Writing: help finding the target of a joke

[henry_]

I'm reading a book about writing jokes because my comic is a gag-a-day type comic strip, and I'm not very funny. (Yeah, yeah, I know. But I figure any skill can be learned.) One of the things the book says to do is to identify the target audience of the joke. For some jokes, it's really easy. For example, look at this joke:

If you want to know who is really man’s best friend, put your dog and your wife in the trunk of your car, come back an hour later, open the trunk, and see which one is happy to see you.

I think in this case, the target of the joke is husbands (or men). I'm not saying that women can't appreciate the joke - I'm just saying that they're not the target.

But on the other hand, there are tons of jokes that I just can't figure out the target for. Like this one:

Yo mamma is so ugly when she tried to join an ugly contest they said, "Sorry, no professionals."

And this one:

I said to the Gym instructor "Can you teach me to do the splits?'
He said, ''How flexible are you?'
I said, ''I can't make Tuesdays''

And lastly:

There's two fish in a tank, and one says ''How do you drive this thing?''

Any ideas about the targets of these jokes in particular, and tips for identifying targets in general?

[rainbowolfe]

I'm not sure about the "target" persay of the last two jokes, but they're both puns! XD So I'd say they have both a broad and narrow target, because everyone has a lovehate relationship with puns.

[thorbjornlyk]

There's two fish in a tank, and one says ''How do you drive this thing?''

I don't think there is any specefic target for this kind of jokes they are funny because it is unexpected and absurd. And as it doesn't use anything you need to be able to relate to there is no need for a target.

Some knowledge is necesary to get the joke though:
What a fish tank is.
What a tank is.

Without that the joke won't be funny

[Doubtcent]

For one thing, you don't really have to narrow down your audience at the first light. Experiment a bit first until you have a a sort of style.

Also, try to make jokes that you personally would find funny or amusing. If you don't love it yourself, you're not gonna keep going. I personally love wordplay and clever jokes, especially irony. So my jokes have a lot of that. Irony is my strong suit, and I'm working in more wordplay as I go along, mostly because I personally find it funny.

Also, do research outside of just a book. Look up other comics and comedians that make you laugh. Then, try to emulate some of their ideas or styles (without ripping them off) to develop your own.

[jacintawibowo]

I think it's less about the target audience of your joke and more of the "type of humor" you're exhibiting. If you look at Japanese styled humor for example, they tend to have what's called "humor of the absurd" where things gets weird and random as the punchline. Some types of humor do well with certain genders (Slapstick humor goes particularly well with men, while women tend to prefer something more subtle). Some jokes are considered the "lowest common denominator" and can make anyone laugh (even if they don't want to admit it). Toilet humor and fart jokes are lowest common denominators that any gender, culture, and age will think is funny. It's less about "who will find this joke funny" and more of "what type of humor should I use to brand my jokes".

[henry_]

Thanks folks. The book (Comedy Writing Secrets) suggests finding jokes that you find funny and dissecting them. The first part was determining the target (hence this thread) but the second part was detailing WHY you find the joke funny. That part was surprisingly easy for some jokes, but frustratingly tough for others.

[Peej]

You and I sound like we're having the same challenges thrust against us. I too have the book you mentioned, hoping it might shed some light on comedic writing.
It's not a bad book but it's all encompassing, meaning the first chapter about finding the target of the joke is more for the standup or the after dinner speaker. Certain jokes won't go down well in certain venues, for example, for the standup.

[henry_]

I recently found this guy's series of articles which are pretty good:

http://stand-upcomedy.com/how-to-write-jokes/

Unfortunately, it's a series but there's no table of contents, nor does one article link to the next. So I used Google search to find all the articles in the series.

"how to write jokes" site:stand-upcomedy.com