October 1, 2009
Two time graduate of Broome Community College and currently a free lance writer, Bill Lake gave a presentation for BCC’s common hour on October 1, 2009 titled “Behind the Punch lines” giving attending students an insight on the process of creating a joke that would be nationally recognized and remembered.
Lake, who is in his fifth year writing jokes for the David Letterman Show and second season writing for Saturday Night Live, began his career 10 years ago writing radio sketches. He spent two years writing jokes for radio shows in Africa and the UK, along with a customer being from Turkey. Lake says, “I would listen to the show and since my jokes were being translated, I would hear ‘blah blah blah Madonna’ and know that was my joke.”
One joke he wrote and showed was played recently on David Letterman when President Barak Obama was the guest. The joke said, “Security here is tighter than Joan Rivers face.” Which got an uproar of laughter from the Letterman audience as well as the common hour audience.
Lake also showed how to create that perfect funny joke, stating there are two main points. 1. Joke Profile- find a subject matter in the news that is a common take that everyone can relate to or has heard about. 2. Manipulation of Information- turning a tragic story or boring story into something funny by finding key words to use.
The main point stressed by Lake was the fact that free lance writing jokes was not a full time job that he could have. Being paid on $75-$100 per joke used on TV, he said that this was not a job for money; it is a job for recognition since 99% of the jokes written will never see the light of day.
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