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Inside Jokes

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What to expect

A step-by-step practical guide to all types of comedy writing, filled with invaluable advice, exercises, interviews, tools, and jokes that will turn anyone into a funnier writer and person, from authors/editors/teachers/perfect 10s Elissa Bassist and Caitlin Kunkel.

Comedy writing is hard. Or is it? Not with Inside Jokes.

Inside Jokes is a masterclass in a book that teaches you how to write anything funnier, from short humor to essays to psychiatric in-take forms. Each chapter has technical and practical advice to turn comedy outsiders into insiders, comedy readers into writers, and nonfunny nonwriters into funny writers.

Included at no extra cost: interviews with professional comedy writers, brainstorming and writing exercises, prompts, and assignments that will take your writing from nonexistent to shitty first draft to award-deserving.

Inside Jokes is a blend of writing guide, creativity bible, and therapy session with secrets that most writers learn through trial and error and professional humiliation. It’s for:
  • People who are funny already
  • People who worry they can never be funny
  • People who've been asked to give a wedding toast (hot hip: mention ex-partners in a list of 3, 5, or 17)
  • Writers who work across genres or want to learn
  • Employees who just want to get one solid laugh in their department meeting

Basically, Inside Jokes is The Artist's Way for the funny soul. Elissa Bassist and Caitlin Kunkel have taught thousands of classes to thousands of students at thousands of institutions, including people who are now writers for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Onion, Reductress, The New Yorker, film, TV, their own books, and more. Inside Jokes collects their experience, lectures, step-by-step replicable processes, and no-fail techniques to make comedy writing accessible to anyone with something to say.

“I guess it’s not enough that Caitlin and Elissa are both monstrously talented, hilarious writers; apparently they have to stick it to the rest of us by also being warm, big-hearted educators with a knack for breaking down the dark art of joke craft in a way that even a dummy like me can understand. Did I mention they’re both hot? RUDE.” ―Emily Flake, cartoonist for The New Yorker and author of That Was Awkward: The Art and Etiquette of the Awkward Hug

“I felt every emotion reading this book by Elissa Bassist and Caitlin Kunkel: joy, bliss, euphoria, horny, cheese-hunger, gigglefits, delirium, horny. Work wives Elissa and Caitlin are true comedy masters, alongside French clowns and a dog looking directly into the camera.” ―Janine Brito, writer and actor on Girls5Eva and Mr. Mayor

Critics Review

“Elissa and Caitlin are incredibly knowledgeable and giving. I loved their classes. I’ve taken writing classes before, but theirs was the most inspiring and real-world helpful. I love that they’re bringing their skills to a wider audience. No one should live without this book.”—Sarah Cooper, comedian and author of Foolish
“I absolutely, 100%, would not have sold my book without Caitlin's guidance and advice. My editor and agent both were like, ‘Wow your proposal was so great!’ and I was like, ‘I truly cannot take credit…’” —Taylor Kay Phillips, Emmy Award-winning writer for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and author of A Midwestern Guide to Conversation
“I guess it’s not enough that Caitlin and Elissa are both monstrously talented, hilarious writers; apparently they have to stick it to the rest of us by also being warm, big-hearted educators with a knack for breaking down the dark art of joke craft in a way that even a dummy like me can understand. Did I mention they’re both hot? RUDE.”—Emily Flake, cartoonist for The New Yorker and author of That Was Awkward: The Art and Etiquette of the Awkward Hug
“I felt every emotion reading this book by Elissa Bassist and Caitlin Kunkel: joy, bliss, euphoria, horny, cheese-hunger, gigglefits, delirium, horny. Work wives Elissa and Caitlin are true comedy masters, alongside French clowns and a dog looking directly into the camera.”—Janine Brito, writer and actor on Girls5Eva and Mr. Mayor
“It is easy to know when something is funny (man falls down, a dog wears those weird socks for the snow, that painting of Jesus that Spanish lady “restored”). It is much harder to craft something funny. I can’t think of anyone funnier, better, or kinder to break down the unholy mix of alchemy, science, and necromancy required to craft a funny thing than Caitlin Kunkel and Elissa Bassist.”—Felipe Torres Medina, Emmy Award-winning writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Author Elissa Bassist
Narrator Elissa Bassist
Duration 9 hours and 30 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781668653821
Format Audiobook
Publisher Hachette Audio
Genre Creative writing and creative writing guides, Humour, Language learning: writing skills, Screenwriting techniques, Television screenplays, scripts and performances
Availability US

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