"the core of a joke"

The last few months, I've been working on a book of jokes for children's entertainers. It's basically a book of comebacks for the common things you hear.

Quit Clowning around!

I have to union rule.
And quit my day job.
And give up the ability to pick up chicks?

I've worked on and off on this book for years. I sell copies, spiral bound when I do workshops. A few months into writing this blog, I started really focusing on the process. Sometimes churning out over a hundred comebacks in a day.

Comebacks is a word I don't like. I don't like writing insult jokes. I like it fine but I toss them out. My opinion of family entetainers, we should empower people while we make them laugh.

Here's my joke writing process. I don't think it's super complex, it's just a muscle that I use a lot. that's why I have a giant beachball shaped head.

A joke is pretty much pulling together two concepts that don't go together. "A dog walked into a bar and says, 'I want the man that shot my paw'" It's funny because we link unusual things together. In that joke, you see a dog with a gun belt and a cowboy hat, he's talking and he has his paw in a bandage. We listen and go with it. It's human.

So, to write a joke, I take a statement like "quit clowning around" and let my mind encompass that whole statement. "Quit" grabs me right away. Quit, reminds me of ending a job. Clowning is an unusual job...So, I think of jobs, at least what I know about jobs. Clowning is a weird job. So, I must have a union telling me what to do.

I could go so many ways with that statement. Quit clowning around. I can deny it "you're calling me a clown? I'm so insulted..." which is funny, if I'm in clown make up, clown shoes etc. I've pulled together two things, "I'm a person, I don't dress like this on purpose".

I could go sexy. "hey quit clowning around." "On the outside I'm clowning on the inside...I'm wearing a thong" Maybe not a pretty image, if you've seen me, but hey funny is funny.

That last one depends an awful lot on timing. But hey, I can pull it off, I'm a funny clown...wearing a thong...I can pull it off because of my well shaped behind.