HOMEWORK WEEK 1

For the graduation show you do a 6 minute set.*

Generally, for stand-up you want a punch line every 20 seconds.
That means you need 18 punch lines. Completely doable!

I TO COME UP WITH JOKES. You’re simply looking for something you’d like to talk about via
your stand-up set. To start all you need to do is the following:
(1) Make lists of things that are in your heart or on your mind. Things that you find
yourself talking about a lot or that pre-occupy you. And when I say, “talking about”
that includes talking to friends, family, or “talking to yourself.”
1. Last week.
2. All the time.
If nothing comes to mind, here are some questions you might ask yourself.
(1) What are some things that I find myself talking about a lot that annoy me.
1. Last week.
2. All the time.
(2) What are some things I find myself talking about a lot that fascinate me.
1. Last week.
2. All the time.
a. Look at the topics on your list. For each one, write down an idea you have
about that topic.
Take a look at your idea. Does the idea have within it, some degree of cognitive
dissonance? (CD) A good way to decide if it does is to ask yourself if, when expressing
the idea, might you be able to best explicate the idea by putting it in the form of a “you
would think,... but instead...”?ä (YWT,BI)
For instance, let say for a long time you’ve been thinking, “It’s amazing how much I love
the food at Taco Bel. And it’s particularly amazing when I consider the fact that I love
the food and yet some of the items I love only cost 59 cents!” Is there something CD
about that idea? Could it be expressed in the form of a YWT,BI?
Yup! It goes like this, “You would think, that food that costs 59 cents would be awful, but
instead, for 59 cents at Taco Bel, you can get food that’s delicious!” Now you have your
premise!

* Or 5 minutes. With a five minute set, your goal is 15 punch lines. Even more doable!

Stand Up Comedy Workshop at SMC

© Copyright 2012 Jonathan Leigh Solomon
By the way, and very importantly, some ideas you want to express probably won’t
contain any CD. For instance, “People in Los Angeles eat very healthy!” That’s just a
statement of fact/an opinion and there’s nothing CD about it. If you come up with ideas
like that, great – but save those ideas for next week’s homework. During next week’s
class we’ll be looking at how ideas of that sort can also get laughs.
Okay, so now that you have your premise what should you do next?
b. Add some more information; that’s your set-up.
c. Make a concluding statement that proves the idea in your premise is true.
Don’t try to be funny; just try to prove your premise is true. Then re-write the
concluding statement, but write an exaggerated version of whatever you
stated. That’s your punch line.

2) ANOTHER WAY TO GO ABOUT IT! Don’t worry about premises, set-ups and punch lines.
Instead just sit down and write 1000 words with your only goal being to fill up the page(s.)
Quantity over quality is fine – write anything that comes into your head about any topic that
comes into your head. You’ll end up with paragraphs appearing to be prose.Then reread what
you wrote and try to identify the three components of a joke within the prose.
1. You can if you like, buy three highlighting pens and highlight in blue
what you think are the premises, highlight in red what you think are
your set-ups, and highlight in purple what you think are your punch
lines.
(i) You will find that you’ve written premises.
(ii) You will find that you’ve written set-ups.
(iii) There will hopefully be several punch lines.
a. A page of 1000 words, if it yields one great joke, that’s a great ratio.

CARRY A LITTLE NOTEBOOK OR SOME SORT OF MEMO APP, A TAPE RECORDER, ETC.
Carry it with you during the day and leave one next to your bedside at night. Write down
(1) Lines you say in conversation that get a laugh. (2) Ideas that occur to you during the
day that you are confident could get a laugh. Why make a note of the lines/ideas? You
always think when you come up with a line/good idea that you’ll remember it later.
Chances are – especially with the bedside ideas – you won’t. And make the notes
somewhat thorough; you don’t want to look at the paper later that says, “airport” and
have to think, “What the heck was I thinking about airports?”

NOTE: Sometimes what you say in conversation that gets a laugh, doesn’t seem like it
could be funny in your act. Instead, “you had to be there.” Not true; usually whatever you
say that gets a laugh in conversation, can get a laugh in your act.

Stand Up Comedy Workshop at SMC

© Copyright 2012 Jonathan Leigh Solomon
 For instance, let’s say you are talking to friends about a movie that you think “sucks.” For
five minutes you complain about the movie and then – feeling a tad guilty because
everything you’re saying you only read about – finally you say, “By the way, I haven’t
actually seen the movie.” Everyone laughs. That laugh can be duplicated by either:
(1) Recreating the moment as part of your set. In the case of the movie that sucks, you’d
do several jokes about how sucky such and such movie was. Then you’d say, “Oh, by the
way, I haven’t seen the movie.”
(2) Noticing that the underlying idea can become a premise of a joke. In the case of the
movie that sucks, the premise would be, “people who complain about movies – or stuff
generally – that they know nothing about.” Then you just have to choose a joke structure
within which to state the premise and then, write a punch line. Over the ensuing weeks
of class, we are sure to diagram a joke structure that will work for that idea.
(3) Thinking back and noticing that what you said that got the laugh, was the punch line
to a completed joke, but it was someone else who stated the premise and they only
stated a portion of the premise. Once you collect all that was said and add a few
necessary clarifying details, you’ll find the entire joke. For instance, maybe you said,
“Yeah, you have to clean it with a kitten.” But it was someone else who said, “I don’t get
why it is my husband bothers to buy fine china” and it was a third person who said, “You
cannot even clean that sort of dish in the dishwasher!” Put the first someone’s
statement first, the third person’s statement second and what you said third and – ta da!
– you have a complete joke.

★ WRITING JOKES IS DIFFICULT. As I mentioned in class, just because jokes are funny, doesn’t
mean coming up with them is necessarily “fun.” It is fun and rewarding, every time you land on
something you really want to talk about and have a – hopefully unique – idea about. So among
other words of encouragement, let’s start with these: Don’t throw in the towel even if it’s the
day before class and you haven’t written. Deadlines motivate a writer. Not to mention sharpen
the mind.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT TO APPLY YOURSELF TO EVERY WEEK: Watch
stand-up comedians live, on TV or streaming. Really think about the jokes the comic is telling
and what the comic is doing on the stage. If you have time and the desire to do so, write down
the jokes and take a close look at the structure of the jokes. Similarly, consider carefully what
the comic is doing as a performer and how the comic presents themselves to an audience. All
the concepts we will be covering in class will show up. Seeing what you’re learning about in class
reflected in examples not covered in class, is another great way to learn!

Stand Up Comedy Workshop at SMC

© Copyright 2012 Jonathan Leigh Solomon