A joke is incomplete without an audience's laughter. This makes the audience the final arbiter of a joke's success, a humbling reality for any creator. You don't get to decide if your work is funny; the audience does. Their reaction is the final, essential component.
A successful joke's core isn't the punchline but its 'point'—the underlying message or meaning. This foundation is often a serious observation. The humor is then built by creating a premise and structure that leads the audience to this point without stating it directly.
To write comedy professionally, you can't rely on inspiration. A systematic process, like 'joke farming,' allows for the reliable creation of humor by breaking down the unconscious creative process into deliberate, replicable steps that can be performed on demand.
The perception that great comedians are simply 'naturally funny' on stage is a carefully crafted illusion. Masters like Jerry Seinfeld and Joan Rivers rely on disciplined, daily writing and meticulous organization. Their hard work is intentionally hidden to create the magic of spontaneous, effortless humor for the audience.
Joke telling is a communication tool, not an inherently virtuous act. A well-structured joke elicits a physical laugh response that can make an audience accept a premise, even a harmful one. This persuasive power can be used for 'evil,' as the structure's effectiveness is independent of the content's morality.
An effective joke structure takes a broad, relatable premise and concludes by subverting it with a detail uniquely specific to the subject. A 'Daily Show' bit about John Kerry used this, starting with his love of all things 'French' but ending on his marriage to a Heinz heir—a fact only relevant to him.
While working on 'Mystery Science Theater 3000,' Elliot Kalan's initial 'Maximum Jokes' philosophy backfired. Audiences reported that wall-to-wall jokes left no time to process and laugh, diminishing the overall experience. Effective comedy requires space, proving that thinning the herd makes the remaining jokes stronger.