I’ll make this quick.
A good rule of thumb is you need both a setup and punchline to create something funny.
“A man walks into a bar and say’s ‘ouch'”…
…isn’t funny.
“It was an iron bar”…
…isn’t funny either.
Put ’em together though, and you’ve got yourself a gag.
SETUP + PUNCHLINE = FUNNY
Or…
CONTEXT + WORDS/ACTION = FUNNY (POTENTIALLY)
The video in the comment is a fabulous example of this.
It’s quite the rabbit hole on YouTube.
What he’s saying isn’t funny (though his choices of words, accent and manner do – I admit – lend themselves to comedy).
The captions aren’t funny either, but, put them together and you’ve got comedy gold.
How can you make the unfunny, funny?
CHANGE THE CONTEXT
A great place to start looking for these kinds of opportunities is your websites Q&A page.
Copy all the answers – not the questions – and paste them into a Word doc.
They’re not funny, but what question could you ask that would make them funny?
How can you change the context, without changing the answer to make it funny?
Here’s an example from my website:
“£10,000,000 in Public Liability Insurance.”
We have the answer, now all we need is a question. What question could we create which would make this answer funny?
“What precautions need to be in place before I’m legally allowed within 100 miles of Cheryl Cole?”
Let’s try another:
Answer: “I always use a legally binding booking contract and issue invoices”.
Question: “What would you say the main reason for your marriage breakdown was, John?”
That’s enough for now.
Try it yourself. If you haven’t got a Q&A page, think of some answers to your frequently asked questions and change the question.
See what you come up with.
(If you’re a subscriber to my email, you’ll get a bonus thing about this soon!)