Speaker's ToolsWe are going to create joke ideas, humor ideas, rough ideas and then fashion them into a comedy monologue or a humorous speech or an essay in the second half.
But we're just getting ideas now. So, you say, 'Okay. I've got this body material. I've got some stuff to do with automobiles.' Now, look at your automobile list for a minute. Is there anything funny about that automobile list?
John: Somebody said something was funny. What did you say?
Answer: (Could not make out.)
Anybody think that was funny?
By and large there is nothing really funny on this list. This is your raw material. Now we're going to put the humor in. You do this by applying very specific techniques. Here's the principle. We've got the sun up here and we've got paper here. Nothing is happening. If I took a magnifying glass and held it here, this paper would burst into flames because you focus the energy.
What we are going to do is focus your energy, give you a comedy magnifying glass and instead of flames, jokes are going to start popping off. This is great. This is wonderful.
Here's what we do. Your topic is automobile and the slant is the fact that it is an OLD automobile. Very common American technique, exaggeration.
Now I want to make a distinction between these two because they can become blurred. What you have done is an initial exercise. This car list is your original list. So put it at the top of your page there. Original car list. You will use this list through the entire day. From time to time we will make secondary lists as part of the technique but they are always in connection with the original list. This master list is your building block. Write Original Car List at the top or otherwise you'll get confused. Please put that on.
Automobile is your subject. Lets write some obvious approaches to take. Nothing intrinsically funny. Old car.
Most people by and large think that they've had their car too long. It's decrepit. Not everybody is in a financial situation to trade their car in every year. We are going to sit down and say, God, I've had this car too. It's old. We'll then try to find some humor in the fact the automobile is old. This is what you do.
The exaggeration joke. The epitome of American humor. We will create an Association List of items with the trait. What is our trait?
Answer: Old.
John: Old. Then we're going to go back and bounce it around with our car list. Decide what you want to exaggerate. Momentarily setting aside your Subject Association List. Your original list. Setting that aside for a minute. This is a brand new list based on your chosen exaggerated trait. Probably easier to demonstrate than to explain...
