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This week we’re turning off the paywall and turning things over to Tom Ellison. Tom is a humor writer who has a new book coming out on November 10th, a satire of the manosphere called MAN-THOLOGY: 365 Alpha Maxims Guaranteed to Help You Know Everything, Feel Nothing, Get Jacked, and Never Die, by Chud Buffly. Tom’s also hosting live events for the book in NYC and Washington, DC.

Tom’s guest-writing this edition to talk about how “serious” writing can be more relevant to humor writing than you might think. And if you’re interested in learning more, Tom’s also got a class on the subject coming up on October 24th.

After that, we’ve got a couple of recommendations of things we’ve been into lately: A radio program and a film soundtrack that’s perfect for working.

On “Serious Writing” and Humor

“Serious” writing may not be the most common route to short humor writing, but it can be valuable experience if you know what translates and what doesn’t.

By “serious” writing, I don’t mean just anything non-humor, like literary fiction or poetry. I mean specifically non-creative, non-fiction writing--legal analyses, financial assessments, news articles, and the like. This is a topic I know something about, because before I started humor writing, I was trained in writing intelligence assessments as a CIA analyst.

In that former life, I spent much more time on clear, accurate, informative writing than Jason Bourne-esque spycraft. This kind of writing is not exactly Mark Twain, unless you find yourself thrilled and entertained by prose like “Egypt: Situation Report, 3 July 2013” or “ISIS: ______ing to __ _______ ___ in ______. But that kind of “serious writing” exists across law, medicine, business, policy analysis, news reporting–anywhere writing aims to communicate information clearly and persuasively rather than evoke a visceral or emotional response.

People With Square Jobs Can Still Be Funny
For my lawyers, doctors, analysts, and other fellow Professional Lame-Os, this part is the pep talk.

When I backed my way into humor writing, I felt out of place. Unsurprisingly, many of my writing peers have backgrounds in cooler creative or comedic fields. They do sketch, improv, or stand-up. They work in the fine arts, or pop culture criticism, or advertising. 

But in fact, I eventually realized there’s also lots of us straddling the Serious←→Silly worlds. The hilarious Gracie Beaver-Kairis works in finance! McSweeney’s regular Tiffany Li is a tech policy expert! New Yorker humorist Miriam Jayaratna is a clinical psychology PhD! Belladonna Managing Editor Alice Phillips is a lawyer! Funny writers Gary Altmeter and Nick Morgan are… also lawyers! Actually, I think Tiffany Li might be a lawyer too? Wow, lots of lawyers, are lawyers doing ok? Do I need a J.D.?

The point is: people who write dry, serious stuff can, and do, write funny. 

What Translates
Here are the main Serious Writing skills that transfer to short humor writing, in my experience. 

Structure & Format: A lot of serious writing matches a preset template to the writing topic or task at hand, rather than starting from a blank page. Contracts, obituaries, government memos, grant proposals–they all start with off-the-shelf templates. Short humor is similarly much easier when you have a toolbox of existing templates to graft your jokes onto, whether literal (FAQs About ____, Daily Itinerary of a _____, etc.) or conceptual (Juxtaposition of COMMON EXPERIENCE with CONTRASTING CHARACTER/POV, Exaggerated Expression of BAD OPINION BEING SATIRIZED).

Precision of Language: Serious Writing hinges on precision of language. “Extremist” vs. “Terrorist.” “Agreement” vs. “Treaty.” The differences matter. Likewise for humor, word choice matters. If your comedic monologue is from a “Mobster” vs. a “Gang Member,” how might that change what the audience reads into your jokes?

Co-writing: Being a good collaborator helps any kind of writing. Most Pulitzer-winning journalism, Nobel prize-winning science, or world shaping government policy come from teams, not one guy on a laptop. The same goes for lots of humor–collaborative pieces like this, or co-written books like New Erotica for Feminists, Jokes to Offend Men, or Obey in Advance. And besides, co-writing is a great way to meet people and have fun, which is the point, right? I hope it’s not the money.

Audience Awareness: Finally, in humor you have to know your audience, just like in Serious Writing. What am I assuming the reader already knows and believes, for these jokes to be funny? Is this premise better for McSweeney’s or Reductress? You answer these questions using the same skills you use to answer “What arguments will this judge find persuasive?” or “What does the Ambassador need to know today, and what can wait until next week?”

What Might Not Translate
Despite all the commonalities above, funny and serious writing are different. There are a few areas to be deliberate about breaking free from any “Serious Writing” habits you have.

Neutrality: A lot of journalistic, government, and other writing wants you to be sober, neutral, and consider all sides as good-faith. Humor writing should not do this. In satire, you want to pick a point of view and commit to it hard. Likewise, in general humor you want to heighten and cut loose--no one ever says “that was so hilarious and restrained.”

Tone: Relatedly, journalism and a lot of Serious Writing encourages the “View from Nowhere” (whether it should is its own debate). No emotional language, no value-laden terms, no regional slang, etc. “Widespread human rights shortfalls,” not “massacres.” “Scientifically unsupported claims,” not “unhinged bullshit.” But this gets in the way of hard-hitting satire, funny specifics, and a well-defined POV. 

Overanalysis: Many of the skills in the section above are very analytical and left-brained, because that is the nature of Serious Writing. They lend themselves better to satire (humor making a point) than to general humor (funniness for its own sake). But I adore writing by people like Colin Nissan, Lillian Stone, Sean McGowan, and Riane Konc who can take just a word or scene and make it hilarious. Pieces like this or this probably did not start with a structured analysis. It’s helpful not to overthink or pre-edit yourself, and to also explore more judgment-free, off-the-rails, wacky types of writing. This is something I’m still working on!

A Note on Professional Personas
One last thought. If you are pursuing humor writing, while also doing your Serious Job, it’s worth considering your professional persona(s). Will you have two, or will they be merged? Will you take on a professional split personality, or will you list your legal practice under the same name as your McSweeney’s pieces, the ones with the cum jokes?

There are benefits to both approaches. I’m still finding the right balance between segregating and combining my humor writing with my professional presence on climate change. Would it be better or worse if I wrote as Tom Goodwin (my middle name)? Tom Deckhard (my aspirational movie character name)? Tom Higglebum (my actual movie character name, realistically)? Something to consider.

Some Recommendations From Luke and James

Luke recommends Links Intuition with Ashley Clark. Ashley, former director of film programming at BAM and current Criterion Collection curatorial director, is not just a great writer and film critic—he also has great taste in music. In this hour-long program, Ashley takes listeners through an eclectic mix of tunes, providing thoughtful commentary and interesting context along the way. In addition to tracks from some familiar friends, I suspect you’ll also find at least one new fave in this bunch. Pharoah Sanders’ “Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)” was a particularly delightful discovery for me.

James recommends the Tangerine Dream soundtrack to the 1981 Michael Mann movie Thief. A great movie with a great soundtrack, that’s perfect to put on in the background for work/chores/plotting a robbery/etc. Tangerine dream is a killer ‘60s German electronic band, so you know the tracks are good. But the fact that they’re written to score a neo-noir means they have just enough tension to light a fire under your ass but not so much that it stresses you out—the perfect working music.