV Greats

Writing comedy is an art form. And a science. And has recipes, like cooking. Okay, it’s a lot of things while being its own thing, too. There are several ways to do it right and millions of ways to do it correctly. Every one of us reading this, whether you’re just a lover of comedy or a budding participant in its creation, has at one point wanted to ask our favorite film and television funny people this question: How do you write your jokes?

Many reporters have asked this question and have gotten a ton of answers. After all, it’s hard to get funny people to shut up about anything at all, much less getting them to shut up about “the craft.” But if you get past the vanity aspect of funny people talking about how being funny works even though the concept of funny is 99.999999% subjective, you can find some tips that you might be able to apply for your next set of jokes for an open mic, a draft of a script, a short story, or that one PowerPoint presentation you have to do at work even though you’re not management (and never want to be management).

Here are some joke-writing tips from some of the most prominent pros that have written and performed on TV or film.