The joke:
Cheetos is coming out with Cheetos-flavored mac and cheese. Cheetos Mac ‘n Cheese will come in three flavors: Bold & Cheesy, Flamin’ Hot, and I Don’t Care What I Put in My Body.
How I wrote it:
This news item caught my attention because the new product seemed to contain an unusually large amount of cheese–or at least cheese-like substances–which I thought I could write a joke about.
I turned to my Punch Line Maker #6, “State the obvious about the topic.” That’s because, to me, there was something obvious that could be stated about the new product, which is “That stuff can’t be good for you.” And I thought that most of my audience would accept that statement as true.
So I needed a punch line that said in a clever way “That can’t be good for you.” I considered naming the third flavor something like “Taste of Poor Life Choices,” but that seemed a little vague.
I also considered naming the flavor “Call 9-1-1.” But while I thought the audience might agree that the product was unhealthy, I didn’t think they’d go along with the implication that it would give you a heart attack.
Eventually I landed on the punch line you see here.
Normally I like to use Joke Maximizer #6, “Make the punch line parallel,” which would mean choosing a third flavor that’s only a couple of words long, like the other two flavors. But in this case I thought that this nine-word flavor would be more surprising in contrast, and therefore funnier.
Another way I made the joke funnier was to write the angle as “Cheetos Mac ‘n Cheese will come in three flavors,” instead of “It will come in three flavors.” I thought that repeating “Cheetos” and “cheese” as much as possible would subtly emphasize the unhealthfulness of the new product and make the punch line clearer.