What to Expect When People Learn You Write Humor…

By Shannon Reed

1. They will expect that you will be funny. As in, they expect you to be funny, to them, right now.
2. Context will not matter, by the way. You are supposed to be hilarious, even if you are, say, about to be sedated for a colonoscopy.
3. To be fair, that is a pretty funny situation. But maybe not to you.
4. Still, you should have a joke ready. People will be disappointed if you don’t.
5. “Make sure I’m still hooked up to the heart monitor when you give me the bill” is a decent – not great, but okay – joke here. Okay is good enough, though. Context is important. Let’s be honest, you don’t want your nurses rolling on the ground in hysterics.

• They will say, “Oh, you don’t look like a humor writer.”
• It’s just a thing people say. Don’t take it personally. They honestly have no idea what they mean, either.
• If you respond, “What does a humor writer look like, though?” it comes across as hostile. Just FYI.
• A good joke here is, “I know, I look nothing like Mark Twain.”
• This joke works because Mark Twain’s brand was so strong, people still know what he looked like 100 years past his death. The rest of us can only dream.

3.  They will ask if you have been published anywhere important. Or if they should know your work. Or if you’ve been published at all.

                        a. Just say, “Yes.”

• Conversation may now turn to stand-up comedy. This is not the same as writing humor, but it’s easier to just go along with it.
• You may have to listen to your conversational partner’s rendition of a joke they mostly remember from a stand-up special. It’s easiest to politely laugh.
• Although you could, if you want, stare at them for a long moment and then say, “Explain why that’s funny.” We call that the Burn It Down Option in the business.
• I made that up, there is no business. But Burn It Down Option would be a tremendous name for a rock band.
• Anyway, “explain why that’s funny” is the death knell for any joke. It cannot be done.

• However, some people will instead say, “That sounds like a fun job.”
• Here’s the thing: it actually is a pretty fun job. Not every day, or even every minute, but yes, it’s fun to write jokes.
• It’s important that people don’t catch on to this, though, which would flood the market with humor writers and make my life considerably more difficult. So be sure not to let on.
• Say something like, “Being funny is actually quite hard.” (Not a lie!) or “It’s not all fun and games, though!” (Also not a lie!)
• You might emphasize how writing humor requires a spirit of improvisation and imaginative play but also precision about word choice and the ability to revise each sentence a dozen times.
• Your conversational partner is probably sorry they pursued this discussion with you by now, so you can probably stop here.

• This is the part where your sedation kicks in.

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Tap into your unique perspective for humor only you can write, in Mining Your Life for Laughs with Shannon Reed, a CRAFT TALKS webinar June 21 at 2PM Eastern, $25/early bird $15. Find out more or register now.

Shannon Reed‘s first book, Why Did I Get a B?, was a semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize in American Humor. Her second book, Why We Read, is forthcoming in 2024 from Hanover Square Press. She frequently contributes to The New Yorker and to McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, where several of her pieces have gone viral. Shannon is the co-Director for Undergraduate Studies in the Writing Program, and a Teaching Associate Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh.