Hi Folks!

Be on the lookout for new types of jokes. If someone cracks a joke which makes you laugh, see if you can make others in that style.

Recently I heard and laughed at the following gag:

Bought my son an Action Man recently. When he opened it, the box was empty. When I had a closer look at the box, I saw that it said, 'Action Man Deserter.'

Yes! Are there other types / ranks etc of fighting men (and women!) whose titles might lend themselves to this 'Action Man' format? There must be.

Earlier today I typed 'Types of soldiers' into Google and ran my eye down the different entries looking for links / puns... all the things I've been sharing with you.

The following leaped out at me:

Chaplain
Infantry
Mercenary

The next step in my thinking for each of these was:

Chaplain = Charlie Chaplin
Infantry = infants
Mercenary = in it for the money

After you've been doing this for some time, you'll start naturally spotting this kind of thing. When you've got ideas, like the three above, you have to package / present each in the best way.

Now I'll turn these into new 'Action Man' gags.

My son didn't understand the latest Action Man toy. In the box was a figure in ill-fitting black and white clothes, carrying a cane, with a white 'dog collar' round his neck. I looked at the box. It said, 'Action Man Chaplain.'

I watched as my son unwrapped the latest 'Action Man'. He was very puzzled, because it was a boy even younger than my lad. Looking at the box, I saw the words, 'Action Man Infantry.'

One of the latest Action Man toys was three times the cost of the others. I thought for that price it must be good, but when my lad unwrapped it, it was just an ordinary Action Man in camouflage gear. Looking at the box, I saw the words, 'Action Man Mercenary.'

I road-tested these gags on my wife (the acid test!) and she felt they were funny.

There're loads of other Armed Forces divisions and categories, easily found on the net. Why not have a go at the above process?

Best regards,
​Marc

My starting point today is 'nom de plume,' meaning a pen / stage name. Many writers / actors etc use them, perhaps because their actual name doesn't have a ring to it..

I think this subject has potential to go somewhere entertaining. A nom de plume could be a nickname. We've all had one or more - so there should be lots of scope..

Just because my starting point is 'nom de plume' doesn't mean that the gags created from it must be directly connected to it. We're just using it to get the creative juices flowing, to be mentally free and to explore previously untravelled comedy byways. 

The word 'plume' starts the following chain of thought:

Plume - plumage - feathers - where do you see feathers? - on birds - in the headgear of Native Americans.

This thought process took a very short time - at most 5 minutes.

I am glad to have arrived at the subject of Native Americans, because they all have given names based on their personalities or achievements, names which can change across a lifetime.

For this post, Native American's names can be looked at as 'nom de plumes'.

​RESEARCH​

My next port of call is the internet. I want to bone up on the most famous American Indians - are there any with names we can use for laughs?.

JOKE SAMPLE 1
Geronimo is high up on the list.
The facts I want to use are that his name meant 'He who yawns,' that he had 6 wives like Henry the 8th and that his name has 8 letters.

The joke I get to from this is:

Geronimo's name means 'He who yawns.' His name has 8 letters, so I think he should've been called 'Geronimo the 8' which would tie him in with Henry the 8th: who just like Geronimo had 6 wives..

You know, I'm not surprised he was known as a yawner, he did after all have to keep 6 women satisfied at all times.

JOKE SAMPLE 2
​Crazy Horse is next. 
His name actually meant 'His horse is crazy'.

Does this mean the horse was mentally ill? Was it a bipolar sufferer or schizophrenic? Did it ever suffer from depression?

I see a joke in this, stemming from the thought that should Crazy Horse's horse's mental condition change, the great Chief might want a new name.

Needing alternative words for 'horse' and for mental health conditions, I look them up in my thesaurus. On the grounds that alliteration can make a joke funnier, I choose 'doldrums' and 'dobbin.'

I see Crazy Horse's horse is suffering from depression now. 
Yes. I understand he's thinking of changing his name from Crazy Horse to Dobbin Doldrums.

JOKE SAMPLE 3
Plume:
A plume of white smoke signifies a new Pope has been chosen.
​
Is there a link from this to 'nom de plume'? Yes, because all new popes choose a new papal name, different from their real name. The current pope's actual name is Jorge Mario but as pope he wants to be called Francis.

Well, how on earth do you crowbar something funny out of that?

My breakthrough here was the question that, like Geronimo and Crazy Horse, could a pope be an Indian?

Did you know the new pope is a Native American Indian? Well, his selection was announced by the Vatican with a plume of white smoke... and I can announce that the new papal name he's chosen is Big Pope White-Smoke the 1st.

CONCLUSION
Well, although this is the 'One Joke Campaign', I've given you the workings-out of three gags. This is to make up for not posting for a couple of days recently.

I hope you're getting a lot out of the Campaign and I look forward to sharing my next post.

Very best regards, 
​MP

Take two words / ideas, possibly linked in some way, brainstorm them, and turn them around, generating surprise, and therefore humour.

It sounds easy. That's because, when you get the hang of it, it is.

Imagine what might happen if the eye drops went into my ears and the ear drops went in my eyes. My first thought is: my ears would be able to see and my eyes would be able to hear.
​
Continuing the thinking:

I'd be able to hear what I looked at and with my vision receptors being being further apart than nature intended, I'd have phenomenal peripheral vision.

Can we make something of the peripheral vision idea? Well I can think of one creature in nature that must have very good peripheral eyesight. It's a kind of shark.

If you put in lots of practise you'll become good at this. Why not write a list objects or ideas, either with an obvious link or not, follow the above process and see what you can get out of it.

Best regards and do visit again,

​Marc

Whenever you think of a gag, yes, write it down, or record it in another way. But once you've organised the words, tell it to friends, family, even strangers. 

Particularly share it with people who are real but constructive in their criticism.

Never let a negative comment bring you down, but be wary of flannel, it's utterly worthless.

Wherever I am when a joke hits me, I write it down. But if there's an opportunity to tell the gag to someone, it's great to do so. You'll learn as you go what works, and as your comedy faculties develop you'll build a reputation for quick-wittedness. 

This is how it happened.

Mrs P: 'Look! I just bought us a massive tin of soup - 500 mls'
Mr P: 'So that's what the Proclaimers were going on about!'

This is a reference to their song '500 miles'.

My response to the big soup tin was spontaneous. I'm sure that was part of the reason why this gag was funny. 

But looking at it, I can see another 2 ways of phrasing the punchline:

'Sounds like a song by the Proclaimers'
and
'What have the Proclaimers got to do with it?'

Perhaps this last one works the best.

Take care folks, and do visit again.
Marc

now Yes, I'm going to prepare another gag for you, in another post. In the mean time, I wish you an enjoyable time with your comedy.

Best regards,
​Marc

Making light of problems and personal troubles can help us to cope with them. My wife was a nurse for many years and the only way of coping with the incredible stresses and levels of responsibility was to laugh at them. This goes for any career involving daily grim stuff.
 
I think it’s true that laughter is the best medicine.
 
As a teenager I collected beermats. Then I went on to collecting stamps. Nowadays I’m mostly collecting health conditions. A recent acquisition is tinnitus, and I can say is that although it doesn’t hurt, it’s a total pain in the ear.
 
Today I want to demonstrate how I would mine the subject of tinnitus for comedy and produce a joke, or perhaps two. 

At the weekend the international rugby took place. I knew some of the results but somehow missed that of Wales / Ireland. 

I asked my Welsh friend Huw what the score was and he said: 

'We lost comfortably.'

I laughed and shared Huw's remark with everyone I bumped into. They all laughed too.

Why is it funny? I suppose because it turns on its head the usual post-match saying: 'We won comfortably.'

It also gives rise, in my head at least, to thoughts of a team not trying, not being bothered about losing, even avoiding breaking into a sweat.

Whenever you hear a conversational snippet which is funny, either intentionally or otherwise, make a point of writing it down or leaving yourself a message on your answerphone. You never know when it might be useful in some way.

​And road test it by trying it out on people you know and people you don't know

In summary, listen out for anything you can use - and don't lose it.

Cheerio for now,

​Marc

It's quite clear that these storms battering us one after another are a bad thing, particularly for those unfortunate people whose houses are being flooded time and time again.

The people who name storms do it to humanise them, to help us fight them by picturing them as a defeatable bad guy rather than something wild, chaotic, unpredictable natural force.

I've always been one for fighting tough things with humour. Storm Ciara is the most recent one to hit us, blasting cold rain at us by day and by night.

So where do you start making a joke about this?

The name of the storm is the same as that of one of our most successful actresses, but spelt differently. Knowing her surname I see a link, which instantly leads me to a joke.

Joke:
If this storm keeps hitting us after dark we'll have to rename her Ciara Nightly.

Take that as you wish to, but a lot of people have laughed at it while I've been road-testing it.

The next 18 storms have all been named, the next being Denis. Why don't you have a go at them comedy-creation wise and see what you can come up with?

Thanks for dropping in,
Marc

Hi folks!
I've been making up jokes for a very long time, so much so that nowadays they often pop into my mind without any conscious thought. But afterwards, when I think back to the moment of creation, I can work out what I've done to get there.

My plan is to share one or two jokes per post and  show how I got to them. This will lead to shorter, more frequent posts.

I'd like to draw a line under the wedding of the fictional happy couple: Cath, who fences and Alf who skis.

A quick glance at the Readers' Digest Reverse Dictionary (well worth getting) or doing a spot of internet browsing should lead us to a link between the terminology of fencing and ski-ing. When I did this, I quickly found a link: both sports take place on a piste: a rectangular court for one, a ski slope for the other.

A pun like this which links two almost completely different themes has great comedy potential. It's almost the Holy Grail of comedy writing:

Joining two distinct subjects with a link leads to something unexpected and surprising. The surprise causes laughter.

Find a link and you 've found a joke.

Here's today's:

Joke:
Alf had no idea that the 'piste' is the court fencers fight on, so when Cath boldly asked him if he fancied going on the piste, he wasn't sure if she was suggesting a trip to the Snowdome or a night on the beer.

Please bear in mind that humour is a very personal thing. What tickles one person into hysteria might leave another cold. You might find my gags in this blog unfunny. That's fine: they're there to show you the steps and methods.

That's it for today: Tune in again soon!
​Marc