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What’s So Funny About Writing a Humor Blog?

I’m Tim Jones. I write a weekly humor blog – well, at least that’s what I like to think I am doing each week. Some critics think I am wasting valuable bits and bytes of Internet bandwidth that could be put to much better use. Some people (and by some people, I mean my wife) wonder why I spend time on a humor blog in the first place (I assure you, it’s not for the money). And still others (and by others I mean my two teenage daughters) wonder when will I get off the computer so I can do their homework for them or take them to the mall.

Writing a humor blog is easy, if you don’t care about actually including anything well, humorous. But if you do care about producing something mildly amusing, well, then that’s another story. I typically spend more time in the average week coming up with excuses to avoid writing than time spent actually writing. Writer’s block can be a major challenge even for the least talented of humor writers like yourself. (No, I didn’t mean YOU, I meant the guy to your left. Sorry for the confusion.) The truth is that the process of writing a humor blog can be anything but humorous if you get writer’s block. You just have to stick with it and force your way through the block. Most of the time my finished work product bears little resemblance to my first draft. I typically jettison 70% of the copy that I started with in my first draft. Take this short article I have written here, for example.

Look at the opening paragraph above. When I wrote my first draft, instead of writing “I write a weekly humor blog – well, at least that’s what I like to think I am doing each week”, the first draft I came up with was this: “The main exports of Indonesia are oil, gas and electric appliances.” See how much my introduction changed from my first rough draft to the last?

The truth is, a key to writing a successful humor blog is to start by asking for guidance from someone who knows a thing or two about humor writing. But in the event you are not able to find such an expert, allow me to offer a few suggestions. More than anything it is important to find your voice. Whether your voice is that of a tenor, a bass or a Castrato (and I hope for your sake it’s not the latter), when it comes to humor writing, you need to find a perspective that you can sustain over time that is true to your writing style. Don’t try to copy someone else’s humor writing style unless you are absolutely sure nobody will notice. Make it your own unique voice. I find that it always helps to write in such a way that you don’t actually anger the audience you are trying to attract, as I learned the hard way when I was invited to write an article for an environmental organization called The Sierra Club. My piece was entitled “Five great recipes for Spotted Owl Soup”. I don’t know why people got so angry. All of my recipe ideas were low in sodium and used only natural ingredients.

Another key is to find a hook – a focus for your humor. Perhaps it’s politics. Or current events, or parenting, or sports, or discussing the main exports of Indonesia. Whatever your focus, stay consistent. Which is why I consistently focus only on one thing in my blogs: the benefits of plywood. There is just so much to write about that subject, I don’t know where to begin. Okay, you see what I did? I just lied. That’s another key to effective humor writing. Lie to your readers as much as possible. Whenever possible, make up insupportable statistics to bolster your point of view and include phrases such as “according to a recent Gallup poll of illiterate fourth graders from Mississippi” – unless of course, your blog’s target audience is fourth graders from Mississippi, in which case, switch it to “a recent Gallup poll of illiterate fourth graders from New Mexico”. Your readers, if you have chosen them carefully, will be way too lazy to call you on your false claims. Take a logical premise, twist it and distort it until you can come up with the most indefensible, illogical conclusion possible. The odds are your readers will either conclude you’re a clever satirist or a complete moron. If your experience is like mine, your readers’ responses will fall into these two camps about 50-50.

It’s not easy to be a successful humor blog writer like me. Did you know that I have twice been invited to be the Keynote speaker at the Annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner? I declined both times because they conflicted with episodes of LOST that I just could not miss. Now before you get too impressed, please re-read the preceding paragraph about lying.

In conclusion (hint, that’s code for I am wrapping up), probably the hardest part is simply to stick with it, week after week after week. I have been writing my humor blog since 1974. (Yes, that’s another lie. See how this works? Now you try it.) And I have found that a very helpful tip is to keep a little booklet with me anywhere I go, so I can jot something down that strikes me as a possible idea for a future blog post the moment I hear it. For example, I was just watching the news today and learned that a dam in Bolivia collapsed, causing massive flooding that wiped out entire towns’ homes and buildings – even their school houses. Now some people would immediately think, “my, how horrible.” But I look at the glass as half full. I immediately realized, wow, there’s one village that is going to need tons of plywood, and I’m just the guy to write something about this subject. Sometimes out of tragedy the gift of laughter is born.

If you decide you would like to try your luck at humor writing, and want some more tips, just email me at timothyejones@comcast.net. I might even be willing to put your site on my blog roll – so long as you don’t do blogs about the benefits of plywood. That’s my turf.

Tim Jones
www.viewfromthebleachers.net

Tags: guest posts, humor blogging, writing

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