Comedy Writing Secrets: The Best-Selling Book on How to Think Funny, Write Funny, Act Funny, And Get Paid For It, 2nd Edition Paperback – October 1, 2005

Not completely finished with this book yet, but I looove it. A friend recommended it and it breaks down humor and comedy in a way that I haven't heard explained. I have taken classes at UCB, Groundlings, USC and this book ads something that these classes didn't. I love it and am savoring it. It also has exercises to do in the chapters so you can use what you are learning and retain it! great read! Highly recomend!

This book is extremely informative as well as entertaining.As someone doing a fair share of writing, and appreciating the use of humor in writing, I have found great value within these pages. I recommend it highly.It convinces you that trying to inject humor into your writing, without studying some of the actual structure and types of humor, puts you at a disadvantage. For anyone interested in adding some humor to increase the impact and lessen the boredom in their written work, this book is a must-have for your personal library.

This is a very well-written book, I guess it's not quite what I expected, though I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly. I felt like a lot of what is explained are things I already intuitively understand about comedy (but understanding is one thing, and being able to be consistently funny is another). That's where the exercises come in.The book is full of exercises to help you get better at various elements of comedic writing -- word play, puns, the structure of the joke, and so much more. It helps you identify jokes that work better written vs spoken and vice versa, as well as how the order of your words can affect the punchline. My favorites are when the joke is set up and you get to write the punchline, and then you get to see the punchline as written by famous comedians. Reading the book probably won't make you a better comedy writer, but if you commit to doing all the exercises, that probably will.

My husband runs his own Video Business and as such has dabbled with script writing off and on his whole life. In the past however, we have found that his serious scripts always turn out like comedies, which it has made us wonder if he should just write comedy. On the other hand, when he tries to be funny, it's not so easy. When I found this book I knew I had to get it for him for Christmas. He has been really excited for the coming year since then and I'm glad to have this book on hand as well, since I've also been dabbling in writing children's stories and young adult fiction my whole life. On Christmas day, my Father-in-law picked this up while visiting and began to read the jokes aloud, it has some pretty great jokes. He said for the jokes alone he wouldn't mind having this book. A stand up comedian could probably benefit from it too. So, yes . . . I think just about anybody could find a useful reason for owning this.

I use humor in many areas of my life, from hosting The Goldstein on Gelt Show, to giving speeches about personal finance to people who live outside the United States who wish to invest in America (although, of course, many people think the whole economic is a joke!). I've used a lot of Helitzer's techniques to improve my joke writing, and I use funny ideas and stories to help inspire and teach people to handle their money. This book laid it out step by step, and anyone who wants to improve as a public speaker or comedian should read Comedy Writing Secrets.

Not what I thought it would be. Kind of boring, sorry! Just my opinion.

I bought this as a textbook for a humor writing class. The examples used throughout were great and really helped me improve my writing on this subject.

this book is very very boring. The humor it uses is very geeky. I hate professors especially when they write books. The text trying to explain concepts using outdated dorky humor, so if you want to understand the concepts you have to understand the stupid humor that the professor uses. Do not use the same humor on your friends if you dont want them to look at you dumb like you done lost your mind. So far, I did not get anything out of this book, other than wasting my time trying to read it.

Un professore, l'autore, dall'umorismo intelligente. Melvin Helitzer è da sempre l'amico delle serate invernali. Il suo umorismo però è spesso e volentieri sottovalutato. Mia moglie ad esempio lo trova pedante. Ma su questo mi dissocio perchè ritengo che non tutti riescano a cogliere, capire e amare l'umorismo. Amo questo libro perchè ha la capacità di rompere gli schemi conosciuti delle battute. Provate ad avvicinarvi a questa lettura e provate a "giocare" con voi stessi.Personalmente lo consiglio.

The book has fantastic tips about how to develop short jokes and so on, but lacks on it a chapter that shows how to combine these jokes with long narratives, which was precisely what I was looking for. It's a fundamental bibliography, though, for those who want to be experts in "play on words"... And the words from veterans in the comedy field are great too!

I bought this book as a PDF from their website and I loved it so much I had to get a hard copy! I really like how they break humor down into different categories, give you LOTS of examples of ways that humor is used in stand up comedy and writing, and give you exercises to help you create funny anecdotes of your own. It just puts you in the mindset to find more funny material in your everyday life.This is a keeper for anyone who is writing, speaking and communicating with others on a regular basis. Humor is the single greatest way to disarm people and have a positive influence (I read that the average popular TED talk has a joke a minute so humor is SUPER important in communicating whether you're a business person or a public speaker!). This book will help you understand jokes and being funny even if it's not your natural ability.Here's a funny one from a section discussing how to use numbers to be funny ... something I've not thought of specifically."The average man speaks twenty-five thousand words a day. The average woman says thirty thousand words a day. Unfortunately, when I get home at night, I’ve spoken my twenty-five thousand, but my wife doesn’t start hers until we get into bed.—Michael Collins"They discuss how using a wide variety of numbers can be really funny and how math is usually logical but when there’s a lapse in the logic surrounding or involving numbers, it has the potential to get some laughs. That's just one example from just 2 pages of this great book.

This book is a good introduction to comedy writing. It offers the reader tips and tricks to beef up their comedy-game.

There are loads of these types of books on sale and most are dire. This one is actually good. It is rather considered in the way it goes about dissecting humour, and funny at the same time.I like it. I bought it. It still makes me laugh when I re-read it too. Recommended.