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Cliches - A cliche is a situation which has been used so
many times that it tends to become overused. This is probably the hardest type of gag to sell
because editors are usually looking for more originality. However, sometimes you can still find
a funny new twist on an old situation and manage to sell the cartoon. In my
previous
example on reversal gag writing we discussed a cliche situation of a man throwing an old shoe
at a noisy alley cat. Here is a cartoon which is another cliche, people crawling through the
desert, obviously very thirsty.
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Talking Objects or Animals - Sometimes you can depict an
inanimate object acting as a character or animals behaving like humans and have a funny gag.
Here's one I did for a children's magazine. Not only is this an example of an inanimate object
acting as a character, but it also uses play on words as a formula. Often you will be able
to overlap two different humor writing formulas to create a funny gag.
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Exaggeration -Take any situation and exaggerate what is
happening. The wilder the exaggeration, the funnier the result, usually. For example, we
know that a baby will kick while in the mother's womb. Suppose we exaggerate the strength
of that kick. We might come up with a gag such as the one to the left.
Here's another example. Suppose we exaggerate the difficulty in
cleaning a child's room. We could come up with a gag which would be funny both to a
construction magazine or a magazine on parenting.
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