How to write a joke

*Levi Weinhagen is serving as Artist in Residence for Education and Community Programs from September 2014 through February 2015*

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” – George Carlin

Comedy, at its purest form, is about taking away as much as possible from an idea so that all that’s left is the joke. The highest praise a person who writes comedy can pay towards a joke or a piece of comedy is to say that there’s “no fat on it.” This honing of an idea down to its funniest and simplest form is where the artistry and craftsmanship of comedy meet. I believe that comedy in all of it’s forms; sketch, improv, stand-up, storytelling, physical, and some as-of-yet undiscovered mind-blowing form are all art as worthy of reverence and praise as any style of painting or school or architecture.

“I would have been a lot better off if I’d studied more when I was growing up, y’know. But you know where it all went wrong was the day they started the spelling bee. Because up until that day I was an idiot, but nobody else knew.” – Brian Regan

I see this idea of taking away everything but the joke present in how all art is made. There’s the certainly overused example of Michelangelo explaining how he know what to cut away in order to create the statue of David by saying, “It’s simple. I just remove everything that doesn’t look like David.” I have no idea if Michelangelo ever actually said those words. But I do like to imagine him saying this quote in a broad stereotypical Italian restaurant like Super Mario in an Olive Garden commercial.

“I like rice. Rice is great when you’re hungry and you want 2,000 of something.” – Mitch Hedberg

True or not, the reason this Michelangelo quote has been sited so often is because it gets at how the creative process really works. To make something good, you have to start with a lot of things that in the long run will reveal themselves to be not that good thing. Whether it be a block of marble, tubes full of acrylic paints, or a vague thought about how much rice constitutes a serving. Here’s how comedian Cameron Esposito describes the joke writing process: “All jokes start as crap. Some stay crappy. Some can be P90Xed into a set ready for TV.”

“I don’t care if you think I’m racist. I just want you to think I’m thin.” – Sarah Silverman

Because I make comedy and because I’m so interested in the process of making comedy, I can’t look at a painting or watch a film without quickly turning my thoughts to the process of making that thing. This focus on process can at times mean I don’t get to just purely enjoy a thing, I don’t get to always live inside the experience of something. But it also means my appreciation for art that can move and affect people is deep and filled with appreciation. And for me, that’s worth missing some of the pure joy of experiencing art.