CREATE A SURPRISE The primary reason for keeping jokes as brief as possible is to maintain surprise. While an audience listens to a joke, unconsciously their minds dart ahead to anticipate the punchline. With enough time, unless it’s a gob-smacking surprise, they may work out where the joke is going. Brevity keeps the teller one…
Tag: comedy writing
Gags, Comic Situations And Other Principles Of Television Comedy
Andrew Moraitis interviews comic and writer Tim Ferguson, who talks about how the principles of comedy including misdirection, irony and comic situations can relate to Australian comedy. “Don’t preach to me about romance, Annie! I had a three-way in a hot-air balloon,” arrogant former lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) tells his college study group in…