Becoming better at humor - 30 days of dissecting the frog

[Mounds]

So I've got this dream of making people laugh on a regular basis, whether it be through writing or stand-up. I actually find both intriguing (I genuinely enjoy performing) but I've got one problem. I can't write jokes. Any joke you see me make on here is an ad lib.
I recently picked up a book on how to write humor. Whether it be for your own routine or an article... it's about writing jokes. I just got to a part with eight exercises. One exercise involves adding captions to random pictures, another involves writing down 50 jokes and figuring out what type of jokes they are... stuff like that.
After reading Steve's awesome new post, I'm inspired by 30-day trials again. Gonna give this one a shot. I'm going to do one exercise, everyday, for a month. I'll give myself tonight to form a schedule and then it's off to the races. I might even add in an extra challenge, to write two Cracked articles within that 30 days. Let me know what you guys think!

-Tim

[LostMyMap]

I would like to begin by disputing the notion that you can't write jokes. So what you write are ad-libs. OK. All you have to do is take a public thing, like something in the news, than ad-lib on that. The late, great Johnny Carson made a pretty good career out of that, and every late night talk show host that does a monologue does the same.

I personally feel that's how it's done. Something that looks like a polished routine started out as a sudden flash in the comedians mind, and they just write those down and string them together.

Also, I find that humor is like baseball. A .333 batting average is pretty darned good. Not all jokes are home runs. That's OK.

[Angela]

I think you are very funny, Tim. You make me laugh and laugh!

[st33med]

Wax Frog is not going to be happy with the title.

[Daffy Duck]

Yeah, I think you're pretty funny already.

When you study comedy, you'll notice that often what amuses people is the element of surprise. So if you can master the surprise, you can improve your comedy. Now, when I was born, I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half, so sometimes a surprise can leave someone speechless too.

[Mounds]

Lol, thanks for the encouragement guys. I could ad lib in my sleep at this point and I think I might start with a comedy blog. Pointing out silly things I see in day to day life.

[royster]

I used to do stand-up.

I still do, but my wife makes me lift the seat up, first.

[LostMyMap]

Originally Posted by royster

I used to do stand-up.

I still do, but my wife makes me lift the seat up, first.

AHA! Looks like a great off the cuff ad-lib. But is it really? Or have you had that one laying around for a long time? And even if you did just now make it up, won't you be saving that one for future use?

In any case, I will be stealing it., which is another perfectly good way to do comedy....

[royster]

Well, I was tired of sitting down to pee.

I'm not hen-pecked: those marks are from good ol' fashion WORK.

[Matt Willard]

Did you pick up the Comedy Writing Workbook by Gene Perret by any chance? It's either that or his other book, The New Comedy Writing Step By Step, that your description reminds me of.

Luckily for you, I'm currently doing a humor writing column over at All Freelance Writing, which I think might be up your alley. The latest column is here:

Make Your Writing Funny: Creating Humorous Captions for Pictures | All Freelance Writing

Good luck with the comedy writing mission.