Reading Response 1

In Chapter One of Comedy Writing Secrets the idea that although some people are naturally funnier than others, writing humor is something that can be taught and acquired by the student. . Humor can be used for both entertainment and personal gains in the business and financial world. Throughout the chapter exercises for expanding my imagination and teaching one to be more creative.
Throughout the chapter it is stressed that one quality that prevents a person from being funny is when someone inhibits their ideas because they sound ridiculous. In most cases a ridiculous thought is where a joke originates or just the thought makes the audience laugh because it causes the audience to imagine something ridiculous. Although some of these exercises seemed ridiculous, writing all the ideas down without being inhibited really did help me to become more creative in the exercises.
In chapter one the benefits of humor writing were presented as the three Rs. The three Rs were respect, remembrance, and rewards. Although I’ve never experienced the first and third “Rs”, remembrance is something I have experienced. After watching many humorous movies and shows I have realized that the funniest lines in them are the ones I remember. In most movies I have seen that are not humorous I couldn’t tell you a direct quote from them even though I remember the basic plot of the show. In this section of the chapter it also talked about a study in which humor was used in a lecture class and those students had higher test scores than those in the lecture that did not use humor. I believe this is true because it is much easier to pay attention in a class that the professor is able to make jokes throughout the lecture related to the class material.
I also found “The Map to Being a Successful Humorist” very interesting because the targeted audience is the most important element to this triangle. The audience is very important to making a name for yourself but I was not aware that the material and appearance of the performer is determined by the audience. As cheesy as it might sound I always that the comedian made a name for themselves by using material based on the subjects they like to make jokes about and not conform to whatever the audience wants to hear or see.
At the end of the chapter I liked how they gave me a method to begin developing my own comedy-writing-foundation. I looked ahead in the book and I noticed that in the first few chapters have this “Showtime” section which I think will help to develop this foundation. I felt this chapter was a good introduction to the ideas that will me to become a better humor writer and it will enable me to analyze others’ humor writing because I will have a foundation of my own.