"Skinny" Jokes

It seemed easy to write when I was starting out as a comic. I had a great combination of enthusiasm, drive, and best of all, a binder full of “comedy” thoughts that I had been writing down since I was a sophomore in High School. (the quotes are ‘cause most of those thoughts weren’t very funny) It was like being a baker, and that binder was my yeast stock. Every morning, I’d go to the binder, pick some things out, and work on making them better. Building on the germ of what I hoped was the funny idea.

I’m still a comic that looks over notes and adds to those thoughts and while I know there’re great comics, and great writers that start off every morning with a blank page, that method has never paid dividends for me.

The biggest turning point in that early writing was when I ran across the idea of making the jokes "skinny." I had what I thought was the joke written out and then I’d go over every single line with a pencil, and cross out every third word. Then rewrite the joke with the forced economy of thought. Obviously, a few words I’d crossed out were needed and were put back in, but that little exercise boiled the joke down to its essentials. It enabled me to see, or feel, or sometimes even taste, the IDEA of what I should be saying. A practice that served me well for a long time: making the jokes “skinny.”

Now 20+ years later, while I still believe that “less is more,” and “brevity is the soul of wit” I have recently come to realize that in writing, nothing is absolute and in life, rules are made to be broken. I’ve been trying out a few ideas for a long time, and something was just wrong with them. The ideas were still funny to me, but I wasn’t able to communicate to the audience what was funny about them. In talking over these ideas with a comic friend it was suggested that I add some words to explain the joke… I had never heard of such a thing, this was blasphemy. My brain was reeling.

Most anyone who’s spoken to me for as little as 2 minutes would think that the last thing I need to have is permission to use MORE words… yet, I learned a long time ago, listen to everyone, and keep an open mind, and when you ask someone’s opinion, you might actually get what you ask for. I’ve added words back to these thoughts, took the "skinny" jokes off their word diet, and made them comedic ideas again, ideas that actually work as jokes… whew!!!

So, use the words you have, and if you use too many, you may well wish to cross ‘em out. But just remember if you cut too much, that “skinny” joke, might only be funny to you.