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  • Writer's Digest

    To Write Funny, You Must Think Funny

    Apr 12, 2021 4 minutes
    BY MARK SHATZ

    “I can’t write humor because I’m not funny.”

    The main obstacle to writing humor is the self-assigned label of not being funny. The assessment might be accurate, which would explain why you only have 13 Instagram followers. But the core assumption is wrong.

    Being funny is a necessity for performing comedy—it’s impossible to fake funny in front of an audience. It’s more accurate to proclaim, “I can’t do comedy because I’m not funny.”

    Humor writing has a different requisite—creativity. Imagination drives funny, and just about everyone has an imagination. Otherwise, no writer would attempt to write a novel. So, anyone can learn the fundamentals of humor writing.

    Let’s use a simple brainstorming exercise to illustrate the first

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