How to write a joke

Since Mr. Ma Boyong said "three typical joke paradigms: homophonic misunderstanding, expectation violation and reading in the same language and different languages", I have met all kinds of people to apply this theory on countless occasions.

Personally, I think Ma Boyong's summary is not rigorous enough. I remember flying with him once and talking to him about it.

In my opinion, homophonic misunderstanding and homophonic reading are both methods to construct a baby, and expected violation is the essential induction of these two methods (and many other methods). These three words are not at the same level and should not be juxtaposed. Homophonic misunderstanding and homophonic reading should be juxtaposed with other "narrative tricks" in order to be more scientific.

Homophonic misunderstanding and homophonic reading are just one of countless methods to construct "expected violation", and there are many such methods. The common jokes we have on the Internet now come from these skills, which does not mean that when writing jokes (especially "writing a good joke" as required by the title), it should be used as the creative criterion.

Writing jokes requires inspiration and methods. Either way, it is not difficult to write some effective jokes. But to write a lot of "good jokes", both are indispensable.

At that time, my answer was:

Start by reading more jokes and humorous works of others.

Always observe the absurdity around you and inside you. Especially those "inappropriate truths".

Learn to break taboos and rules appropriately.

If you explain it a little:

The first one is to read more books, that is, to be edified and familiar with the styles and routines of various paragraphs, and inspiration will emerge from those routines in the future. This is much more useful than remembering a few hard nouns and rules.

Second, "good jokes" are not invented, but discovered. A natural joke deserves to be called a good joke, and all the tricks are inferior. I have to mention the word "reasonable" again. "Unexpected" is enough to constitute a paragraph, and "reasonable" is the standard to distinguish a paragraph from a good one. Those homophonic and different readings are boring.

Third, breaking taboos and rules means jumping out of normal thinking-jumping out of normal thinking will lead to "expected violation".

Fourth, technological progress-finding a good "expected violation" but being held back by chaotic expression, should not be done.