Monthly Archives: July 2020

Joke About Supermodel Bar Refaeli

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The joke:

Today supermodel Bar Refaeli was convicted of evading taxes. In her defense, she didn’t actually evade the taxes; she strutted up to the taxes, struck a pose, then sashayed away from the taxes.

How I wrote it:

This news item caught my eye because “supermodel” and “taxes” each have enough associations that I thought I could probably find a surprising way to link a couple to create a punch line.

But as I thought more about the topic I focused on a third possible handle, “evading.” The active nature of that word prompted me to consider using my Punch Line Maker #5: Visualize the topic.

To do that, I formed a mental picture of the model actually walking around some taxes to evade them. Then I exaggerated that mental picture so the model was in a runway fashion show, with the taxes at the far end of the catwalk. Describing that mental picture in detail resulted in my punch line.

In my rough draft I had included a fourth action, “spun around,” after “struck a pose.” But I edited it out for my final draft because my Joke Maximizer #10 advises “Use the Rule of Three.”

The original news items all included references to either “Israel” or “Israeli,” but I left those out because they weren’t important to the joke and my Joke Maximizer #1 is “Shorten as much as possible.”

Most of the original news items also referred to “tax evasion,” but I changed that phrase to “evading taxes” to make the action more visual.

My Joke Maximizer #7 is “Use stop consonants, alliteration, and assonance,” so I was pleased that “strutted,” “struck,” and “sashayed” all begin with “s.”

Joke About a Younger Moon

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The joke:

A new study says that the moon is 85 million years younger than previous estimates. In fact, scientists say the moon is so young that Ghislaine Maxwell introduced it to Jeffrey Epstein.

How I wrote it:

I focused on this news item for joke writing because both topic handles, “moon” and “younger,” seemed to have many associations that might be linked to create a punch line.

The general idea of something being younger than expected led me to consider my Punch Line Maker #2: Link the topic to pop culture. What people currently in the news were younger than they should have been? The girls who Ghislaine Maxwell recruited–okay, allegedly recruited– for Jeffrey Epstein. So I created my punch line by substituting the moon mentioned in the topic for one of those girls.


Before I posted this joke, I thought about whether some outraged readers might protest, “Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficked underage girls. How could you possibly joke about that?” I’ll tell you how.

One basic technique for writing jokes that deal with a potentially disturbing topic is to steer clear of the most disturbing aspects of the topic. In the case of this joke, I did that in two ways.

First, I included “the moon is so young” in my angle, to be sure that the image in the audience’s mind when they read the punch line is of an enormous, round rock being offered up to Epstein and not an underage girl.

Second, I only refer to Maxwell introducing the moon to Epstein. I don’t call to mind any of the repellent details of what happened after that, like the sexual abuse.

Joke About the Bubonic Plague

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The joke:

Over the weekend, health officials reported a case of possible bubonic plague in Inner Mongolia. So crowds of people from Lake of the Ozarks immediately flew there to have a pool party.

How I wrote it:

This news item drew my attention because I thought there might be a joke that makes a surprising connection between the medieval-sounding “bubonic plague” and the current coronavirus pandemic. That is, I turned to my Punch Line Maker #2: Link the topic to pop culture.

“Coronavirus” has many associations, but one that was top of mind for me when I wrote this joke was “oblivious partiers at Lake of the Ozarks.” For several days in a row I saw on TV and online the same footage of a pool party packed with revelers tossing around beach balls. Because I had seen the story in multiple media outlets, I was fairly confident that my audience would make that association too. So I based my punch line on it.

I thought quite a bit about how to describe those partiers. I wanted the joke to be clear, which pointed me toward a detailed description like “those people in the Midwest who you’ve seen in the news having pool parties even after they’ve been strongly urged to maintain social distance to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.”

But my Joke Maximizer #1 is “Shorten as much as possible.” So, taking into account how familiar I thought my audience was with the story, I trimmed the angle and punch line down to what you see.

My Joke Maximizer #7 is “Use stop consonants, alliteration, and assonance,” and luckily my angle and punch line have lots of stop consonants–three in “pool party” alone.

Joke About Beavis and Butt-Head

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The joke:

That pop culture phenomenon “Beavis and Butt-Head” is returning to television. You’ll be able to see them on September 29 at the first presidential debate.

How I wrote it:

I focused on this news item because I thought I could get a laugh out of referring to a couple of unexpected people as “Beavis” and “Butt-Head.” That is, I decided to use my Punch Line Maker #2: Link the topic to pop culture.

The animated characters mentioned in the topic, Beavis and Butt-Head, are associated with “dumb,” so I brainstormed pairs of pop culture figures who I believed most people would accept as being “dumb.” The presidential race is in full swing, which is why I thought of President Trump and Joe Biden.

Would most people go along with with my implication that Trump and Biden are dumb? I decided yes, because I read that many voters have concerns about the cognitive ability of both candidates. So Biden and Trump became my laugh triggers.

My Joke Maximizer #11 is “Don’t be too on-the-nose,” so I didn’t want to follow the topic with something like “You know them better as Donald Trump and Joe Biden.” Instead, I identified the candidates indirectly by referring to “the first presidential debate.”

I also helped the joke by writing an angle that flows smoothly from the topic. The topic is about the show returning to television, so it’s natural for the angle to talk about when that will happen. Because my angle makes the lead-up to the punch line sound straightforward, the surprising turn taken by the insulting punch line is heightened and the joke is funnier.