Tips on writing funny material

By Lee Cornell

First, I think you really have to have some sort of a sense of humor, or a "funny bone" to be funny in your comedy.

2) You can purchase some pre-written comedy vent routines and the key here is to alter the routines to fit your personality and THE CHARACTER of the puppet.

3) There are also lots of comedy writers out there who you can hire to write custom routines for you. Be careful, though. Since these writers won't know you, your act, your personality, or the character of the puppets you are using, they may not write something that fits you and you'll end up with a routine that may be funny if the person who wrote it performed it, but not work for you.

4) If you are writing your own comedy and/or blending your own writings with jokes from other sources (joke books, the Internet, whatever) you want to have a "theme" in mind for the routine. There has to be a common thread to the various parts of the routine. And find a re-occurring call back hook/comment/bit you can return to from time to time during the act.
5) Use only material that sounds funny to you.

5) Good jokes have a set up and a "punch." The trick is to take the audience down a certain path with the set up (where they think they know where you are going with the joke) and then POW! go a different direction and catch them off guard with the punch.

7) Try to write from personal experiences.  People love personal experience comedy. It easy for an audience to laugh at things that probably may even have happened to them or someone they know.

8) Look at news stories and find topical subjects that you can put the setup/punch spin on.

Writing GOOD comedy is not easy. Anyone can string a bunch of corny jokes together and write a lame routine. Really push yourself to be unique in your comedy and work hard on crafting a truly funny routine.
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These excerpts were taken from Lee's blog post answers to the question, "How do I write funny material?" You can read his entire post here:  http://ventips.blogspot.com/