Sep 13, 2012 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Focus On: Humor Blogs

“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard,” says Peter O’Toole in My Favorite Year. If you’ve ever tried your hand at humor blogging, you will likely agree. In fact, with the possible exception of the sestina, I’d say humor writing is the most difficult form of writing. To be good, it must be surprising, concise, sharp, timely, and consistent all at once. And humor bloggers turn out such polished gems every week or so. How do they do it? Here are some tips from the pros:

  • Learn the rules. All forms of writing – the essay, the play, the short story – have some well-defined basic parameters and comedy writing is no exception. For example, specifics are funnier than generalizations and repeating something three times is funnier than repeating it two or four times. By mastering the fundamentals, you let those who have come before do some of the work for you.
  • Keep up with the news. Good comedy is timely and relevant, even if it’s not specifically political. The best humor bloggers keep their fingers on the pulse. Read as much as you can, and keep up with what people are currently watching, reading, and talking about.
  • Observe. Comedy is everywhere you look, and, as observational comics have found, sometimes the most ludicrous aspects of daily life are those we’ve grown so used to that we’ve stopped noticing them at all. Look closely at the ordinary and you will discover the absurd.
  • Keep your temper. A controlled, targeted rant can be hilarious, but comedic rants are harder than they look, and even the best ranters grow tiresome after awhile. Outrage can be an excellent starting point for a good comedic piece, but bury that anger in the revision process if you want to reach an audience.
  • Keep us on our toes. Laughter comes from the unexpected. Try turning a familiar pattern on its head. How can you invert a story or a joke to deliver an unexpected conclusion?
  • Draw something. Many popular humor blogs are online comics, and no wonder – the visual aspect gives you an entirely new dimension in which to be funny. And as some of the most beloved sites prove, you don’t need to be an artist to draw a satisfying comic…although if you are, so much the better!
  • Edit, edit, edit. While digressions and non-sequiturs can be amusing, the best humor writing doesn’t have a lot of fat. Look for anything in your piece that’s tired, dull, or not on point. Get rid of it, or replace it with something wittier.

Do you often use humor in your blog posts? Which bloggers make you laugh on a regular basis?

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  4. Humor is my favorite way to recover from traumatic/humiliating/enraging experiences. I know when I’ve finally found the funny, I have moved past the incident. Like a drug screen and an ill-fated visit to Hot Topic (ironically, those two incidents are in no way connected).

    I have never consciously used the rule of threes. I will have to play with that one. Thanks for the tip!

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  6. I use sarcasm as my weapon against the struggles of suburban life. I guess I have a dry sense of humor. Sometimes people even laugh when I’m not trying to be funny. Tears of a clown. C’est la vie.

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  12. Not trying to brag or anything, but ive been told my blog is funny. Bloggers don’t need jokes to be funny. They can be funny just by being their selfs. At times i don’t try to be funny and my readers find it funny (atleast i think).

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  13. I inherited a deeply dark and dry humor from my father. Trying to keep up with his quick wit has left my brain half-human, half-sarcasm. Trying to find humor in everything without crossing a line is tricky. Sometimes my posts are hilarous winners and sometimes crash-and-burn so badly they gave up looking for the black box because it wasn’t worth it.

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  14. Often I blog with humor. If I couldn’t laugh about life then I would probably shrivel up and die. Some days I don’t feel so funny, and my posts are more serious. I just go with whatever comes out of my brain the best that particular day, and that’s my post. I really probably should follow some rules! Today I blogged about nutella. What’s not to like about that?

    My blog: http://sadderbutwiser.wordpress.com/

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  15. Sweet tips!

    “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”

    Butter everything with humour, I say. Especially bread. Non sequitur conclusion? Sure. But funny bread is funny.

    Hmm.

    *strokes beard, idly contemplating how much sense exists in the words above*

    Conclusion: non-sense, not always the best sense.

    Good one, doofus!

    * face-palm*

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  16. Honestly, I find “straight” writing a million times harder than comedy. A whole article, without even ONCE mentioning my anus? Dang. This is going take some time. And a whole lot of editing.

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  17. Nice… helpful. The world is ironic. If you learn to laugh on irony, smile will never leave your face. But to convey this to others is a really big challenge..

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      2. Good to know I’m not alone…In my case, I really don’t intend to place my real picture…I want to sort of make blogging my secret place. A place where people who like to meddle into my life won’t get any access to. LOL

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  19. Thanks for the writing tips – as well as humour blog suggestions, and yes, writing funnily is hard. I use humour (mostly) in my blog newish ‘The Good, the Bad and the Italian’. Most of my content is memoir about growing up in Australia as an Italian-Australian kid and links food, films, family as well as other stuff n’ nonsense with an Italian connection. My url is: http://ambradambra.wordpress.com

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  20. Blogging or writing with humor is more than just making people laugh, and I hope my words (repost here) to web friends would pull them up in real life.

    As all of us see/ hear/ learn more of realities of life, we have to pick up some sense of humor to overcome the difficult time.

    The best response to insult is not to fall into the shadow of these people, but to take up the challenge to do more correct things in return with humor.

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      1. No dying is still easier. I could just jump out of my window right now. Though actually that might just break my leg or something. Ok at most maybe I’d have to go up to the next floor and jump, but I mean regardless, the point is it wouldn’t be much effort. Or maybe the floor above that and jump headfirst or something. Whatever, I could still do it. I bet you £10

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  23. Nice post. I write a music blog, but try to sprinkle jokes in there. Should I be tagging it with “Humor” (or even “Humour” – I’m British)?

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  24. I use humor as much as I can, and even have a category on my blog called “satire Friday.” At first I tried to post a weekly satire, but it turns out that is harder to do over time then one might think. Part of it is having life hand you the right opportunities, which for me is usually when something goes all wrong.

    My favorite humor blogger is Nathan at http://badlandsbadley.wordpress.com/ who somehow manages to be funny nearly every day.

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  26. I’ve tried my hand at humour (I’m Canadian, I spelled it right dammit.) in some of my posts to my blog. My wife says I’m funny in print, and terribly unfunny in person. I think with my blog (cue shameless plug for readership) http://cheddarmelon.wordpress.com will suffer in the humour aspect is that I don’t stick with soley humourous posts. Anyone else do that? try and blend humour and serious material in to the same blog?

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  28. Great tips TY! Since Mirth is part of my blog name, I add funny pieces from time to time but nowhere near the prolific and endearing posts of a typical humor blog. I’d love to write more humor blog posts; definitely not an easy thing to do, I agree. 🙂

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  29. I’m a parent of 3 little kids. And a traveler. It’s our job and our life. We work to raise our kids, and we travel because of work. And, in moving so-often, we face challenges: with life, with kids, with ourselves. My very personal way of dealing with all that is blogging. I blog about what we see, what we experience, what we learn along the way. And humor is a constant part of my blogging, in a “survival mode”… I hope it keeps working! Thanks for the inspiration! http://wp.me/s1oMvI-formula

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  30. I agree with most of this article but would add don’t ‘try’ to write something hilarious. Let it flow. Don’t force it or think too much about it. The more thought you put into it the less comedic it’ll be. As mentioned Comedy requires observational skills and being able to find the funny in any situation. Meaning it tends to be sporadic. And there needs to be a balance. Don’t pound people over the head with witty one liners. Give em a break in between. Write straight and set your audience up for the punchline. It’s an old technique but still works.

    One other thing: I don’t believe Comedy is something that can be taught. You’re either funny or you’re not! It’s a gift the same as those that can paint, play music or burp the alphabet.

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