The Serious Guide to Joke Writing: How To Say Something Funny About Anything Paperback – November 1, 2010

I loved the setup of this book. Each chapter was about a different joke-writing function. And each chapter had multiple actionable examples of how to best write a joke. It's really amazing how difficult it actually is to be good at writing jokes. But the author provides the template to be successful. I read this book to introduce humor into my writing, not to become a stand-up comedian, and I still found it extremely valuable.

This is a fantastic read for Joke writers of any level of experience, It really will having you writing and polishing your jokes in no time. The books is broken down into many joke theory instructions and as each chapter progress you find the theories combining. It's a new way of looking at joke writing and an absolute killer way you'll be able to write jokes on any subject and combine subjects together no matter how far off they may be.I've read about a dozen or so books on joke writing and joke writing theories - this is by far the most practical and the one that has allowed me to produce material in the shortest amount of time. It suits most styles of joke writing from satirical and obscure to puns and one-liners. Plenty of practical exercise that aren't dry or laborious, the examples provided also help reinforce the results that are achieved from each practical theory.

This book is a fantastic launch pad for point blank beginners learning how to write jokes. I went out and did two minutes worth of jokes at an open mic using techniques in this book to crank them out, and now that I get how joke writing works, I plan to get up there and do many more. That said, there are a few caveats IMHO to the book.- The book was written A) nine years ago by a B) straight C) white person D) in another country. This results in:- The slang and celebrities references that many of the jokes in the book depend upon have to be googled in order for the humor in the examples to be understood to understand the exercises.- The author is extremely easily titilated by queer people. There are at least four jokes in the book that revolve around, "I just mentioned queer people- I'm so outrageous!!" for their humor.- On a limited level, this applies to ethnic groups. I think that there were about two examples of stereotype based ethnic jokes (one, I think, regarding Arabs) that were not derogatory per se in terms of the nature of the joke, but relied heavily on a white person's incorrect stereotypes for humor (and lacked the consideration that people belonging to these groups are a part of her audience).- Bizarrely, she has several misogynistic jokes (usually written by her students, and inexplicably included by her).On the plus side, I can't say enough great things about the comedy writing techniques in the book. It's a fast and easy read, but for me, it was written by someone too removed in time and space (nine years and an ocean) for me to find most of the jokes funny. Your mileage may vary.

I'll start with the positive.The author lays out some very helpful joke writing methods, most notably the "joke web". These won't write the jokes for you, but they will give you lots of very relevant information to create jokes. The book was easy to follow, and a overall a good quick read.Negative.I think perhaps because the author is British and I'm American, there may be a bit of a cultural gap in regards to what is funny. For example, the first chapter is about how to construct puns. I will admit that occasionally a pun is funny, but for the most part they should be avoided. She keeps coming back to puns throughout the book, which for me was a bit like literary nails on a chalkboard. I basically took her methods and removed the bits regarding puns, and that worked better for me. Also, I thought this book was a tad overpriced. I bought it new for $18, I think given the length of the book something closer to $12 would have been more fair.

I have done some stand-up and actually teach a stand-up class now near where I live. I think Sally Holloway's methods are going to be so helpful to me as a stand-up and as a teacher of stand-up and joke writing. She explains things so clearly, lovingly and enthusiastically. Her methods are ingenious in making sure jokes can be found even on the hardest of topics. She even helps one understand how the jokes one writes can fit in different kinds of comedy(stand-up, sketch, sitcoms, cartoons, etc.). Fantastic purchase!!!

I am a professional humorist and storyteller. For years I have struggled with the need to continuously develop and deliver new material. I have read dozens of books on the subjects of humor and joke writing, but The Serious Guide to Joke Writing by Sally Holloway is by far the best.Ms Holloway writes in a conversational and engaging style. Her prose is concise and boy, does she ever deliver! The chapters on Joke-Webs, the Hadron Joke Collider and the Surrealist Inquisition are gold mines. A longtime user of mind mapping, I was immediately able to put the joke web and Hadron Joke Collider ideas to use with excellent results. Not to worry though, if you are not familiar with mind mapping Ms Holloway's clear instructions and trouble-shooting guides will have you using both techniques in no time if you are willing to put in the work. The Surrealist Inquisition is proving to be a challenging technique, but one that I will spend more time with since I can easily see its ability to help come up with wildly funny ideas.The book flows, pulling you along and guiding you through each exercise. If you are interested in writing jokes, humorous essays, monologues, or simply adding some punch to your presentations, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

We all know that good comedy is work. What we don't know is where to start. Sally takes you step by step through 6 different techniques that let's you find humor anywhere. There's also a strong link between comedy and creativity so great book for anyone also looking to associate new ideas from a variety of different sources.