Rules of Comedy 🎭🎭

last year I read a books about 2 boys wanting to make it BIG as comics.

the MC boy's late-father was a renound comic. and as comedy came natural to the boy so why not follow in his footsteps behind his mother's back?

I say this, because each chapter started off with a rule of comedy. and as this was a library book, I wrote down those rule of comedy into a home-brew scroll. 📜✍️

(I love public libraries)

I mention this bit, because I put the Golden Rules of Comedy in my room somewhere, but I forgo 💀

anyhoo, today as I'm subscribed to a certain copywriter who's allegedly #1 in his country... 🇦🇺🌏🦘🪃

(if you know who I'm talking about comment on this post and I'll reply back if you got it)

after a short anecdote to smoothly segway into HIS Golden Rules of Comedy, HERE ARE HIS 6 COMMANDMENTS:

1. Lean into your unique sense of humour. Whenever someone says “I’m not a funny person”, I counter with, “so you never laugh at anything with your friends?” They always have to concede that yes, they do laugh at stuff. I simply say, lean into that humour — whatever it is for you. In the beginning of my email list, that was dad jokes and bad puns for me. Over time, I learned to be a bit more sophisticated. But I never tried to force a sense of humour that wasn’t mine.

2. Make YOURSELF laugh. The best litmus test I have for whether an email is funny … is whether I am laughing writing it. Many of my ‘funniest’ emails (as judged by list feedback) are the emails where I was nearly crying at the keyboard over with laughter. (You have no IDEA how hard I was laughing the other day when “Evil Bard” came out of nowhere and started cussing its haters 😂)

3. Think like a comedian. I was helping my brother Benjamin edit one of his emails the other day … and I found myself explaining it to him with this metaphor. Visualise a comedian on stage, delivering their routine. Where do they pause? Where do they adjust their tone? Where do they make a face? It’s funny because I don’t even WATCH that much comedy, let alone perform it … yet I still often think of my emails in terms of delivering a stand-up act.

(I wanna do stand-up but not at a bar) 

4. Read funny writers. I’ve learned a lot from noticing when and how other writers make me laugh. It helps to go broad here, across genres. So not just email copywriters (Kevin Rogers, Justin Blackman, Laura Belgray and Chris Orzechowski come to mind for me as funny writers) … but fiction writers too (Douglas Adams and Andy Weir stand out for me). 

(funny words are funny)

5. Stories from your life make it easy to be funny. If there is a moment from your daily life that made you or people around you laugh … there is a good bet you can get a laugh out of it by retelling it in an email.

(don't think you have to write in chronological order. the best pieces aren't)

6. And most importantly: Practice … a lot. You know what I think has made the biggest difference? The fact that I show up and write an email EVERY SINGLE DAY, and have done for 3+ years. No, not every one is designed to be funny. But most of them are. And that has meant well over 1,000 chances to see what ‘hits’ … and what flops. I’ve noticed a massive improvement over time in my ability to gauge how ‘funny’ something is without even sending it … and accordingly, to just write funnier stuff. And I think the biggest factor has just been how many chances I've had to practice being funny.