The Ten Commandments of Comedy

By Gene Perret

Beginning comedy writers and performers may think funny can't be taught, but legendary comedy writer Gene Perret, winner of three Emmy Awards, tells otherwise in this guide to what makes a good joke work. Outlining the 10 commandments of comedy, the unbreakable rules that every gag must follow in order to be funny, this book liberates readers and allows them to immediately begin writing better and funnier comedy material. By following Perret's commandments, readers will better understand how to write jokes that connect with audiences and discover why unsuccessful material isn't working and how it can be fixed. From the First Commandment (""Thou Shalt Surprise"") to the Tenth (""Thou Shalt Be Clever""), this work stands as a fast guide to the essentials of humor that is perfect for business presenters, after-dinner speakers, professional comedians, and anyone who wants to be funny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quill Driver Books
• Release date: Jan 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781610351539

Gene Perret

Gene Perret has been a professional comedy writer since the early 1960s, writing stand-up material for Slappy White and Phyllis Diller, among others. He began in television in 1968 on The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show. He wrote for Laugh-In and collected three Emmys as a staff writer on The Carol Burnett Show. Gene was on Bob Hope's writing staff for twenty-eight years, the last twelve as Hope's head writer. He traveled with the Hope troupe to several of the Christmas shows from war zones. He produced Welcome Back Kotter, Three's Company, and The Tim Conway Show. Today, he lives in Southern California and teaches email classes in comedy writing. His hobbies include painting, sketching, and playing the guitar. He paints rather well and sketches adequately, but you don't want to listen to his guitar playing. No one does.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Anything that works does so because it follows those principles that make it work. An airplane flies because it is built according to the principles that govern flight. A clock keeps accurate time because it’s manufactured to follow the rules that govern timekeeping. The lights go on when you hit the wall switch in your home because they’re wired in accordance with laws governing electricity. If these items didn’t follow the rules, they wouldn’t work.

There are fundamentals, too, that apply to comedy—rules that must be followed. Some may object that comedy should be free-flowing, improvisational, creative. I don’t want to follow rules, they might say. "I just want to do what I want to do to make people laugh. Following some set of regulations would inhibit my originality. It’s a faulty argument. Would you want to fly to Pittsburgh in a plane that was built by someone who said, I don’t want to follow rules. I just want to build airplanes the way I want to build them?" Probably not. It’s almost certain that you’d rather fly in one that gets off the ground and stays off it for as long as the pilot wants.

Does adhering to established principles inhibit originality? There are countless types and models of airplanes: single-engine aircraft, giant passenger planes, stealth bombers, huge cargo transports, and hundreds of other variations. Despite their differences, they all fly because they follow the principles of flight. There’s no foreseeable limit to the inventiveness of aeronautical engineers and the machines they will create, yet you can be certain the remarkable aircraft of the future will still follow the principles of flight.

Again, though, some may argue that these examples—airplanes, clocks, and lights—are mechanical. Mechanical items are obliged to follow physical principles. Creative artists, though, should be free of such restrictions. For artists to follow rules, these people might claim, would be to limit their creativity, their genius.

Music, though, is a creative art. There are brilliant classical composers, great song writers, and innovative musicians who work in jazz, rhythm and blues, heavy metal, and so on. Yet all of them are governed by strict, mathematical principles. Scales are well defined. Chords that harmonize with the melody are controlled. Play according to those rules and you can create beautiful music in whichever genre you prefer. Break those rules and the music sounds discordant.

Knowing the principles of music frees rather than inhibits the musician. Many people can pick up a guitar and readily play hundreds of songs by learning just three, maybe four, basic chords. By studying the principles that govern music, though, a musician can then add depth, variation, and charm to the music. If Beethoven had been limited to using three or four basic chords, he might have played some cute ditties for his friends to sing along with at dinner parties, but he could never have written his symphonies and would never have become a musical legend.

The more you know about your craft, the better you can master it . . . and the more enjoyment you can bring to yourself and to others.

A key benefit of knowing the principles of your craft is that it allows you to search back and find flaws in your work. It also gives you the knowledge you need to then correct those problems. It’s always interesting in sports that regardless how well athletes perform, they always insist that they can improve something or other in their performance. How do they do that? Invariably, they return to basics. Knowing what principles apply to their sport, they can check to make sure they’re following those rules and apply corrective measures when needed.

A well received comedy performance is a tremendous high. However, a weak performance is depressing. Comedians say I bombed or I died—it feels that traumatic. Knowing the rules of comedy allows the humorist to analyze the material or the presentation and discover why the performance bombed, and what must be done to repair it. It’s an effective way to convert a poor or mediocre comedy bit into a one that will have the audience in stitches.

There are rules, precepts, principles, regulations, standards, fundamentals—whatever you want to call them—that control the effectiveness of comedy. I’ve chosen to call them commandments. Admittedly, it’s in part a gimmick to get your attention. But The Ten Commandments of Comedy has a biblical tone to it, a sort of threat from above that might be ignored only at one’s

Reviews for The Ten Commandments of Comedy

[Sean Phinney · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Definitely a nice easy 101 into comedy. Explains much of what stand up is to anyone of any age. It doesn't give exactly ways to do it, but it certainly gives the perfect map of which way to turn to successful comedy.

[jasonbrownpdx · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have a thing for Todd Grimson, his novels are sharp, clean, and tracking the pulse of cool before the cool folks know what they are looking for. His groundbreaking vampire novel ‘Stainless’, and the stylish Voodoo-chic of ‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ are solid works deserving the attention of horror and speculative fiction fans.Grimson is not to be pigeon holed as just a novelist. Over the years, his Short Stories have been published in various magazines and compendiums. ‘Stabs at Happiness’ is a new collection of shorts is comprised of previously published work, both under his own name and varied pseudonyms.There are thirteen stories in the collection. As with all Short stories, readers will find that certain shorts resonate more with them than others. I found myself commonly wishing that there were more to the stories, that they were a single chapter of a book I could pull from a shelf and consume liberally. This does not read as "incomplete" only that i wanted more. and am greedy. Others were not much more than a lengthy character sketch, which many people I know would love. As such approach this collection with gleeful skepticism, you may not be dragged into every tale, but those which grab you won’t let you go.Stand outs from my reading:- “Brighter and Brighter”, a none too lengthy ride with a man and a child in an old Plymouth. Blood recently spilt and a code of ethics in the way of an easy escape, their conversation raises mixed feelings of honor vs post crime cleanup. I cant tell if I like the driver, or if I want some one to cap him.- In “P not Q”, a man leaves a bunker in the heat of the desert, freshly showered and dedicated to the underground project he is part of. Picking a man up at the airport, turns out to be more confusing than the underground org is expecting. I was as confused as the characters on this, bur it was enjoyable.- “Lamentations of Babylon”, Kimberly and Jean-Luc, in a stormy paranoia, traverse a world of beat poetry and film snobbery. It is a mess of human douche baggery, combined with the fall of Assyria. An excellent read, but might require an open wikipedia search for folks unfamiliar with the above key points…- The title work “Stabs at Happiness” is a total ClusterF*ck of awesome. It is not for everyone.. Read on.. It is angsty, erotic, a fair amount of disturbing. The main character Nikki is a little bit Lisbeth, a little bit Wednesday, and a lotta bit Trinity sans matrix. If you do not care to read about strap-ons and a sad sad boy, you may skip it.. But it is very good.- The true shining gem in this collection deserves to be stripped out and novelized. “Batista’s Lieutenant” is a Cubano tale that spans multiple years/decades. The characters are vibrant, the story engaging. The trouble is the short story format. This deserves a re-treatment as a full novel, or even a novella. I hope the author gets some additional feedback and gives this story the respectful treatment it commands.--xpost RawBlurb.com