Every technique, taken apart.

Explain the thing by comparing it to a wildly distant thing that turns out to fit perfectly.

Analogy · Advanced beginner

Change one rule of reality, then behave with total logical consistency inside the new rule.

Comedy Physics · Advanced

Stop describing and become the thing for three seconds.

Performance · Intermediate

Build a rhythm the audience can feel, then violate it structurally, not just verbally.

Comedy Physics · Intermediate

Return to an earlier laugh at a moment when the audience has stopped expecting it.

Stand-Up · Intermediate

Put two incompatible registers next to each other and let the collision do the work.

Comedy Physics · Beginner

A consistent want plus a consistent flaw, expressed in a consistent voice.

Character · Advanced

Admit the true, unflattering thing you're not supposed to say out loud.

Psychology · Intermediate

Push a true detail past the size reality allows until the truth becomes visible.

Exaggeration · Beginner

Repeat the comic pattern at increasing intensity so each beat costs the character more.

Game · Intermediate

Identify the one repeatable unusual thing and make it the rule of the piece.

Improv · Advanced

Show the distance between what someone claims and what they actually do.

Satire · Intermediate

Take a figure of speech at face value and follow it to its consequences.

Language · Advanced beginner

Point the audience's attention at one interpretation, then reveal a second that was always available.

Misdirection · Advanced beginner

Give a non-human thing a personality, motive, and bad attitude.

Character · Advanced beginner

Flip the expected direction of a statement so the audience lands on the opposite pole.

Misdirection · Advanced beginner

Describe the familiar thing from a viewpoint that makes it look insane.

Observation · Intermediate

Two items build a pattern; the third breaks it.

Joke Anatomy · Beginner

Repeat a phrase until it stops being a phrase and becomes an event.

Language · Advanced beginner

Replace the general word with the exact, weirdly true one.

Language · Beginner

Control who is above and below in a moment — and move them.

Status · Intermediate

Approach the forbidden subject with a real idea, not just the forbidden word.

Audience Dynamics · Dangerous

A second punchline that rides the first setup without needing new setup.

Punchlines · Advanced beginner

Describe something enormous with insultingly small language.

Performance · Intermediate

Insert one detail that is too specific and slightly wrong for the situation.

Language · Advanced beginner