Comedy Writing: Verbal Tricks

Some of the books on how to write comedy talk about techniques like reverses, triplets, and crap (note I couldn't think of a third one but I had to make a triplet out of it).

Many books talk about punches being mostly about surprise, the unexpected. In my experience, that is true.

I ran across a writer I had read when I was studying advertising, the guy who wrote the Wizard of Ads, which was fascinating because it talked about Broca's area, which is a language center in the brain- and I'm a nerd for combining right and left brain stuff...

So he has a weekly column, and in one of them talked about the unexpected and broca's area and how verbs, and using parts of speech unexpectedly can be good- this is good- part of comedy is keeping people awake, on their toes- I'm going to play with this.

For example, I could rewrite some of the above with that style...

I googled this writer who intellected me with his book the Wizard of Ads. I nerded through the brain stuff like a hot rod because I'm a total slut for right/left brain happiness.

There- I don't know if that makes sense, but it's a quick example. It's not funny, but I just read about it today- hoping to make some funny with it soon.

Oh yeah, don't forget, clever is not always funny! So use verbal tricks but don't rely on them.