The joke:
The governor of California said TV production can start up again with proper safety measures. So along with “The Masked Singer” you’ll see “The Masked Bachelor,” “The Walking and Hand-Washing Dead,” and “Last Man Standing Six Feet Away.”
How I wrote it:
This news item drew my attention because it has two handles with lots of associations, “TV” and “safety measures” (with the coronavirus part understood).
“TV” in particular has so many associations that I thought I could use my Punch Line Maker #1–Link two associations of the topic–to write a joke with multiple laugh triggers.
The most promising associations of “TV” would be the names of TV shows, so I went online and consulted a list of currently popular TV shows. I wanted to use popular shows so it would be immediately clear to the audience what shows I was referring to.
The other topic handle, “(coronavirus) safety measures,” has associations like “face mask,” “wash hands,” and “keep six feet away.”
To get my three laugh triggers, I just grafted the safety measures onto the names of TV shows with which they seemed to smoothly fit: “The Bachelor,” “The Walking Dead,” and “Last Man Standing.”
I used “The Masked Bachelor” as the first laugh trigger because it’s the least surprising, so putting it first lets the joke build in surprise, and funniness, to the end.
With illustrations, and a half-dozen or so additional fake TV shows, “Coronavirus TV Shows” could have been an art card desk piece on a late-night TV show. For example, a fake print ad for “The Walking and Hand-Washing Dead” might depict a zombie lathering up her hands at a sink, her disemboweled victim at her feet.