The Secret to Writing Jokes: Break Expectations
Founder and Head of Growth, White Label Comedy
The secret to writing a joke is to set up an expectation and then break it. A joke is a playfully inappropriate surprise, so comedy comes from working out what your audience expects and doing the opposite. One useful way in is Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies: to be funny, you want to put on your Rebel or Questioner hat.
Why a joke is a broken expectation
Every joke has a setup and a punchline. The setup points your brain one way, and the punchline arrives somewhere you did not expect. That little jolt of surprise, as long as it is playful rather than alarming, is what makes people laugh.
Which means the raw material of comedy is expectation. Find the thing everyone assumes will happen, then take it somewhere else. No surprise, no joke.
The Four Tendencies, and which one writes jokes
In her book on the Four Tendencies, Gretchen Rubin describes four ways people respond to expectations. Upholders meet all of them, internal and external. Questioners meet their own but push back on everyone else's. Obligers meet others' expectations but not their own. Rebels resist the lot.
We all use each of these at different times. The trick for comedy is to deliberately choose the Rebel or the Questioner. Those are the mindsets that look at an expectation and instinctively want to break or interrogate it, which is exactly what a punchline does.
How to use it on your own content
Start with the expectation. What does your audience assume about your product, your industry, or the situation you are posting about? Write the boring, obvious version of the thought first.
Then rebel against it. Take the assumption and twist it, exaggerate it, or flip it on its head. The gap between what they expected and where you landed is your joke.
Meet Brian
Finding the expectation and breaking it in a way that fits your brand is a skill you can systemise. Brian is our AI-powered comedy marketing machine, built to help you turn what your audience assumes into posts that surprise them into laughing.
Take Brian for a spin and start breaking expectations on purpose.
Adam Hunt
Founder and Head of Growth at White Label Comedy. He spends his days convincing serious brands that funny is the most profitable thing they're not doing.
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