Have fun and make it humorous

May 1, 2022

Some compelling writers are naturally funny.
Dave Barry, Jeff Foxworthy and Rick Bragg are among them.
The rest of us have to work at it.
Bellune

Some compelling writers are naturally funny.

Dave Barry, Jeff Foxworthy and Rick Bragg are among them.

The rest of us have to work at it.

The secret is finding humor in crummy experiences.

Yesterday’s humiliating event becomes today’s funny story.

Dave Barry once described his colonoscopy that had me in stitches. A colonoscopy is a serious procedure, but Dave saw the humor in being camped on the throne while a Fleet enema did its work.

Why make it funny? Because 99% of us enjoy a joke — self-deprecating humor most of all.

Humor is therapeutic. It relieves tension and makes life more bearable.

Here are a few examples from a Rick Bragg essay on Thanksgiving in Southern Living magazine.

Rick described a humiliating scene, the day his second grade teacher thought he was being disruptive by commenting that he thought a cornucopia was a dumb idea.

“I was invited to go stand in the hall,” Rick wrote. “It was not my first rodeo.”

Rick wrote that he had been reading about families feasting on roast goose.

“I knew that had to be made up. All the geese I ever encountered were too mean to die. They chased grown men around the yard, even former Marines.”

The families were also eating asparagus, Brussels sprouts and “horror beyond horror” artichokes.

“Nobody but nobody consumes an artichoke. It’s something you eat if you lose a bet.”

Suggestion: Start your own file of humorous writing and take a crack at humor yourself.

NEXT: COLORFUL LANGUAGE

For more on reporting and editing, read writing coach Jerry Bellune’s The Art of Compelling Writing, available for $9.99 at Amazon.com.

Jerry Bellune is a writing coach and author of “The Art of Compelling Writing, Volume 1.” For a personally autographed copy, send your check to him at PO Box 1500, Lexington SC 29071-1500.