If you are like me, you groan at nearly every Leno/Letterman joke because the same dead horse topics are beaten every night (Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, Michael Jackson, etc) . The delivery becomes so uninspired, twice-told, cliché, dull. I do find some of the jokes funny, but as soon as I hear ‘Anna Nicole Smith’ I just roll my eyes – because honestly – there are funnier things than attacking the same celebrities over and over every night.
But now, you too can write these jokes and probably do better than the NBC and CBS writers, if you just follow these simple steps:
Nearly every late night show joke has three parts. They are as follows, with sample jokes.
1. Context
– Take any headline from 24-hour news cycle. "Steve Jobs is stepping down from Apple due to medical concerns."
– Or common ongoing celebrity jokes. "Lindsay Lohan passed all of her drug tests – did you hear about this?"
2. Setup punchline
– Tailor second line, tie-in to punchline: "This week, the tech icon checked into the reknowned Methodist hospital in Memphis, where he’ll receive top notch health care."
– "Lindsay is said to have passed all of the tests with "flying colors" according to her father Michael."
3. Punch line
-Unexpected connection to other news/product/etc. "Turns out Apple will also take this opportunity to test out its latest medical product. The iPan."
– Or resort to direct insult. "Along with the flying colors, Lindsay also reported that she was a tomato and that her doctor had nice antlers."
Tomorrow morning you can be the first to slam celebrities if you just hit Google News and tie some stories together with an insult. Good luck to you!
Follow Me…