Be Funny or Die, Joel Morris
Be Funny or Die, Joel Morris
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Be Funny or Die
How Comedy Works and Why It Matters

Author: Joel Morris

Narrator: Joel Morris

Unabridged: 9 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/06/2024

Synopsis

Comedy can soothe our pain, vent our anger, make us feel less alone, and provide the answer to life’s most difficult questions, such as What do you call a man with a seagull on his head?* It’s a social glue, but it can also be divisive, and the joke is on us if we don’t understand how it works. So what are the rules? How does comedy do its magic, and why does it matter? Join professional comedy writer Joel Morris on a hilarious journey into the hidden world of shared laughter, where he reveals the mechanisms that make jokes work and what comedy can teach us about ourselves. Offering astute analysis of everything from stand-up to slapstick and sitcom to spoof, Morris examines comedic patterns, rhythms, and dynamics to uncover the algorithms that secretly underpin comedy. Packed with gags and examples of comedy at its best—plus some invaluable tips on how to master that b’dum tish timing—Be Funny or Die is a fascinating investigation into how our species has developed and mastered this essential art form where laughter is the universal language and only the funniest survive. *Cliff.

About Joel Morris

Joel Morris is one of Britain’s busiest and most respected comedy writers, working on everything from Charlie Brooker’s Wipe shows to the hit Paddington films. Joel co-created the 5-million-plus selling Ladybird Books For Grown-Ups series and the cult humour hit The Framley Examiner (“The funniest book ever” according to Simpsons showrunner Josh Weinstein and Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk) and co-wrote the bestselling British travel guides Bollocks To Alton Towers (“One of the best guide books ever written” The Guardian), as well as being the real typewriter behind books purportedly by high-brow TV idiot Philomena Cunk and low-brow TV idiot Mrs Brown. Joel has won a BAFTA, Sony and Broadcast Awards for his writing, and put words in the mouths of everyone from Mitchell & Webb and Flight of The Conchords to Armstrong & Miller and Miranda Hart. He has had words published in Broadcast, Empire, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, The Guardian, The Independent, Mojo and Esquire, and is a regular contributor to Britain’s greatest lavatory humour magazine Viz Comic. Joel is the co-host and producer of Comfort Blanket, the top 10 arts podcast analysing how comforting films, tv, music and books achieve their magic, and the award-winning Rule of Three podcast about the craft of comedy writing (winner, best arts and culture podcast British Podcast Awards 2020).

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jo on March 28, 2024

The early chapters on neuroscience and so forth were not really for me and felt like something I'd already read in other books on comedy, but as soon as Joel Morris got onto character, the structure of jokes and plots and all the stuff he's so brilliant at pulling apart and illuminating on his podca......more

Goodreads review by Simon on November 29, 2024

This should be required reading on every syllabus, and on every HR department's personal development courses. Utterly essential.......more

Goodreads review by Jess M. on March 07, 2024

Be Funny or Die is NOT your casual comedy book that will leave you with a few light-hearted laughs and a brighter outlook on life. It is in fact instead a very serious (and sometimes not as serious) look at what makes comedy work, what makes it not work, and how the structure of comedy, be it on sta......more

Goodreads review by Ali on January 14, 2025

By a distance the best book about writing I’ve ever read. And I’ve read upwards of two chapters of Story by Robert McKee.......more

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