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How to Write Funny: Add Humor to Every Kind of Writing
Writing humor is subjective and challenging - thankfully, there are many ways to create it. How to Write Funny provides advice, insights and humor from more than twenty writers with a gift for making readers laugh. In a diverse collection of articles and interviews, both classic and new, this esteemed group of writers, including Dave Barry, Bill Bryson and Jennifer Crusie , provides different viewpoints on how humor works on the page, whether in short stories, memoirs, novels or articles. You'll learn the principles and basic forms of comedy, when to break the rules of reason, the importance of being yourself, why you should stop trying to hard to be funny, and how to write for specific genres and audiences. You'll also sit in on a special roundtable discussion featuring P.J. O'Rourke, Mark Leyner, Maggie Estep and James Finn Garner , as well as a one-of-a-kind "how-to" workshop conducted by funny lady and best-selling author Jennifer Crusie . You've got a sense of humor. You've got the will to write. Combining the two, and getting it right, will bring a smile to your face and a chuckle to your readers.
232 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2001
About the author
John B. Kachuba
28 books9 followersJohn B. Kachuba is the series editor of America's Haunted Road Trip from Clerisy Press and the author of Ghosthunting Illinois and Ghosthunting Ohio. He has also written other books such as Ghosthunters: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers, and Other Investigators of America's Paranormal World, How to Write Funny, and Why is this Job Killing Me? (co-authored with his wife, Mary A. Newman, PhD).
John's short fiction and nonfiction have been widely published and he has received several awards for his fiction, including the 2004 Dogwood Fiction Prize.
He holds advanced degrees in Creative Writing from Antioch University (Yellow Springs, OH) and Ohio University. He has taught writing at both the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University. He is also on the faculty of the Gotham Writers Workshop.
John is a noted conference speaker and presenter and is a sought-after guest on many radio and television programs throughout the country and internationally.
John lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife Mary.
John's short fiction and nonfiction have been widely published and he has received several awards for his fiction, including the 2004 Dogwood Fiction Prize.
He holds advanced degrees in Creative Writing from Antioch University (Yellow Springs, OH) and Ohio University. He has taught writing at both the University of Cincinnati and Ohio University. He is also on the faculty of the Gotham Writers Workshop.
John is a noted conference speaker and presenter and is a sought-after guest on many radio and television programs throughout the country and internationally.
John lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife Mary.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 30, 2013
The interviews with Alexie, Bryson, and Barry at the end of the book are good, but a lot of the essays at the beginning were repetitive, and simplistic. Don't read the whole thing.
November 6, 2018
How to Write Funny is a Writer's Digest book that is a collection of essays and interviews like many of their other how-to books. The essays each cover various aspects of humorous writing, but the last third of the book starts sounding repetitive. In general, I liked the book and learned a lot, but I do have a few complaints.
The beginning essays were probably the most interesting and beneficial. They covered various tools for writing humor like exaggeration, understatement, irony, repetition, surprise, and the pairing of odd ideas. The writers talked about how they craft the humor because written humor must be different than spoken humor for multiple reasons. I also found the section dealing with humor in fiction useful because the author explained how you can't have just endless jokes for 100,000 words. A humorous novel needs downtime and serious moments. I also found some of the writing habits and procedures of the various authors fascinating.
Once you enter the last third of the book, all the articles start sounding the same: I was born funny, everyone says I'm funny, if you aren't funny then you should give up writing humor. I was bored by the autobiographical discussions of the personal influence in these author's lives who made them funny and how humor is just instinctual for them. There is probably a good reason I have never heard of these people before.
One of the humblest articles was an interview with Dave Barry who I think is hilarious. He spoke of wrestling with a piece of writing until it because funny. He saw humorous writing as an offspring of good writing. He also didn't think of himself as super funny outside of writing.
The funniest essays were the roundtable discussion and "The Comfortable Chair: Using Humor in Creative Nonfiction" by Dinty Moore. Most of the other articles weren't funny at all, but I didn't mind as long as they could give me real reasons why their advice works.
The best advice that was repeating in a couple of articles, was that in fiction, your humor should come from your characters and be a natural part of the book. If your jokes stick out oddly, then you aren't doing it right.
Overall, I would recommend this book, or at least the first two-thirds of it.
The beginning essays were probably the most interesting and beneficial. They covered various tools for writing humor like exaggeration, understatement, irony, repetition, surprise, and the pairing of odd ideas. The writers talked about how they craft the humor because written humor must be different than spoken humor for multiple reasons. I also found the section dealing with humor in fiction useful because the author explained how you can't have just endless jokes for 100,000 words. A humorous novel needs downtime and serious moments. I also found some of the writing habits and procedures of the various authors fascinating.
Once you enter the last third of the book, all the articles start sounding the same: I was born funny, everyone says I'm funny, if you aren't funny then you should give up writing humor. I was bored by the autobiographical discussions of the personal influence in these author's lives who made them funny and how humor is just instinctual for them. There is probably a good reason I have never heard of these people before.
One of the humblest articles was an interview with Dave Barry who I think is hilarious. He spoke of wrestling with a piece of writing until it because funny. He saw humorous writing as an offspring of good writing. He also didn't think of himself as super funny outside of writing.
The funniest essays were the roundtable discussion and "The Comfortable Chair: Using Humor in Creative Nonfiction" by Dinty Moore. Most of the other articles weren't funny at all, but I didn't mind as long as they could give me real reasons why their advice works.
The best advice that was repeating in a couple of articles, was that in fiction, your humor should come from your characters and be a natural part of the book. If your jokes stick out oddly, then you aren't doing it right.
Overall, I would recommend this book, or at least the first two-thirds of it.
February 3, 2021
I learned a great deal from this book. You may or may not be able to learn to be funny, but this book shows that you can learn to understand and appreciate who humor is developed in literature. In the end I think you can learn to be funnier. I found the numerous suggestions from the raft of writers helpful.
May 13, 2019
Each chapter of this book is written by a different person. This setup meant there was a lot of repetition and the style of writing varied which I didn’t like for a how to book.
February 4, 2017
One of my goals for 2016 was to put humor into my writing. (Still working on that.) I asked my critique group if anyone knew a book on writing humor, and my friend Betty offered to lend me her copy of How to Write Funny, edited by John B. Kachuba.
Sticky notes and tabs stuck out of Betty’s book, passages on many pages were either underlined or highlighted, and the margins held scribbled notes. I began reading with a notebook and pen close by. After I’d read two pages, I already had a page of notes. I knew then I needed my own copy.
Today, my book is heavily annotated, adorned with different colored stickies, and whole sections are starred for further review and reference.
How to Write Funny is a collection of twelve essays by different authors, some of whom I’m familiar with, and others I’d never heard of. Also included are fifteen interviews and a roundtable panel. Jennifer Crusie also contributed a comedy “workshop,” complete with exercises I’m planning to try.
To give you an idea of the scope of the book, here are some random quotes I underlined in my copy:
Ґ “The comic point of view is essentially that of the stranger or alien.” (David Bouchier)
Ґ “…people laugh at two things: surprise and misfortune.” (J. Kevin Wolfe)
Ґ “Exaggerating the literal truth, if it’s done well, shows us the emotional truth of a situation.” (Connie Willis)
Ґ “Humor observes, analyzes and comments on the human condition.” (Esther M. Friesner)
Ґ “…the day I walked the entire length of the English Department at Ohio State University with my skirt caught in my panty hose, wearing no underwear. And nobody I passed said a word.” (Jennifer Crusie)
Ґ “…column humor comes in only five forms: 1. The anecdote 2. The one-line joke 3. Overstatement 4. Understatement 5. Ironic truth” (Mel Helitzer)
Ґ “At its best, humor evokes humane laughter at the universality of worldly frailities.” (Patricia Case)
Ґ “You can probably skewer a politician or personal injury lawyer with abandon, but you should be gentle when mocking the common man.” (Dinty Moore)
Ґ “…imagine what’s in the cupboard of a serial killer.” (Lee K. Abbott)
Ґ “Jokes are poetry…a joke is always succinct.” (Sherman Alexie)
Ґ “…real humor has to come from the same place your passion, your fear and your obsessions come from: your parents.” (Tom Bodett)
Ґ “…people laugh when they have the shock of recognizing the familiar under an unexpected light.” (Andrei Codrescu)
Ґ “For me, humor can fail if it’s ‘mean,’ if [it] is vengeful or sexist or defensive.” (Denise Duhamel)
The authors of the segments mentioned some of the same humorists over and over: S.J. Perelman, James Thurber, P.G. Wodehouse, Calvin Trillin, and Erma Bombeck. I bought some books by each of these authors, and I found them dated and unfunny—even Bombeck, who delighted me in the 1970s and 80s. How to Write Funny came out in 2001. I guess 16 years is old in comedy years.
Nevertheless, I recommend this book for writers who wish they were funny.
Sticky notes and tabs stuck out of Betty’s book, passages on many pages were either underlined or highlighted, and the margins held scribbled notes. I began reading with a notebook and pen close by. After I’d read two pages, I already had a page of notes. I knew then I needed my own copy.
Today, my book is heavily annotated, adorned with different colored stickies, and whole sections are starred for further review and reference.
How to Write Funny is a collection of twelve essays by different authors, some of whom I’m familiar with, and others I’d never heard of. Also included are fifteen interviews and a roundtable panel. Jennifer Crusie also contributed a comedy “workshop,” complete with exercises I’m planning to try.
To give you an idea of the scope of the book, here are some random quotes I underlined in my copy:
Ґ “The comic point of view is essentially that of the stranger or alien.” (David Bouchier)
Ґ “…people laugh at two things: surprise and misfortune.” (J. Kevin Wolfe)
Ґ “Exaggerating the literal truth, if it’s done well, shows us the emotional truth of a situation.” (Connie Willis)
Ґ “Humor observes, analyzes and comments on the human condition.” (Esther M. Friesner)
Ґ “…the day I walked the entire length of the English Department at Ohio State University with my skirt caught in my panty hose, wearing no underwear. And nobody I passed said a word.” (Jennifer Crusie)
Ґ “…column humor comes in only five forms: 1. The anecdote 2. The one-line joke 3. Overstatement 4. Understatement 5. Ironic truth” (Mel Helitzer)
Ґ “At its best, humor evokes humane laughter at the universality of worldly frailities.” (Patricia Case)
Ґ “You can probably skewer a politician or personal injury lawyer with abandon, but you should be gentle when mocking the common man.” (Dinty Moore)
Ґ “…imagine what’s in the cupboard of a serial killer.” (Lee K. Abbott)
Ґ “Jokes are poetry…a joke is always succinct.” (Sherman Alexie)
Ґ “…real humor has to come from the same place your passion, your fear and your obsessions come from: your parents.” (Tom Bodett)
Ґ “…people laugh when they have the shock of recognizing the familiar under an unexpected light.” (Andrei Codrescu)
Ґ “For me, humor can fail if it’s ‘mean,’ if [it] is vengeful or sexist or defensive.” (Denise Duhamel)
The authors of the segments mentioned some of the same humorists over and over: S.J. Perelman, James Thurber, P.G. Wodehouse, Calvin Trillin, and Erma Bombeck. I bought some books by each of these authors, and I found them dated and unfunny—even Bombeck, who delighted me in the 1970s and 80s. How to Write Funny came out in 2001. I guess 16 years is old in comedy years.
Nevertheless, I recommend this book for writers who wish they were funny.
March 6, 2010
This collection of essays and interviews on the subject of writing humor covers a lot of suggestions for how to be funny, and also a fair amount of doubt that it's possible to teach people how to be funny, so there are mixed messages to be found here. The suggestions seem like useful things to try, and it's interesting to see the different perspectives on what humor is and how to approach it. Connie Willis and Esther Friesner bring in specifics about humor in science fiction and fantasy. Reading this book might not immediately transform your writing into the hilarity of the ages, but if you already have a sense of humor, it should enhance your understanding of the way it works. Don't let my dry analysis turn you away. ;)
September 4, 2014
I'm a stand-up comedian, and I found this book to be incredibly helpful and insightful, not so much in the sense of instructing me how to write a joke or perform on stage, but about understanding what humor is and why people laugh. This book is great for helping you figure out where to look for the funny, incredibly literate and insightful analysis into humor and comedy This book is geared more towards humorists than it is comics, but I found it to be one of the most helpful examinations of humor that I've read, a very good pickup indeed!
June 23, 2009
Another in the Writer's Digest series; well put together, but humor is harder to teach than other aspects of writing, and often when someone dissects it to try to see how it works, the laughter dies on the operating table. Still, this book contains a lot of good advice from some of the funniest writers (I think, anyway) working today, e.g. Dave Barry, Sherman Alexie, Andrei Codrescu, and a long list of others.
February 9, 2016
Parts of this book were entertaining, and worth the price for the amount of information that I received. However, much of this book simply did not have value for me (fiction writer recommendations don't help for non-fiction writers). The best value of this book for me was the result that I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted to achieve with my writing. This book became a platform for my thinking, and that experience was valuable.
October 19, 2010
look out world, here I come!
This collection of essays proves that it really is not funny to talk about funny. A few good commonplaces to take away, good analysis and deconstruction for practice putting storyline and anecdotes back together. The best essay in the bunch was by Jennifer Crusie about the differences between male and female humor.
Now, for my next trick...
This collection of essays proves that it really is not funny to talk about funny. A few good commonplaces to take away, good analysis and deconstruction for practice putting storyline and anecdotes back together. The best essay in the bunch was by Jennifer Crusie about the differences between male and female humor.
Now, for my next trick...
March 13, 2016
Interesting collection of articles and interviews dealing with all sorts of humorous writing: fiction, non-fiction, essays and articles, even poetry. More about humor than craft. General view is that humor comes more from the author's (and character's) worldview than from technique.
July 28, 2013
Something of a mixed bag. Interesting bits, but nothing spectacular.
October 21, 2016
John offers excellent tips, lists, and exercises to improve your humor game!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews