In joke writing, “You have to know what it isn’t, before you know what it is.” What this means is, when we’re working on a premise, keep moving into the idea, digging at the truth, like diggng for gold, allow the jokes that steal your will to keep writing, because the treasure is close.
Take an idea: (Baby Boomers): When we begin writing jokes, look at the underlying emotion in the idea: the elephant in the room, the unspoken core of the premise. BABY BOOMERS, what do we know about them? Born from 1946 to 1964: What does this mean? They fought in Vietnam, were hippies, had long hair, they’re old, grand parents, their time is up. -These are the underlying truths. From these truths we create punch lines from the Elephants in the room, the core emotions of the punchlines as well as other points of view on the circle.
-If we were in a club. Where would the audience be coming from? Where’s a Baby Boomer coming from? What about Generation x? Y? What about seniors, 70 somethings? Differnt cultures? ( A big reason we have writers blocknis we’re always coming from our point of view.)
– Lets begjn with an Audiience. Where are they coming from when we say baby boomer? We start with questions: -WHY do Boomers get a title but the next Generation only gets a letter, and a shity one, x?
-Are they called Baby Boomers because of the 50 million that died in WW2?
-Why do they call the 60’s the sexual revolution if all the boinking went on the 50’s?
-What are some bench marks from the baby boomers? Wood Stock, bell botttoms, long hair, hippies, far out,
groovy, cool. Easy Rider,
-From all this information, and inner truths, we have enough to create a premise,a statement: -“You can’t ask a Baby Boomer if the moon landing really happened. They don’t remember if the 70’s really happened.”
Keep digging, tagging, coming from different points on the circle. The treasure is there.