The joke:
The release of the new James Bond movie has been postponed to November because of the coronavirus. Apparently they’re adding a scene where Q gives Bond a special wristwatch that shoots hand sanitizer.
How I wrote it:
I gravitated toward this news item because it combines two topics that many people are interested in: James Bond and the coronavirus.
The news item also promised to be a fertile topic for joke writing because it has two handles, each of which has lots of associations. Thanks to Punch Line Maker #1–Link two associations of the topic–lots of associations means lots of opportunities to create a punch line.
The first handle, “James Bond,” has as one association “gadget,” which has the sub-association “special wristwatch.”
The second handle, “coronavirus,” has the association “hand sanitizer.” To create the punch line, I linked those associations by stating that Bond’s special wristwatch shoots hand sanitizer.
I made sure to use my Joke Maximizer #4, “Make everything clear,” where “clear” includes “logical.” A wristwatch is a more logical gadget than, say, a pen to shoot hand sanitizer because a watch is near your hand. And the angle of the joke is logical because adding a new scene is a plausible reason to postpone the release of a movie.
I chose the laugh trigger “hand sanitizer” instead of something more specific like “Purell” because I thought it made Bond sound like more of a germaphobe and was therefore more surprising and funnier.