"Did you hear the one about..."
Every great joke has a punch line, and every great humor writer has an arsenal of experiences, anecdotes, and obsessions that were the inspiration for that humor. In fact, those who make a career out of entertaining strangers with words are a notoriously intelligent and quirky lot. And boy, do they have some stories.
In this entertaining and inspirational book, you'll hear from 21 top humor writers as they discuss the comedy-writing process, their influences, their likes and dislikes, and their experiences in the industry. You'll also learn some less useful but equally amusing things, such as:
- How screenwriter Buck Henry came up with the famous "plastics" line for "The Graduate."
- How many times the cops were called on co-writers Sacha Baron Cohen and Dan Mazer during the shooting of "Borat."
- What David Sedaris thinks of his critics.
- What creator Paul Feig thinks would have happened to the "Freaks and Geeks" crew if the show had had another season.
- What Jack Handey considers his favorite "Deep Thoughts."
- How Todd Hanson and the staff of The Onion managed to face the aftermath of 9/11 with the perfect dose of humor.
- How Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais created the original version of "The Office."
- What it's really like in the writers' room at SNL.
