Humor Theory Joke Checklist

Superiority Theory

What is your target?

Can you make the target more specific?

Relief Theory

How are you creating tension in your joke?

Can you create more tension? (By ways of delivery, choice of words or topic, raise the stakes)

Incongruity and Incongruity Plus Theory and Script-based Semantic Theory of Humor

Is there a surprise?

What is Story 1 and what is Story 2?

Does anything in Story 1 give away Story 2?

Is what connects Story 1 to Story 2 clear enough?

Is what connects Story 1 to Story 2 too obvious, so it is not surprising anymore?

Are Story 1 and Story 2 compatible?

Benign Violation Theory

What is the violation?

If it is too strong, can you make the violation seem more benign?

If the joke has no teeth, can you make the violation seem less benign? (Think physical, temporal and cognitive distance: Can you change any of the above to make it more (or less) benign?)

Play Theory

What play signals are you sending?

Is there anything that makes you being taken seriously by mistake?

Change

What assumption are you exploiting?

What cause and effect are you exploiting?

Where exactly is the sudden cognitive shift?

Is it as close to the end of the joke as possible?

More theory to check your jokes against

The next simple thing you can do is to analyse your jokes through the following three lenses:

1. Definition of a Joke: “A joke conveys information in a funny way.”

2. Mechanism of a Joke: “A joke adds information in a way that triggers a sudden cognitive shift.”

3. The Formula: “Create or use an already existing assumption and fulfill or disappoint it in a surprising and satisfying way.”

Seems familiar, right? It’s what we used in the chapter Nine Examples Analyzed. Go on. Click on the link. Another look at that page won’t hurt.