Write a Humor Essay
Essay writing helps to present an idea through an organized set of paragraphs. Injecting humor into an essay may seem complicated when you have never tried to pair expository writing with humorous observations or ideas. Though some believe that people are born funny, Mary Emma Allen of Humor Writers suggests that all people have the ability to write humorous pieces once they recognize the humor in situations. So, if you believe you have an interesting and funny take on a subject, you may want to consider writing a humor essay.
Instructions
1. Figure out the basic idea of your essay, humor aside. You will want to determine your essay's thesis, or the goal of the essay before you worry about the injection of humor into the piece.
2. Think of funny moments you've experienced or ideas you've developed throughout your life that lend themselves to the essay. For instance, if you are writing about the Death of Good Television Shows, think of specific scenes in television shows that were really stupid or trite.
3. Combine facts as well as observations as you write. As humor writer Sarah Smiley suggests, surprise your readers with specific details that people often overlook. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has often left people laughing by presenting very mundane situations and making them seem ridiculously irritating or annoying.
4. Use comedic timing in your essay. Sarah Smiley suggests the method of surprise; take a piece of information and add something that catches the reader off-guard. You need to develop a rhythm throughout the piece. As the sample essay in the Resource section shows, timing is everything. The writer of that piece, Hugh Gallagher, wrote an admissions essay to gain admission to NYU. His piece listed countless things he'd done with his life that were obviously untrue, and after several paragraphs of hyperbolic statements, he ended the essay with one sentence: "But I have not yet gone to college." The comedic timing demonstrated in that essay works well, and is a great example of keeping readers' attention and keeping them laughing.
5. Exaggerate your opinions or observations. For instance, you could say that "Television has become rather boring", but that statement is pretty boring in itself. Instead, you could say, "Watching television for me is like watching my dear old granny get burned alive at the stake. Too painful to watch, but too horrifying to look away."
6. Bring it all together in the ending paragraph. The conclusion should restate your idea and tie up any loose ends. End your essay with a bang; write a humorous last sentence that gives the reader one final, and hopefully long, laugh.
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