Writing humour | How To Write Better

Written smiles to cheer and end our week

September 6, 2019 By Suzan St Maur Leave a Comment

Want some smiles from the ‘media’ that aren’t about Brexit or Donald Trump?

OK, maybe there isn’t much to laugh about in UK and USA politics right now, but let us at least try to get a smile out of something…

Given the sheer hysteria we’re experiencing in UK politics right now, plus the increasing capriciousness we ingest from politicians in the USA and elsewhere, let’s end this week with a few smiles, rather than sobs.

It has been a while since I curated the funniest of the UK’s Daily Fail’s goofs, but here are a few of my favourites that have emerged over the last couple of weeks or so. Enjoy. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business writing, Latest, Putting The World To Rights, Writing humour Tagged With: Daily Mail, funny-jokes, Humour, political-jokes, writing-about-politics

Some jokes written specially for Labor Day

September 2, 2019 By Suzan St Maur Leave a Comment

A few written chuckles for Labor Day – to accompany our heartfelt wishes of luck to all of you threatened by the monster Hurricane Dorian and other storms this year.Labor Day celebrates the contribution of workers to North Americans’ economy. North Americans celebrate it by not working.

A woman came home from work and ranted about her boss. She said, “I’m never going to work for that man again!”
“Why, what did he say to you?”
“You’re fired.”

I’m going to spend Labor Day putting my liver to work. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Canada, Latest, Social Media, Writing humour Tagged With: funny-jokes, good-luck-with-hurrican-dorian, hurrican-dorian-survival, labor-day, labor-day-humor, labour-day-humour-canada

Writing accidents: whatever happened to Spoonerisms?

August 1, 2019 By Suzan St Maur Leave a Comment

Do you ever jumble up your words and come up with an entertaining alternative? Pity then, for poor old Reverend Spooner, whose jumbling up of words and phrases had his students at New College, Oxford rolling in the aisles laughing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Great minds like a think (Great minds think alike)

To quote Wikikpedia:
Spoonerisms are named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this mistake.^[3]^[4] The term “Spoonerism” was well established by 1921.

Approximate Spoonerisms I’ve written for some of our favourite personalities:

Jealous Boxin’ (Boris Johnson)

Trumbald Dump (Donald Trump)

Mawistful Tray (Theresa May) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Latest, Social writing, Writing humour Tagged With: funny-jokes, funny-writing, Humor, Humour, Spoonerisms, Writing

Some alternative conversation starters for networking events

July 29, 2019 By Suzan St Maur Leave a Comment

Recently I tripped over an article I had saved a few years ago about conversation starters to help break the ice at business networking events. Given that a while has passed since the article was published I thought I would use its thoughts as a basis for a, er, new article on how to create a little fun with business networking conversation starters today.

comedy article about business networking

“Hello. Is this your first time at this event?”

With many thanks and commiserations to the original author of this article: I would love to have credited you properly but as my admin systems are a mess, voilà. Sorry. Message me and I will make amends. Promise.

My evil thoughts about the following:

1) “Well, while we’re here, I might as well introduce myself.” Give them a dark look, then say “I was just on my way to the toilet. Shall we go and introduce ourselves there?” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Latest, local business, small business, Social Media, Writing humour Tagged With: business networking, business-humour, conversation-starters, funny-conversation-starters, networking-humour

How to write insults without swearing

July 22, 2019 By Suzan St Maur Leave a Comment

UPDATED JULY 20, 2019. Further to our recent article about whether women should write swearwords or not, here is an updated and expanded version of some glorious, clean (well, cleanish) insults sent to me a couple of years ago by my cousin Alyson in Ottawa, Canada.

William Shakespeare, King Lear

William Shakespeare was a master of insults, as you can see from above. That full quote, said by Lear to his daughter Goneril (why does her name always make me think of a sexually transmitted disease?) goes as follows:

“Thou art a boil, A plague-sore or embossèd carbuncle, In my corrupted blood.” Gee thanks, Dad. More of Willie’s best insults below. Meanwhile…

There was the exchange between Winston Churchill & Lady Astor:

She said, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison.” He said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Latest, Social Media, Social writing, Writing fiction, Writing humour Tagged With: clean-insults, cursing, swearing, swearwords, writing-insults, writing-swearwords

Déjà vu jokes … plus a few more, 2019

July 13, 2019 By Suzan St Maur Leave a Comment

Updated and republished July 13th, 2019: Déjà Vu for You Too? Some updated smiles for you …

Thanks to Nigel Jamie Bangs who originally shared this gag on my Facebook group, The Joke Street Journal (please join if you want some good laughs.) The original thought was this: And that got me thinking. So I started writing…..and writing…..and writing……and I came up with the following. Now in July 2019 I have come up with a few more. But … let’s get you thinking of even more!