Humorous Top Ten Lists - How to Hit the Funny Bone

Research every top ten topic.

If you skip this crucial step, you will be forced to start every list from square one. And starting from scratch can be very slow and frustrating. Therefore, whenever you attempt to write a humorous top ten list, your number one objective should be to gather as much information about the topic as possible.

The humorous twists come later. At the outset, you need something to twist. And that precious something is information. Without it, you literally won't know what you're talking about; or the best ways to poke fun at it.

Conducting a thorough job of research often turns up a considerable amount of inside information that provides precisely the ammunition you need to fire off a few hilarious lines that perfectly fit the topic of your list.

Less words mean more laughs.

When composing funny top ten lists, don't give your readers too many words to process. Keep each list entry as short as possible. You must ruthlessly pare down each list entry to the absolute minimum number of words that will get your point across.

Extraneous words cause two fundamental problems: First, the extra words lead your readers off on confusing mental tangents. And secondly, readers frequently stumble over the unnecessary words and lose their train of thought. Either way, the end result will be a failure to understand your punch lines.

Remember: You're not telling jokes! Every list entry must be a solid punch line. A funny top ten list must go bang, bang, bang; without benefit of any additional set-up lines. The title of your list is the only set-up line allowed.

After that, each entry must be totally self-contained, and able to stand on its own merits. Funny top ten lists are like Henny Youngman humor: "Take my wife ... please!"

Allow your lists to mellow.

Funny top ten lists share one fundamental truth with every other kind of creative endeavor: your twelfth revision is sure to be better than the previous eleven. The first thoughts that you record are rarely the best that you have to offer. It usually takes a considerable number of rewrites to reveal all the possibilities.

That's why you should work on a list until you either run out of ideas, or run out of enthusiasm. Then, put the list aside until you once again feel the creative urge. This might take anywhere from several hours to several days.

However, you can be sure of one thing. When you return to the list with a fresh perspective, you are practically guaranteed to find a number of ways in which to improve it.

Don't beat a dead horse.

This happens all the time; even with experienced comedy writers. You come up with what seems to be a potentially productive idea for a top ten list. You quickly write one or two reasonably good entries; and then ... nothing. You have hit a dry humor hole, which can easily develop into a frustrating writer's block.

Don't force the issue. Just put the list aside and periodically return to it, in order to see if inspiration will strike you once again. However, you must be prepared to face the very real possibility that certain lists will occasionally defeat you. Most of the time, these are just temporary defeats; which the passage of time, and a little renewed effort, will overcome.

At other times, however, it's best to simply admit defeat, and just walk away from a problematic list. The unmistakable sign that it's time to abandon a list is when you simply can not rekindle your original enthusiasm for the task.

On those occasions when you are forced to fold your tent, make sure to salvage the best parts of the abandoned list for use in the creation of future lists. You'll be amazed to discover how often these odds and ends from abandoned lists turn out to be a perfect fit for lists you compose months or years later.

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