I have a tool on my blog that allows me to see what exact search terms people use to find information on this blog. Several people recently typed in this search:

“the best punchlines”

In keeping with providing folks with what they want, no matter how stupid it may be…

Here are two of the best punchlines I know:

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So for the uninformed who are looking for the best punchlines, there you go. The second punchline is to one of the dirtiest jokes I know.

Now that you are armed with these powerful punchlines, you need to run along and cause great laughter to occur. Unfortunately, all the laughs you generate using those punchlines may be telepathic laughter. :-)

I say this because comedy professionals know that looking for the best punchlines is like trying to look for the best application for recycled toenail clippings.

Punchlines are meaningless without the set-up, the most important part of a joke. It is the set-up of a joke that ultimately makes a punchline work—not the other way around.

If you take a look at any street joke (common jokes told on the street), you will notice that the punchline is at the end and is usually a “reaction” by one of the characters in the joke to the set-up information provided in the joke.

The same is true of stand-up comedy material. Go to YouTube, find a video of a comedian you like and write down just the punchlines from that bit. You will see for yourself that these punchlines are NOT funny by themselves.

If you are in conversation with someone and made a remark to make them laugh, what exactly happened? They made a remark (the set-up) and you “reacted” to that remark using your sense of humor causing the laugh (the punchline).

Had you approached that person and simply blurted out the “reaction” you had before any set-up information, that person would wonder if you needed medication or not.

Even in old school “one liners”, there is still set-up information needed.  Here’s a line from the late comedian Mitch Hedberg:

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Here’s the bottom line:

If you are trying to develop great punchlines…

Start with material that you can react to using your own sense of humor EASILY. Punchlines always get their laughter power from and are dependent upon the set-ups, not the other way around.

So if your comedy material is not getting laughs…

I would be looking hard at your set-ups first. Punchlines are easy if you have comedy material that has a personal meaning to you and can react frequently to your set-up info using your sense of humor.

The very last thing I would be doing is looking for “the best punchlines” using a search engine.

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money

About the Author/Founder of the SCP Blog


Steve Roye is the author of the Killer Stand-up Comedy System and is a globally recognized expert in the field of stand-up comedy material development and presentation strategies -- for entertainers as well as speaking professionals.

Please check out the Featured Articles page for direct links to articles on this blog for pro comedians, comedy entertainers, and speaking professionals.

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