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99% Invisible
99% Invisible

How to Write a Joke

November 11, 2025 • 31m

Summary

⏱️ 10 min read

Overview

Comedy writer Elliot Kalin, former head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, discusses his book 'Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense.' He breaks down his systematic approach to writing jokes on demand, explaining how professional comedy requires more than natural humor—it needs a reliable process. Kalin walks through the essential elements of joke construction including point, premise, structure, tone, and audience, using examples from The Daily Show, stand-up comedy, and his work on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Introduction to Elliot Kalin and Professional Comedy Writing

Roman Mars introduces Elliot Kalin, who previously co-hosted the Power Broker series on 99% Invisible and is a veteran comedy writer from The Daily Show. Kalin explains the fundamental difference between being naturally funny and being a professional comedy writer—the latter requires the ability to be funny on demand, not just spontaneously. He emphasizes that professional comedy writing cannot rely on waiting for inspiration to strike, especially when working under tight deadlines.

  • Elliot Kalin worked over a decade at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, eventually becoming head writer
  • He currently works as showrunner for the forthcoming Netflix Ghostbusters animated series
  • Growing up watching stand-up comedy on 1990s cable television made comedy writing seem achievable as a career
" The great thing about writing jokes for a living is that less that you need someone to tell you you can do it and more that no one can tell you not to do it. "

The Difference Between Funny People and Comedy Professionals

Kalin distinguishes between being naturally funny in conversation and being able to produce comedy professionally on demand. He explains that at The Daily Show, writers couldn't rely on gut instinct or wait for inspiration—they had to deliver scripts full of jokes within hours. This pressure led him to develop a systematic approach he calls 'joke farming,' which allows him to write jokes reliably regardless of whether he's feeling funny that day.

  • The key difference is the ability to be funny on demand in a professional manner when needed, not just spontaneously
  • At The Daily Show, scripts were due at 10:30 AM, sometimes giving writers only two hours to write jokes
  • A joke is defined as anything created to make someone laugh
  • Kalin needed to verbalize his unconscious joke-writing process to replicate it deliberately
" I feel like the difference between being a funny person and being a comedy professional is the ability to be funny, not just spontaneously, not just for whoever you're talking to, but to be funny on demand in a professional manner when it needs to be done. "
" I need to free myself from being chained to inspiration, basically, which is something I can't control. "

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