Jerry describes the anatomy of his Pop-Tart joke, still a work in progress, and shows his longhand writing process—documented by the NY Times.
It occurred to me that the process of writing a joke is similar to the process of writing a poem – for totally different reasons.
The poet wants his or her message to be as precise and complete as possible.
That’s the farthest thing from the mind of the joke writer, who just wants to make the audience laugh.
Is there a way to merge the two?
Are there poetic joke writers out there with drawers full of unpublished stuff?
It somehow makes me feel reassured.
It makes me feel reassured, somehow.
Yes, these jokes belong in the drawer, makes me feel safer.
Good, keep ’em there.
Yes, I’m going with that one: Good, keep ’em there.