In applying the what you have learned in this tutorial, the fundamentals of the

see if you can maybe pump new life into a corny old joke and get it to work even better than the first time you used it to get a big laugh.

After you have completed these two (2) assignments, then take Jim's

HowWriteJokeQuiz

to cement in your understanding of every concept in this tutorial.

Let the fun begin!

Yipeeee!

1. Religious jokes must conclude with a moral point

2. Only stand-up comics may keep changing points-of-view between
   moral, immoral or amoral

3. No difference

1. review.
2. Then, return to HowWriteJokeQuiz by clicking on your browser's Back Button found at the top of your screen.

1. One line

2. Two lines

3. Three lines

• review.

1. The comic's attitude toward life

2. All the information the audience needs to understand the joke

3. A joke they will remember forever

• review.

1. His last name sounded like "what"

2. Watt "was a famous Korean war ace and father to three outstanding young men"

3. Watt was "our Secretary of the Interior"

• review.

Question #5

What is the major difference between telling a joke to associates vs. to a general audience?

1. Associates make too much noise during your speech
2. What you have to create for an audience is a "frame of reference"
3. 55% of the audience won't have any idea what you are talking about

• review.

Question #6

If you expect laughter in response to a conventional joke, what percentage of the general audience has to know about the joke's subject?

1. 10%
2. 40%
3. 65%
4. 90%
5. 100%

• review.
• Note: Jim distinguishes between "conventional" and "absurdist" jokes.
  • During "Fundamentals," Jim confines the discussion to conventional jokes.
  • He picks up on absurdist jokes with his section on "Social Commentary: Joke Formats" which is available today in his home study program.

Question #7

Set up lines for jokes and serious points both follow the same rules. Serious points need to be set up in the same, severe number of sentences as jokes.

1. true
2. false

• review.

Question #8

Is it a good idea to throw in an additional set up line if it will make the comic seem more conversational by including words and phrases like:

• "Right?"

• "You know what I mean, don't you?"

• "Talk about weird!"

• "I mean, immediately I knew the guy was a total pinhead!"

• "I'm having a good time with you tonight!"

Or is such chattiness an unnecessary, meaningless waste of time that insults the audience's intelligence and dilutes the joke's power which depends on brevity for it's very life . . . this padded explanation is even worse than the crime itself!

OK: number eight was a freebie -- everyone who has read the correct answers to number one-four gets credit.

Onward.

Question #9

Tag lines are:

1. A good way to flesh out a joke
2. Cues the audience to stop laughing
   1. this is good
   2. this is my goal's polar opposite

• review.

Question #10

Punch words should be:

1. monosyllabic

2. polysyllabic

• review.

Question #11

What is a punch line?

1. the sentence that contains the joke; a joke is anything that makes the audience laugh:
   • writing, punch line
   • movement, acting
   • delivery

2. The line that follows the actual joke to ram the point home

3. A term we inherit from the old "Punch and Judy" shows that is now considered politically incorrect and thus, no longer used by respectable comics

• review.

Question #12

What essential characteristics distinguish a topper from a punch line?

1. just another joke, same as punch line

2. gets more laughter than the punch line

3. second joke that feeds off previous punch line

4. needs no new set up line

5. Answers 2-4 but not answer 1

• topper.

Question #13

Who decides where to place the punch word?

1. joke writer

2. comic

3. audience

4. agent

5. your best friend

• place punch word.

Question #14

After the audience hears the joke's "punch word," what two things happen?

1. The punch word should be placed at the end of the punch line so audience laughter doesn't drown out the rest of the sentence

2. they get the joke and laugh

3. Computer-like, the audience reflects on their personal life history at speeds exceeding normal thought patterns, then decides if they can really relate to the comic's philosophy of life implied by and contingent upon many factors that envelop the aura inhabited within the spirit sensed via subtextual vibrations known as "humor" since ancient times down to this very day

• what happens.

Question #15

Define "prosody":

1. Prosaic thoughts

2. Study of metric structures

3. Science or Art of versification

4. Study of rhyme

5. A dangerous, mood-altering drug responsible for dilating eyes, fogging mental acuity and lousing up any sense of humor (allegedly replaced with an ill-founded and totally unearned sense of well-being); a drug

6. Answers 2-4, not Answers 1 nor 5

7. Answers 1 and 5, not Answers 2-4

• prosody.

Question #16

How should you mark your punch words on your script?

1. Whether script is typed, handwritten or created with a computer word processor, over-focus your attention on the punch word, using a felt-tipped pen to
   both: circle and boldface type the punch word
2. Mark every word on your script except the punch word, which by now you should have memorized
3. Ad-libbing everything is best

• mark punch words.

Question #17

What is the hardest fundamental to master, career-long??

1. Crowd control

2. Ending the last sentence of the joke on the word that unlocks the audience tension by completing the logic of the joke in one grunt-like syllable

3. Misdriecting the audience focus with tag lines

4. Guessing the punch word in an untested joke

5. Constantly listening to the speech of others to mentally edit their mangled messages every time they fall into over-writing

6. Speaking and thinking gramatically

• career.

Question #18

What is a second topper?

1. third joke which feeds off the first topper

2. needs no new set up

3. gets more laughter than the first topper

4. Jack Douglas is a liar; things are much better today, even more entertaining. I do not need to study comedy nor appreciate it's history, and I won't. No matter how easy Jim tries to make this for me and my friends. So, there!

5. Answers 1, 2 and 3; not answer 4

• second topper.

Question #19

Toppers help your joke by:

1. Create feeling you are just making everything up as you go along

2. Any would-be comics in the audience who may be getting ready to heckle get pre-emptively crushed

3. Using the conventional boxing metaphor for jesters, turns you from being just a street-brawler into a classic practitioner of the "sweet science"

4. All of the above

• how toppers help.

Question #20

The audience is just interested in:

1. Facts

2. How long it took you to perfect your act

3. Magic

4. How jokes are structured

5. Your genius

6. Answers 1, 2 and 4 but not Answers 3 and 5

7. Answers 3 and 5 but not Answers 1, 2 and 4

• audience priorities.

Question #21: for EXTRA CREDIT --

How can you best learn from recordings of your favorite comedy routines?

1. Type them up, then edit out the fat

2. Perform them before live audiences in non-professional situations, and see if you can get more audience response by changing around the punch line/topper/second topper sequence

3. Respect the comedy gods (small "g"), and leave well enough alone

4. Once you are through experimenting, since you have done all this hard work under hot stage lights: this is now a routine you can keep in your act like something which you personally own

5. Answers 1 and 2 but not Answers 3-4

• comedy gods.

What follows is the table of contents for Jim's entire audio tape/workbook package for this tutorial. Now, you can get a feel of how greatly expanded this study gets in Jim's home study materials:

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Date this page was last modified, Pacific Standard Time: Thursday, 28-Jun-2012 18:54:12 PDT