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7 Tips for Aspiring Humor Writers | by David B. Clear |

The golden rule of humor is quite simple: if they laugh, it’s funny

I mean, back in the day when the world was still black-and-white and sound hadn’t been

And it’s especially hard if all you’ve got is the written word

That said, if you’re an itching writer wanting to give humor a try, I’ve got

People reply with “lol” all the time, but the days when it meant “laughing out loud” are

So you don’t actually need to be laugh-out-loud rolling-on-the-floor losing-control-over-my-bladder and why-are-my-pants-now-totally-soaked funny

Moreover, by trying to be funny, even if you aren’t, you’ll probably end up with

So don’t worry about trying to forcefully eject beverages out of people’s nostrils

Unless you’re as funny as a glass of pork milk, your posts probably need to contain

So I’d advise you to not focus too much on being funny while you write your

Tell your message/story first and only then tweak your article by sprinkling in some funny ideas,

A good way to do this is to write your first draft with placeholders instead of actual

Then, when I have a first draft, I begin brainstorming some wacky comparisons to insert into that

Instead, I focus on the message first and only once I’ve got that fleshed out I

Unfortunately, your audience is presumably a little more sophisticated than a baby

And sneaking into their homes to tickle them is sadly considered trespassing

So if something pops into your head that strikes you as funny, don’t analyze it too

As I said above, when it comes to humor, don’t be too analytical about it

Don’t put your joke under a microscope, taking a careful look at the third coma to

That said, there’s one thing you should analyze your jokes for: are they offensive? Because if

, any humor that mentions d*cks, farts, body fluids, or the Pope’s sex life

After all, it’s pretty much impossible to write humor without offending someone

But offending someone is very different from offending everyone

And the easiest way to avoid offending everyone is to always punch up, never down

Alternatively, instead of punching up, you can also punch your own face

That also means that if you really really want to make fun of a marginalized group, you

Don’t hold onto your jokes until the reader is two-thirds into your story

OMG is that a chupacabra?! They’ll read a few sentences from your story and if these

So make sure your story quickly conveys what kind of writing it is

What I mean is that if you want to master a certain kind of writing, you’ll

Instead, whenever you come across a passage that makes you chuckle, store it in a swipe file,

Then, make sure to regularly read through that file (don’t plagiarize, though)

Not only will that greatly benefit me — I mean, you — but you’ll also have a much