In today’s blog entry I will teach you how to write humor, thus removing the mystery and in the process turning you into a joyless zombie, albeit a witty one.

I wrote on this topic more extensively in my book, The Joy of Work. So I’ll just give you the highlights here. The core of humor is what I call the 2-of-6 rule. In order for something to be funny, you need at least two of the following elements:

Cute (as in kids and animals)

Naughty

Bizarre

Clever

Recognizable (You’ve been there)

Cruel

I invented this rule, but you can check for yourself that whenever something is funny it follows the rule. And when something isn’t, it doesn’t.

One of the reasons comics are such a popular form of humor is that they often get the cute part automatically. Calvin and Hobbes is widely considered the best comic ever, but the few times it featured the parents doing the main action, it fell flat. Whenever it combined Calvin and Hobbes (both exceedingly cute), with some witty dialog (clever), a dangerous wagon ride (cruel), Calvin acting like a typical kid (recognizable), and thinking about adult philosophy (bizarre) it fired on 5-of-6 humor elements, which is virtually unheard of.

One could argue that all of the elements of Calvin and Hobbes are borrowed from Peanuts, Dennis the Menace and Winnie the Pooh (Hobbes is essentially Tigger). Originality doesn’t count for much with humor. I should know, since Dilbert has been compared to Charlie Brown grown up. And I certainly didn’t invent talking cartoon dogs. Execution is everything.

The Far Side comic made a huge splash in its day primarily using the elements of bizarre, cruel and clever. Often the comic included an animal that was cute too, in its own way. That’s 4-of-6 humor elements. No wonder he sold a trillion calendars.

Dilbert works best when cute Dogbert is doing something cruel, in a clever way, to people we recognize. That’s my version of 4-of-6 and I rarely hit it. Usually I start with a recognizable business situation and just make something cruel out of it. On a good day I can do it in a clever fashion. On a bad day I introduce some bizarre character like a giant talking cucumber. On average, I hit only 2 or 3 of the elements. That’s good enough to run in 2,000 newspapers, but it still isn’t a pimple on Snoopy’s buttocks.

Now take a look at a comic called Barkeater Lake that’s published only on the web. In this example the cartoonist is trying to satisfy the 2-of-6 rule but each dimension falls just short. The dog isn’t cute, the cleverness isn’t clever enough, the cruelty isn’t cruel enough and the bizarreness isn’t bizarre enough. He’s knocking at the door, but it needs a little extra.

You can see more examples of his work at:

http://www.comics.com/comics/barkeaterlake/index.html

Now compare that to Pearls Before Swine, a newish comic that’s already in several hundred papers and growing. The author, Stephan Pastis, has literally studied the 2-of-6 rule and applies it religiously. To my knowledge, he’s the only cartoonist other than me who does it consciously. In the following example you have cute animals, some cruelty that’s definitely cruel enough, some bizarre behavior, and it’s all tied together with a clever theme. That’s 4-of-6. See for yourself.

You can see more of Pearls at:

http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/index.html

The only other humor tricks worth noting in this summary are:

Write simple sentences that are easy to read. Complex sentences with big words kill humor.

Use funny sounding words when you can. (Yank is funnier than pull).

All humor is about people. You can’t make humor about concepts or objects.