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Tag Archives: record

Joke About a Tattoo Artist

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Joe Toplyn

The joke:

A tattoo artist in India broke a Guinness World Record when he gave tattoos for 91 consecutive hours. He would have made it to 92 hours, but somebody asked for a tattoo of a dozen sheep.

How I wrote it:

I thought this news item might lead to a good joke because it has two promising handles, “tattoo artist” and “91 consecutive hours.” Plus the item conjures up a vivid mental image, an exhausted guy tattooing.

I started with my Punch Line Maker #1: Link two associations of the topic. The handle “91 consecutive hours” suggests, among other things, “really tired.” That association has the sub-association “fall asleep.”

The second topic handle, “tattoo artist,” has the association “a tattoo.” Trying to link that association with “fall asleep,” I asked myself the question “What tattoo would make him fall asleep?” My playful answer, a succession of sheep, became the basis of my punch line.

To complete the joke, I had to add an angle. I considered angles like “He would have kept going, but he fell asleep when…” But that angle would have violated my Joke Maximizer #5: Don’t telegraph the punch line.

And the phrase “he would have kept going” didn’t seem to steer the audience strongly enough toward the important idea of falling asleep.

So I came up with “he would have made it to 92 hours.” That phrase emphasizes that the tattoo artist had already stayed awake for a really long time.

The original news item ended with “…he spent 91 consecutive hours giving tattoos to 64 people.” But my Joke Maximizer #1 is “Shorten as much as possible.” So I took out the unnecessary detail “64 people.”

And my Joke Maximizer #3 is “Backload the topic.” So I moved the phrase that’s most important to the punch line, “91 consecutive hours,” to the end.

Posted in Joke Writing Workshop | Tags: Guinness, India, record, tattoo |

Joke About a Record-Setting Catfish

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Joe Toplyn

The joke:

A Florida man caught a record-setting catfish that weighed almost 70 pounds. Because it was Florida, the catfish was caught while it was running naked out of a meth lab.

How I wrote it:

This news item attracted my attention because the topic handle “record-setting catfish” seemed to have associations that would be useful for creating punch lines. Plus the other handle, “Florida man,” has so many associations that it’s an internet meme.

The news item raised questions in my mind, so I tried using my Punch Line Maker #3 and asked this question: “How did he catch that record-setting catfish?”

To answer that question, I thought of associations of “Florida man,” brainstorming bizarre activities that the media might report a Florida man engaging in. To get a punch line linking “record-setting catfish” to “Florida man,” I planned to have the catfish engaging in one of those bizarre activities.

But what activity? My Joke Maximizer #9 is “Get specific,” so I knew I had to describe the activity in detail.

The first detail I added was something about the catfish’s appearance: Florida man would probably be naked, so I described my catfish as naked, even though, of course, all catfish are naked.

Then, returning to my original question, I decided to describe how the catfish had been caught. “Running naked through a Walmart” seemed like a Florida man activity, but I thought I could do better.

My Joke Maximizer #8 is “Wildly exaggerate,” so I changed Walmart to a meth lab (after double-checking online that meth is a big problem in The Sunshine State).

And I had my punch line.

Posted in Joke Writing Workshop | Tags: catfish, Florida man, meth, record |

Joke About Nancy Pelosi’s Record

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Joe Toplyn

Setup: Nancy Pelosi Sets Congressional Record with 8 Hour Immigration Speech

Punch Line: She’s the first member of Congress to ever work 8 hours.

Writer: Ronald Carroll

Joe’s analysis of the joke

Posted in Joke Writing Workshop | Tags: Congress, immigration, Nancy Pelosi, record, speech |

Joke About Smashing Walnuts

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Joe Toplyn

Setup: Man smashes record 302 walnuts in 55 seconds

Punch Line: Just a few less nut smashes per minute than America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Writer: Nick Staron

Joe’s analysis of the joke

Posted in Joke Writing Workshop | Tags: record, smashing, walnuts |

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