I had a pretty solid week for jokes as February kicked off. And I know they took a couple of my set-ups, but rewrote the punchlines to, as well. I'm really not following the same news sites to get my ideas from, so I like to think I'm throwing in a wider net for topics.
Now here's a lesson in joke construction. The Nobel Prize joke; they used every word I wrote for the joke but, they added a bit to the set-up altering the bridge to the punchline. But, that's on me; I was going for the unspoken irony that BLM got the nomination for the award Trump covets and that Trump HATES BLM. But I shouldn't have assumed everyone would get that. I needed to spell that out a bit. While I often bemoan the fact that TMI sometimes over-writes the set-up of the joke, sometimes context really is needed. As a joke writer, I've become much more sparse in my verbiage. If I can get a retort down to a couple of words, I'm delighted. The flip side is, watching SNL vintage, if they show an older Weekend Update and make a brief reference to what must have been a big story that week, I have no idea what they are talking about. The reference is lost.
So, the team added the bit about all the police violence it took for the whole BLM to be acknowledged, so THAT became the irony. Mine was a softer joke, they gave it some bite.
Anyway, to remind everyone, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time). And here's my contributions for last week:
Now here's a lesson in joke construction. The Nobel Prize joke; they used every word I wrote for the joke but, they added a bit to the set-up altering the bridge to the punchline. But, that's on me; I was going for the unspoken irony that BLM got the nomination for the award Trump covets and that Trump HATES BLM. But I shouldn't have assumed everyone would get that. I needed to spell that out a bit. While I often bemoan the fact that TMI sometimes over-writes the set-up of the joke, sometimes context really is needed. As a joke writer, I've become much more sparse in my verbiage. If I can get a retort down to a couple of words, I'm delighted. The flip side is, watching SNL vintage, if they show an older Weekend Update and make a brief reference to what must have been a big story that week, I have no idea what they are talking about. The reference is lost.
So, the team added the bit about all the police violence it took for the whole BLM to be acknowledged, so THAT became the irony. Mine was a softer joke, they gave it some bite.
Anyway, to remind everyone, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time). And here's my contributions for last week:
