Damn! That’s Funny! (Gene Perret)

Writing Humor You Can Sell

Now it’s time for a review of one of the heavyweights. It’s Gene Perret.

Probably one of the first gurus when it comes to writing comedy.

Of course, when I say review him, I mean his material. I’m not going to take a tape measure and start there, because;

1. That would be indecent.

2. I don’t know where he lives.

3. He’s already on to me, and I clearly heard a door lock shut, some place, somewhere.

On to the book then, which this time is Damn! That’s Funny! (if you couldn’t tell from this article’s title).

An amusing thing for starters is the cartoon laptop on the cover. Thick, chunky, with a floppy drive. Just imagine if that was a person.

Now, the author, Gene Perret. He’s written for Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and many others. If you haven’t heard of them, you either know nothing of comedy, or were born this side of the millennium.

And know nothing of comedy.

Having written for plenty of acts, done much TV work, submitted to magazines and various publications, as well as having published this guide to comedy and numerous others, it begs the question;

What can Gene Perret teach us? Or what does he have left to teach us?

Those other books might have drained him…

Your heart might sink when you look at the table of contents; Part 1, Preparing to Write Humor, starts on page 3. Part II, Types of Humorous Articles and Tips on Writing Them, only begins page 93.

How much preparation do you need? That must be more than enough. Well, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I have 8 hours to cut down a tree, then…”

I forget the wording. It’s something about how he’d spend the first 7 ½ hours looking up the correct quote.

Either way, preparation is vital.

Moving on to page count, it’s 199 of them. Text heavy and not much white space.

But hang in there. Like a TV in a thunderstorm during a world cup final, don’t switch off.

Perret writes in straight forward style, while sharing plenty of amusing stories, and is informative throughout.

The information starts with a number of ways to beat the blank page. He breaks things down into different parts, shows you a lot of aspects you can look at, so you’ve always got something to write about.

Once you do, it’s a chapter on how to direct your topic, or how your attitude will affect your writing.

That’s followed by getting your ideas into a good structure. These all come with examples of the author’s own work, with 4–5 pieces shown in this first section of the book.

To end Part I comes some particularly good pages. They shows off Perret’s process for putting together humour articles. Despite being a relatively short segment, it’s great value to see how a professional executes their work.

That leads nicely into part II. A look at various types of article.

Each of the 7 types have a number of pages to show you what they’re about, again, each with good examples to get the points across.

Which one is the most interesting? It depends what you’re in to.

If you like monologues most, you’ll get good suggestions from reading that, the essay part will provide relevant tips, random gags will…you get the picture.

Also included are Laundry Lists, Parody and Sketch. Each one with helpful tips and advice to help you approach them effectively.

There’s also Fillers and Short Anecdotes.

(Which is a timely segue into the below)

Multiple Emmy award winner and author of several titles. He’s written for many different people and publications. This book, Damn! That’s Funny! is a guide to humor writing. And in Gene Perret’s words, “… you can’t teach someone to be funny.”

Pick up a copy when you can.

On parody, Perret gives no personal example*; he says he’s not very good at it. He later suggests you try out each comedy form, as you might surprise yourself by being better than expected at some. That’s no conflict, as he explains that having done enough parody in his earlier career, he’s had his fill.

With all the types of comedy out the way…the book finishes. Abruptly. The pages simply fall out of your hands and the spine disintegrates.

Actually, it’s on to Part III, General Tips on Writing Humor.

This has a feel of tying things up and is a bit weaker than what proceeded it. If this book was its own Olympic contest, and you were handing out medals for each part, this would be out of the top 3 placings.

Pretty convenient, as there are only 4 parts. And Part IV would be disqualified for cutting the course; it’s only half a page long.

Back to Part III, General Tips on Writing Humor.

It’s common sense advice for this section, but well done common sense. After all, it is common sense, so it has to come from the author’s common sense, which means if he’s sensible enough to have a long career, his common sense will be sensibly common and will provide more than enough…

I’ll end that thought there.

On to a shock on page 151; you can’t teach someone to be funny.

He basically waited ’til the last ¼ of the book to tell you that. It’s already long enough. It would have been better in the preface. Thanks, Gene.

Any more surprises? I know it’s an integral part of humor, but this is really pushing it.

So… in re-reading this so called humorous article up to this point, and following that morale crushing admission, that’s where this comes to an end.

Verdict

No, wait… because I’m a fighter, I’ll see this piece out.

The How to Use Words Humorously starts off with an amusing enough article. The section then explores different types — malapropisms, wacky word usage, definitions etc. — with explanations, though it’s hard to avoid the feeling of being an extended list.

Adding Humor to Serious Articles suggests why you should try and get laughs from your presentations. And if you can’t, you can always borrow lines from famous comedians, or look further in to the past and find other lines from a variety of sources.

That’s actually the advice.

Now. Part IV.

Half a page telling you to get on with it.

But in Gene Perret’s words, “Have fun with it.”

* I assume this means no published example, as he does give a brief “sketchy plot outline” parody piece, as well as a nearly 7 line paragraph imitating Shakespeare’s style, for examples. Assuming these aren’t written by the author, no-one else is credited, so if that’s the case, they’ve been stolen for this publication.

Way to go Perret!

Real Verdict

An unsurprisingly solid book from renowned comedy expert Gene Perret. Despite part III feeling a bit like glue to make up the end of the book, parts I and II provide more than enough information and advice to warrant a purchase.

Recommended for:

Doing writing. Particularly the sections which focus on the different parts of any given topic. They make this book worth checking out for anyone wanting more ideas on beating the blank page.

Also, for those of you who want to put together humorous articles. Gene Perret gives a brief and well described outline of his process. It’s this book’s highlight.

Not for:

Performing. In fairness, the book isn’t aimed at it. Apart from the author mentioning he’s done a bit, this is strictly for the writers.

Exercises. If you like them as part of a read, you won’t find any here.

Other thoughts

Pretty well structured book, despite some flaws (but nothing’s perfect). Once you’ve had a read, you can skip over introductions and stories and come back to the parts that give you the greatest value.

Length

It’s pretty lengthy, at 199 pages, and there isn’t much in the way of white space along the way.

Quicker readers will get through it in two to three days.

The slower, dedicated kind, will take between a week or two.