The joke:
Today “Dancing with the Stars” judge Carrie Ann Inaba said she has tested positive for Covid-19. More specifically, she said she scored a Covid-6, a Covid-7, and another Covid-6 from Derek Hough.
How I wrote it:
Testing positive for Covid-19 can lead to death, of course. So I read deeper into the story to make sure Carrie Ann Inaba was doing okay before I proceeded. I didn’t want to write a joke that would make people feel too guilty to laugh.
When I read the news item my mind quickly went to my Punch Line Maker #1: Link two associations of the topic.
That’s because one of the stronger associations I have for the topic handle “Dancing with the Stars” is those number scores that the judges hold up. And an obvious association of the other topic handle, “Covid-19,” is the number 19.
So I decided to write a punch line that links “19” to the scores that Carrie Ann Inaba supposedly received for a performance on the show.
I don’t watch the show regularly so I had to do a little research. I didn’t want fans of the show to be distracted by any incorrect details on their way to the punch line.
I was happy to confirm that the show usually has three judges. That meant I could take advantage of my Joke Maximizer #10–Use the Rule of Three–by constructing my punch line as a list of three scores.
I wanted the last score to be a little more surprising than the other two scores, because having a surprise at the end is how the Rule of Three works. So I attributed the last score to the judge whose name I thought would be the most recognizable. He’s been on the cover of “People Magazine,” hasn’t he?