The Taxonomic Method

 Copyright 2020 by Gary L. Pullman

 

 

In The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny, authors Peter McGraw and Joel Warner share a method of generating humor based upon Greg Dean's taxonomy of comedy.

 

The method consists of a “target assumption,” a “connector,” a “reinterpretation,” and a “punchline.” The connector is a key word that allows a play on words by which the punchline is effected. The authors provide this example:

My wife is an excellent housekeeper.

The target assumption is that the word housekeeper, which is the connector, refers to a woman who keeps house.

To effect humor, however, the meaning of “keeps house” is reinterpreted, and the new meaning is presented in the punchline that follows:

When we got a divorce, the bitch got the house.

This method, involving plays on words, can be used to generate jokes about almost any topic, including a risque one. Here are a few original examples:

 

 

 

My wife doesn't much care for televised beauty pageants.

She claims they turn our TV into a boob tube.

My hot new girlfriend has put the joy back into my life.

She makes me feel ecstatic!

My wife thinks Marilyn is a class act.

I don't know why she's mad at me: I agreed that Marilyn most certainly is a class ass.

The taxonomic method of creating jokes works, but it tends to be a bit sophomoric, for which reason it's probably not effective more than once or twice in a routine, whether one's gig is on the stage or the page.