Where I ruin a joke by explaining it
How I think about jokes, stories, and knowing when something is finished
Here is a look at my process and how I overanalyze everything remotely related to jokes and storytelling.
This is a finished comic from my digital sketchbook. It’s not going to win any awards, but I think it’s funny, and most importantly my 17-year old laughed out loud when I showed it to her.
This is how it started:
I knew I wanted to do a four-panel sequence of some kind. Four panels are the basic unit of comic strips going back to at least the 1930s. I had no ideas. It was just me and the blank page.
Because something is easier to work with than nothing, I started dropping random shapes on the page.
The heart looked like ears to me and the shield shape could be a head. I then needed a body, so I dropped a circle down. Now, this creature looked like a sheep to me, so I gave it legs and a face.
Lastly, I added some shading to make it pop a bit more.
Now that I had a creature, I needed a story. I needed a joke. I thought the sheep looked mean and judgemental, so I wrote the following dialogue:
Just having the same sheep standing in the same place for four panels is boring so I made its eyes grow during the appraisal process to add some movement.
As you know, any good joke or story has three acts or beats. Comics are traditionally four panels. Because the beats to a joke or story don’t all have to be the same length, you can use the fourth panel to expand any part of the joke or story you want.
Usually, a joke has a setup, a hook, and a punchline. The setup is the scenario or world of the joke. The hook creates an open loop that your brain wants to see resolved. The punchline closes the loop in an unexpected way.
Think of a standard knock-knock joke.
“Knock-knock” and “Who’s there?” are the setup. You know what kind of joke and world this is. You understand the rules.
Next, the middle part of the joke creates an open loop.
“Dwaine” and “Dwaine, who?” create tension. You need to know who Dwaine is.
“Dwain, I’m in the bathtub, help me I’m dwoning.” The punchline resolves the tension and brings the story or joke to a close.
Notice that in a knock-knock joke, the setup beat and the hook beat are always two lines (with audience participation) and the punchline beat is only one line and delivered by only the joke teller. The beats are not all the same length.
Here, I cheated and used the first panel as the setup and created an open loop with the sheep telling you it is evaluating you. I increased the tension for the hook in the second and third panels. This tension is increased even though they are silent. Finally, I deliver the punchline that you are not liked by the judgy sheep.
However, I was not fully satisfied with this strip. I wasn’t sure why. I left it and went on to other work.
A few days later while driving my kids to school, out of the blue I knew what was wrong with the sheep comic. First, I had missed an opportunity for a pun. I changed you to ewe. Next, I added head movement in the silent panels to ratchet up the tension more and to make the comic more ridiculous. Lastly, I shortened the punchline. A simple “Nope.” was funnier than “I don’t like you at all.” Plus I didn’t want to belabor the ewe/you pun and it would be weird to use ewe in the first panel and you in the fourth panel.
Here are the two versions side by side:
I believe that story is hardwired into humanity. We all know the rules of a story or joke, even if we haven’t ever verbalized them. I wanted to make a funny comic. While creating, I didn’t consciously think, “This is the setup, this is the hook, and this is the punchline.” Instead, I thought what would make this funny?
Then I thought what would make this funnier? However, my gut told me it still wasn’t right. I’ve been creating long enough that I’m comfortable letting things sit and revisiting them later. Often my brain needs the time and space to analyze the story or joke and to discover what it’s lacking.
Only after I’m mostly finished with a strip or a story do I go over it one more time and make sure the tension is strong enough and the story flows. Here the last thing I did was add the tilting head to the sheep. It felt like the final piece.
I have no doubt that a more talented comic artist could make this simple sheep gag much funnier. But, I felt it was finished and have released it out into the world to live its life.
It is now part of my learning process and will hopefully make my next comic a little better.
Thanks for nerding out about stories and jokes with me!
Be the weird you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
This is great, Jason. I really identify with your creative and editing processes. Loved a peek into both joke and comic creative processes.