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Monday, April 19, 2021

Elements of Humor

     Once you've developed skills in observing humor, you're ready to use basic comic elements. Some jokes are really old, tracing back to medieval times. Despite variations in individual funny bones, however, these jokes have survived for centuries because they work. Certain elements are almost always able to make people laugh.

     Like basic plot structures, you can use the comic elements as dependable foundations for creative adaptation…Here's a starting list: timing, mime, slapstick, repetition, switches, exaggeration, extremes, indecision, convention suspension and wordplay.

Patricia Case in How to Write Funny, John B. Kachuba, editor, 2001 

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