Joke Farming

How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense

Elliott Kalan author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Publishing:12th Nov '25

£92.00

This title is due to be published on 12th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Joke Farming cover

The winner of four Emmys, a Peabody, and two Writers Guild Awards (all of which badly need dusting) explains his process for writing comedy without going insane.
 
Philosophers may debate the meaning of comedy (thankfully keeping them too busy to fall into a life of crime), but the rest of us are more likely to wonder how we can make an audience laugh—or at least, how to entertain our friends and followers. According to award-winning comedy writer Elliott Kalan, we need to stop staring out the window, waiting for hilarious bits to stroll into view, fully formed. What we need is a process to plant their premises, tend to their structure and wording, and ultimately harvest them as funny material. In short, a farm. But for jokes.
 
In Joke Farming, Kalan explains that it’s easier to write jokes when you have a dependable method for doing so. All jokes, he argues, are built from the same elements: structure, premise, voice, tone, wording, and audience—and these elements can be applied to any comedic genre, from stand-up to sitcoms to satire. Kalan analyzes examples from his own career—including jokes that he wrote (and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote . . . ) as head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart—as well as material from a diverse array of comedians, writers, and filmmakers, highlighting the phrasing, rhythm, and precise details that make their work so dang funny.
 
Drawing on his experiences in professional writers’ rooms as well as episodes from everyday life, Kalan’s guide to jokes will appeal to aspiring writers, their mentors, comedy fans, and anyone who has to speak at a wedding. Joke Farming points the way toward a writing process that lessens stress and agony and yields more reliable rewards: a surprising tagline, a hilarious word choice, and—most importantly—a bigger laugh from the audience, whoever they may be.

“Kalan has always been hilarious, and Joke Farming is a shining example of his talent and expertise—which surprised me, because I really thought he had been winging it. A seat of the pants type thing. Live and learn.” -- Jon Stewart
“Kalan gives a tantalizing peek behind the sausage and shows how the curtain is made.” -- Kristen Schaal
“Kalan is one of the sharpest comedic minds that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with. For as talented as he is at making comedy, he’s also someone who appreciates the craft of comedy and sharing it with others. His book Joke Farming serves as both an instructive guide for anyone looking to infuse humor into their work and a thoughtfully researched compendium of satire, highlighting generations of funny minds from the silent film era to stand up to the current social media comedy scene.” -- Wyatt Cenac

ISBN: 9780226829937

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 454g

304 pages