Joe Toplyn

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Galleries
    • “Late Night with David Letterman”
    • “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”
    • “Monk”
  • Events
  • Media Page
  • Contact

Tag Archives: short-form comedy

How to Write a Desk Piece

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Joe Toplyn

“Children grow up so fast these days. That’s the reasoning behind this latest addition to a beloved series of children’s books. It’s [HOLDS UP FAKE BOOK] Curious George and the hole in the wall of the girls’ locker room.”

Curious George and the hole in the wall of the girls' locker room

That’s an example of a joke in a Desk Piece, a type of short-form comedy that’s popular on many comedy/talk shows. A Desk Piece is a segment of fully-scripted comedy that the host performs by himself while sitting at his desk.

 

Here’s how I wrote that joke. The process was very similar to that of writing a topical monologue joke, a process I cover in detail in my book Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV.

 

I started with the topic of the Desk Piece. The topic is typically a collection of things in a particular category, in this case “New Books.” Next I brainstormed a long list of angles off that topic, that is, types of real books. Here’s a partial list of those angles:

 

stacks of bookscookbooks  *  dictionaries  *  puzzle books  * coffee table books  *  The Lord of the Rings  *   thesauruses  *  novels  *  atlases  *  children’s books  *  Mark Twain  * celebrity memoirs  *  paperbacks  *   etiquette books  *  Curious George  *  biographies  *  encyclopedias  *  guidebooks  *  pop-up books  *  how-to books  *  photography books  *  manuals

 

To create the punch line I chose one angle–Curious George–and used my Punch Line Maker #3 on it, asking the question “What might a curious person do?” I answered that question using a surprisingly unwholesome association of “curious,” which is “spy on people.”

 

Finally I used my Joke Maximizer #9 (“Get specific”), devising a very specific Peeping George scenario, and arrived at the punch line: “Curious George and the hole in the wall of the girls’ locker room.”

3d2

“New Books” is what I call a Graphic/Prop Piece, one of the seven types of Desk Pieces I analyze in my own new book, Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV.

 

A footnote: I wrote that Curious George joke for Late Show with David Letterman in May 1998 but you’d never know it. It’s an example of evergreen comedy, comedy that has a long shelf life, usually because it’s not based on something topical but on a more lasting pop culture phenomenon.

 

If you’re preparing a writing sample to submit to a comedy/talk show, include a generous portion of evergreen comedy. That way your submission won’t seem too dated if it winds up sitting on the credenza of some head writer for months before it’s read.

Posted in Writing Tips | Tags: comedy, Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, Curious George, desk bit, desk bits, desk piece, desk piece skit, desk pieces, desk skit, desk skits, evergreen comedy, how to write a desk piece, how to write a desk piece for a talk show, humor, joke basket, joke bucket, late night, Late Show, late-night, late-night comedy, Letterman, refillable comedy, short-form, short-form comedy, talk show, what is a desk piece, write a desk piece, writing, writing a desk piece | 8 Comments |

Sign up to get more tips and offers from Joe.

Joe’s Tweets

Joe Toplyn 2 days ago

The search warrant for former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home shows that the FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents. In his defense, Trump said that "classified documents" means that he "made the documents classy."

Joe Toplyn 3 days ago

Today in Germany, 31 people were injured on a roller coaster at a Legoland amusement park. But everybody’s okay because park officials quickly took the roller coaster apart and used the pieces to build a hospital.

Joe Toplyn 4 days ago

A Kansas man convicted of performing illegal autopsies has been fined more than $700,000. $700,000 for illegal autopsies! That’s a stiff punishment.

Joe Toplyn 5 days ago

Today the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Trump's home, Mar-a-Lago. Some good news for Trump, though: they actually found those 11,000 votes he was looking for in Georgia.

Joe Toplyn 6 days ago

The Casper mattress company is looking to hire people with "exceptional sleeping ability" to demonstrate its mattresses. "Exceptional sleeping ability"...so basically they're looking for people who don't watch the news.

Joe Toplyn 6 days ago

A CDC study said that last summer dozens of people got sick from bacteria and the norovirus at a splash park in Kansas. But splash park officials say the water is safe this year because heat waves and global warming boiled it.

Joe Toplyn 1 week ago

Fashion company Balenciaga is selling the world's most expensive garbage bag; it costs almost $1,800. So finally lazy people can have the perfect excuse not to take out the trash.

Categories

Pages

  • About Joe
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Media Page
  • Photo Galleries
    • “Late Night with David Letterman”
    • “Monk”
    • “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”

Recent Posts

  • Joke About Kissing Poultry July 25, 2022
  • Joke About the Fourth of July July 4, 2022
  • Joke About Revlon’s Bankruptcy June 20, 2022
  • Joke About the Series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” June 6, 2022
  • Joke About Overpriced Beer May 23, 2022

Pages

  • About Joe
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Media Page
  • Photo Galleries
    • “Late Night with David Letterman”
    • “Monk”
    • “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”

Archives

  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • February 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014

Categories

  • Joke Writing Workshop (349)
  • Late-Night Writing (13)
  • Writing Tips (12)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© 2014 Joe Toplyn. All Rights Reserved.