How To Write Funny: Your Serious, Step-By-Step Blueprint For Creating Incredibly, Irresistibly, Successfully Hilarious Writing Paperback – April 18, 2014

After watching (and not finishing) a very bad comedy on Netflix, I frankly got a bit upset about why there seems to be so much crap humor and just like the proverbial writer who reads a bad novel, I said to myself "I can do better than that." Except, I've never tried to tackle writing humor in English. (I have published a novel in Spanish, which some people do consider to be funny.) Humor, I believed, especially in a language that is not your first (nor last), is like those babies that arrive on top of chimneys carrying in a cloth by a stork.Not so, Scott Dickers tells us in this book on how to write funny. Humor is a serious matter. There is a science behind it (or a method) that anybody who has laughed can relate to.This book not only opened my eyes to the fact that maybe my harebrained idea to jump into writing humor was, after all, possible. His concepts of the importance of Subtext, Theme and then the 11 Funny Filters, have made it a blast to learn. I highly recommend it even if you think you know what you're doing or are trying to improve your skills. Or, if like me, you believe that comic writing comes delivered in stork beaks to the top of chimneys.No chimney, no delivery.

There are a lot of good humor books out there, but many of them focus on how to do stand up or some other form of comedy. I am specifically interested most in writing books, and this book, I think, is the best one out there for writing comedy.

Fairly reliable advice for writing in the style of Onion articles and some of the methodology for coming up with ideas.You are not going to find a ton more than that however. But for a quick crash course on certain methods and a little motivation and examples (mostly Onion headlines) it doesn't hurt. If you already have a comedy/humor guide in your collection this doesn't necessarily reveal anything you don't already know. I suppose I should get back to writing something at least attempting funny now.

I found this book to be helpful. I like practical advice, the kind where you think "Oh, that's how that works. Great. Now I can do it." That's what this book is. It's short and simple and basically explains Scott's "funny filters," which are the building blocks for many different types of comic writing. I bought this book right around the time that I signed up for a local stand up comedy class. The class has been great, and this book has helped me in the class, and maybe even given me an advantage. Both the class and the book emphasize the importance of writing regularly. Among other things, the book has provided exercises and prompts that have resulted in some very productive writing sessions for me. I also emailed the author, Scott Dikkers, with a question, and he responded! I think he's very genuine about wanting to help people develop their careers in comedy, and this book is just the start of him pulling back the curtain and showing how it's done. I highly recommend it!

So to be honest I am not done with the book. But I was just thinking to myself how much I love this book so far buuuuuuut, ... at one point while he is discussing 5 different "Categories of Prose Humor" and eventually seeds Satire as being the ultimate form. Now, I have to be on the forth page now of him just building up and dragging the eventual explanation and analysis of satire. I had to reread it at one point to make sure I didn't miss something. Then I had to stop reading and just vent. Just get on with it, dude! Still not doing less than 5 stars. I'm loving reading this book.

As a part-time essayist and part-time public speaker, I've always been pretty good at getting a laugh. But there's always more to learn and I learned some things from this book. One thing I learned was just as in copy writing and sales presentations, there are also some formulas for creating successful humor. I enjoyed the book and learning a few new things.

EXTREMELY helpful. I bought this book because I needed to write a large satire assignment for my English class, and I had a few extra bucks so I figured, why not? I just love how in-depth it goes. Great tips and it shows that anyone can become decently funny. You just got to do the things described in the book that build up your comedy engine. Thanks for the awesome book, Scott.

I read How To Write Funny cover-to-cover in one sitting. What a great book! So much better than I expected — not because I had any doubts about Scott Dikkers (he’s a comedy writing legend, after all), but because over the years I have rarely read anything well-written specifically about the actual techniques and fundamentals of comedy writing. And especially without a lot of fluff and personal anecdotes that may amuse but don't teach. Dikkers strips it down to the essentials, gives good examples, and approaches it analytically without being boring in any way. This book should be required reading for anyone writing, or considering writing, jokes -- as well as all high school class clowns. E.B. White’s classic criticism is “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.” Dikkers’ dissection of the frog is actually interesting and fascinating, and (spoiler alert) the frog remains very much alive and well.If this book helps you craft even one solid, funny joke (and it will), it'll be worth more than what you paid for it.