According to Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip "Dilbert," the secret to writing funny stuff is simple. Just make sure that your writing contains at least two of the following elements: cute (such as babies, kids, and animals), naughty, bizarre, clever, recognizable (you've been there, you can relate), or cruel. This explains why kids are always funny. By definition, they come with at least 2 of 6, and often encompass all 6.

One reader noted that "stupid" is covered under "bizarre." It's not the lack of smarts that's funny - it's a sort of bent logic that we can all understand; it's the literal-mindedness of a Gracie Allen, and our understanding of the misinterpretation or miscommunication, that's funny.

I read Adams's blog, then started applying his "2-of-6 rule" to see if it held true. Sure enough…the world is a funny place, if you look at it just right. One of my favorite cartoons is "Neurotically Yours," at https://www.illwillpress.com (beware the parental advisories on some—er, most—of these animations, but also note that my ten year old can give a pretty great impersonation of Foamy the Squirrel at Starbucks – some of them are just too "recognizable" to bother censoring.) Foamy is cute and bizarre, in that "so ugly he's cute" way. His hyper, high-pitched voice is annoyingly cute in itself. Foamy also has such a way of making the real world look even more bizarre than a talking squirrel. He's cruel, often ranting about or berating the clueless, but he plays out that cruelty in recognizable situations (who hasn't wanted to rag on marketers who've figured out how to convince us that a "small" coffee is a "tall" coffee?). I think the fact that the urban squirrel hasn't got a politically correct bone in his body qualifies as naughty (when it doesn't tip right over into cruel), and the whole concept is pretty clever.

Test the formula for yourself, next time you read comedy. Can you identify the elements that make it funny? In Adams's blog, he analyzes several popular comic strips and explains why they work so well - or why they don't. Next, apply the 2-of-6 rule to your own work. Which elements are you missing? Which can you add?

Adams also reminds humor writers that all humor is about people (who else could throw cute, naughty, bizarre, clever, recognizable, and cruel together all at once and laugh about it?), not concepts or things.

Andrew wrote:

That was the most... Interesting (?) video I've ever seen. Perhaps this newsletter didn't give many tips in the way of writing humor, but it sure gave good examples!

`ACB

billwilcox wrote:

As always, Jessie, your humor slays me...

ydnim is back wrote:

A fellow treadmill dancer! I once embarassed myself in front of my college football team trying to dance to Backstreet Boys on my CD player. I really, really enjoyed your piece on fitness. It was witty, funny, and chock fully of everything I relate to!

ydnim is back wrote:

Oh my gosh! I was laughing so hard at your piece, I didn't see you had included my own. Thank you so much for the publicity!!

Mindy

schipperke wrote:

Jessie,

You made my day with your newsletter! Congrats on losing the weight despite your best efforts....

LilPaul wrote:

"My Humps" and "The Time Warp" you say? My God that exercise mallarkey does sound tricky. It kind of makes a gluttony caused early grave seem a bit more appealing, here's to gorging!