To write comedy, combine things that do not belong together, lead your audience to expect one outcome and then give them another, repeat a joke with a small change, call back to earlier jokes, and watch the people around you for material.
You may think of yourself as a funny person because you can make your friends laugh. Try to put your jokes in writing, though, and you will see how difficult it is. Writing comedy is harder than it looks.
So how do you write good comedy?
How comedy writers get a laugh
No one can teach you how to be funny, but a few techniques make it easier to get people laughing. Whether you are writing stand-up material, a play set in an office, or a comedy screenplay, these tips can help.
1. Combine unexpected elements
Things that go well together are not funny. Put yourself, or the characters of your story, in unusual situations. In an office, for example, people sitting at computers in their cubicles is normal. What is not normal is a coworker who turns your cubicle into a ball pit while you are away. That is a hilarious setup, and it is ripe for more jokes that follow from it.
2. Use misdirection
People laugh when things defy their expectations. A good comedy writer leads the audience to expect a certain outcome and then smashes that expectation.
Remember the episode of Friends in which Rachel and Chandler are eating cheesecake off the floor, and Joey walks in? You expect him to make a snarky remark about the two of them, but instead he pulls out a fork and joins them. That was hilarious.
3. Add repetition
Repeating a joke with small differences can have people rolling on the floor with laughter. Here is an example:
How do you put a giraffe into a fridge?
Open the fridge, put the giraffe in, and close the door.
How do you put an elephant into a fridge?
Open the fridge, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in, and close the door.
Both the questions and the answers repeat, but one small difference makes the joke.
4. Try callbacks
Stand-up comedians often use callbacks. A callback takes a joke from earlier in the act, often from the very beginning, and brings it back later in a different context. Because some time has passed since the first joke, the audience may need a split second to recognize it before they burst into laughter.
5. Observe people
Funny things happen all the time, but you will miss them if you stay locked in your room. Go outside and see the world. You will see kids doing silly things, people running into funny little accidents on their way to work, dads telling unfunny jokes to their poor children, and much more.
The best comedians are true storytellers. They draw real emotions from their audience with stories the audience can relate to. If your comedy has characters who talk, the tips for writing dialogue can help, too.
Think like a comedy writer, and turn the funny little things you see into something even funnier. It takes practice, but you will get better with time.
One more thing: check your draft
If you plan to show your comedy writing to other people, producers for example, make sure it is not full of typos and misspellings. A typo can make a joke fly right past the reader, and then you are in the awkward position of having to explain it. Before you send your draft, run it through the Spell Checker, which finds grammar mistakes as well as misspellings.