Blogging & Humor — Finding The Funny in Today’s News

From John Kinde, Humor Power, winner of soon to be published WNOETYA Blogging and Podcasting.
You might think this is off topic, but I disagree. Humor is an extremely effective technique in blogging and all business communications, and John is a great communicator who really uses humor well.

To help you tune your humor radar, check out these tips and resources for finding the funny stuff in today’s current events.

1.  When you watch the news on TV or read your local paper, be tuned into the humorous twists.  Give yourself the challenge of writing one humorous line about today’s news.  When that becomes easy, write five lines a day.  As your humor skills grow, increase your daily quota.

2.  As you read the newspaper, keep your eye out for funny headlines.  I can usually find at least one funny headline in each paper.  Sometimes three or four.  To help prime your humor pump, get a copy of a Jay Leno’s Headlines book.  He shares funny headlines and provides his observation/punchline.  Without reading his joke; read the headline; write your own joke; compare your joke to his.  Turn what is essentially a joke book into a text book.

3.  Thirty years ago I subscribed to publications which provided me with current-event humor, delivered by the postal system.  Now, you can almost find the same resources, and sometimes better ones, on the internet…for free.  Check out the following sources for current humor.

4.  A terrific site which provides an index of editorial cartoons.  Wonderful source of funny thinking about current news.

5.  A humorous look at the week’s news emailed to you every Friday.  Write to fridayfunnies@daleirvin.com.

6.  What’s funny in current events as seen on the late night talk shows.  Best of Late Nite Jokes transcripts by NewsMax.com.

7.  A rich site which will connect you to many angles of current events humor.

8.  An archive of video clip highlights from Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.

9.  An archive of David Letterman’s Top Ten lists.  You can search by date or by subject.  His Top-Ten lists are also available in book format.

10.  By studying what the humor professionals are doing with current events, you’ll eventually start to internalize the creative skills.  When that happens, your humor radar will begin to create your own funny lines as you tune into what’s happening in the world around you.

Comments

[Marti]

Great advice! People don't realize how difficult it is to find the humor in a situation until they try - LOL It can make ANY topic more palpable though, if you can find a way to smile about it. Thanks for sharing! Best wishes to you.