Writing Humor

Dr. Peter McGraw, founder of the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, teamed up with journalist Joel Warner on a far-reaching search for the secret behind humor. Their journey spanned the globe, from New York to Japan, from Palestine to the Amazon. Meanwhile, the duo conducted their own humor experiments along the way-to wince-worthy, hilarious, and illuminating results.

This has proven to be the most significant book ever written on stand-up comedy. It truly comes to life as an audiobook, especially with ‘before & after’ examples of punchlines. It explains groundbreaking methods and theories that give you the tools to fast-track your stand-up to the next level and will permanently change the way you look at writing and performing comedy.

Memoir; life in Italy, grief and healing, women’s midlife memoir, expat life, Irish humor, found family, starting again, loss and love, Italy memoir, solo travel. Read as standalone, but better as part of the series. Welcome back to Casa Anam Cara — where the Italian countryside is beautiful, the guests unpredictable, and the bureaucracy remains undefeated. Rosie’s life in Italy continues with hosting fabulous midlife crisis retreats for women and writers, garden chaos, and a revolving door of creative visitors. Between unexpected animals who move in uninvited, magic holy doors, the ...

Author Scott Dikkers will tell you how to write jokes. He’s a master joke writer, founder of the world’s most popular humor site TheOnion.com, number one New York Times best-selling humor author, professional public speaker, and successful cartoonist. In this definitive joke-writing handbook, he'll teach you comedy writing and how to write a joke with a simple comedy-writing and joke-writing formula you can use right now to write your own jokes.

An exciting, hilarious, and thoughtful travel memoir about one man's adventurous two and a half years on the road, backpacking through 40+ countries on a shoestring budget. From the back cover: Until his midlife crisis arrived, Chris Gattanella always played it safe. He spent two decades sinking into a nice cozy life and career in Los Angeles. Now in his forties and newly single, he suddenly feels unfulfilled and bored. Is it because he never ventured out to see the world? Impulsively, Chris burns years of saved vacation time on a six-week “test run” through Europe to see if he enjoys ...

You don’t have writer’s block. You have writer’s preparation. Writers: Rewriting the First Paragraph Until Retirement is a painfully accurate and wildly funny satire about the writing process — specifically the part where nothing gets written but everything gets optimized. Inside this hilarious comedy about aspiring authors and creative procrastination, you’ll discover: the endless search for the perfect opening line coffee rituals more advanced than the actual manuscript playlists created for chapters that do not exist notebooks purchased for “creative breakthroughs” ...

Maria Bamford is a creative genius. But the process of creating is not something that “comes easily” or “is enjoyable” for her. So, over the years, she’s invented a number of helpful techniques for tricking, shaming, coercing herself into doing things. You Are (A Comedy) Special is 15-step comedic send up of a self help guide that examines Maria’s approach to stand-up in a hilarious fashion.

Day 1. I wrote "Move to Italy" on a Post-it note at 2am after watching a YouTube video. I don't know what I was thinking.When Bob Henderson, a recently retired actuary from Columbus, Ohio, buys a one-euro farmhouse in the mountains of Abruzzo, he expects a project. What he gets is a life.Told in ninety daily diary entries spanning October to March, I Bought a Farm in Italy is the record of a man learning — how to prune an olive tree, make a correct ragù, lose gracefully at Scopa, and understand the specific patience of a hill town that has been watching outsiders arrive and leave for six...

From the comedian and New York Times bestselling author of Idiot, a new essay collection about finding the funny even when your life is falling apart. The world knows comedian and content creator Laura Clery for her hilariously unhinged characters, brutally honest storytelling, and ability to...

From Robin Sloan, the New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, comes Sourdough, "a perfect parable for our times" (San Francisco Magazine): a delicious and funny novel about an overworked and under-socialized software engineer discovering a calling and a community...

It’s the end of the world, and Hertell Daggett has decided to save it. Well not save it so much, as just, remember it. The earth’s magnetic poles have reversed and civilization has just had its clock reset to the great cosmic flashing 12:00am from almost a million years ago, and humanity, and everybody in it, is pretty much forgetting everything it learned since the last time.

Nationally recognized and award-winning humor writer Jim Mize shares his insights from forty years of writing humor. In addition to discussing techniques, Mize credits his original sources so readers can view the materials that first inspired him. Readers will also be entertained with examples from his writing and see firsthand how Mize put these skills to work in his stories. Topics covered include joke writing, humor formats, misdirection, tension, timing, workshops, finding markets, and more. Of course, along the way, quite a few humorous things happened and these stories are shared as ...

The New Comedy Bible is a step-by-step, no excuses manual for writing, performing, and launching your career as a stand-up comic. Written by Judy Carter, the author of The Comedy Bible (2001), which was called by The Washington Post and Forbes as a “Comedy Essential”. This new book, penned in classic Carter’s style - part career coach and part comedy dominatrix - has 100 percent new content.

In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best. As Jenny says: "Some people...

The long-awaited follow-up to the perennially bestselling writers' guide Story, from the most sought-after expert in the art of storytelling. "Dialogue is a masterwork. There's nothing harder to teach. Now this book exists. McKee has written an essential book akin to The Elements of Style for...

From the New York Times bestselling creator of Poems of Parenting comes a beautiful collection of poetry and art that zeroes in on finding moments of clear-eyed joy amongst the messiness of motherhood, presented in a gorgeous package perfect for gift-giving. By turns heartfelt, funny...

A playful and moving book of essays by a "born storyteller" (Seattle Times) who invites us into the miraculous and transcendent moments of the everyday When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of sixty after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted readers who...

Drunk customers. Shoplifting raccoons. Otherworldly visitors. As night shift clerk at the 24-hour gas station at the edge of town, Jack has pretty much seen it all.

In this heartwarming, bookish debut, a young widower of a famous children’s fantasy author teams up with a down-on-her-luck MFA dropout to write the final book in his late wife’s series...and find their own perfect ending along the way. Whit Longacre has a monumental task and a looming...

"Roberson’s achievement in remaining funny while excavating her pain is just straightforwardly heroic." — The New Republic This program is read by the author. From New Yorker and Onion writer and comedian Blythe Roberson, How to Date Men When You Hate Men is a comedy philosophy audiobook...