Contents

      Foreword

      Introduction

      How to Use This Book

       Part One: General Joke Writing

Exercise 1: Collect Fifty Great One-Liners

Exercise 2: Captioning

Exercise 3: A Little Tougher Captioning

Exercise 4: Captioning Words

Exercise 5: Gathering References

Exercise 6: In the News

Exercise 7: Turn Ideas into Jokes

Exercise 8: The Almost Right Word

Exercise 9: It’s All Around Us

Exercise 10: Inspired by Legends

       Exercise 11: That Makes Perfect Nonsense

       Exercise 12: Tag That Line

       Exercise 13: Say It by Not Saying It

       Exercise 14: Outside the Box

       Exercise 15: Same Word, Different Meaning

       Exercise 16: It Means What You Mean It to Mean

       Exercise 17: Same Old Words, Brand-New Meaning

       Exercise 18: Don’t Quit Too Soon

       Exercise 19: Merely Fill in the Blanks

       Exercise 20: On the Shoulders of Giants

       Exercise 21: Relationships That Aren’t Really Related

       Exercise 22: One Joke Begets Many

       Exercise 23: Ready, Set, Write

       Exercise 24: Assignment Unknown

       Part Two: General Stand-Up Writing

       Exercise 25: Take Good Notes

       Exercise 26: Compact the Act

       Exercise 27: What Are They Talking About?

       Exercise 28: Writing a Chunk

       Exercise 29: Writing for a Specific Person

       Exercise 30: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part A

       Exercise 31: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part B

       Exercise 32: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part C

       Exercise 33: Now Cut Your Precious Jokes

       Exercise 34: Smooth Transitions

       Exercise 35: Baking a Monologue

       Exercise 36: Working toward the Finish Line

       Exercise 37: Now Write

       Exercise 38: Roast a Friend

       Exercise 39: Write Whatever So-and-So Wants

       Exercise 40: That’s Handy

       Exercise 41: There Are Two Sides to Every Topic

       Exercise 42: Late-Night TV

       Exercise 43: Be Prepared

       Exercise 44: Learn to Overwrite

       Exercise 45: Pick Your Best

       Exercise 46: Not Done Yet

       Exercise 47: Killing Dead Time

       Part Three: Writing for Your Mentor

       Exercise 48: Pick Your Mentor

       Exercise 49: The Best of Your Mentor

       Exercise 50: Let Your Mentor Mentor

       Exercise 51: You’ve Been Hired

       Exercise 52: Waste Not, Want Not

       Exercise 53: Find the Right Formula

       Exercise 54: Hello, Good-bye

       Exercise 55: Tailor-Made

       Exercise 56: Dedicated Chunk

       Exercise 57: Where Did That Come From?

       Exercise 58: Strengthen the Weaknesses

       Exercise 59: Strengthen the Strengths

       Exercise 60: Let It Sit

       Exercise 61: Special Appearances