how to be more funny (advice that you can read even if you DON'T want to be more funny, so you know what to avoid!)

i know some might say "funnier" instead of "more funny," but i think that "more funny" is more funny than "funnier"

dear friends,

i’m grateful that you’re here!
thank you for being here and being you.
and now, one of my favorite things which is to give advice when people have asked me for advice.

today’s request comes from one of my favorite substackers/artists/writers/people,

Sophie Lucido Johnson

(whose wonderful substack newsletter can be found here):

sophie emailed me recently and said this:

“I know you HAVE written MANY things on this topic, but you may be better at knowing where they are than I do. My colleague asked for resources on how to make personal writing more funny. So — can you point me to something you’ve written about how to be funny? As many somethings as you know where they are I will take. You are my favorite comedy advice giver”

and what follows is what i wrote back to her:

hello sophie my generous friend. thank you for asking this question about how to be (more) funny in personal writing.

before i search for whether i have written such things before (perhaps i'm doing this in a backwards order), i will answer with many vignettes here as part of my morning pages.

1) how can you be funny in writing? IT CANNOT BE DONE!
or okay maybe that's not true.
and that's your first lesson in writing funny things. you can say things that aren't true. i actually don't very much recommend this. i like very much to tell people the truth. OR more specifically, i like very much for people to KNOW WHAT THE TRUTH IS once i've told them whatever i tell them. (george saunders story coming later about that maybe.)
for example,
when i said "IT CANNOT BE DONE!" my hope was that anyone reading this would understand ultimately that that is not true. it CAN be done. and in fact, my hope is that those very words, those very false words would be evidence that it IS BEING DONE IN THAT VERY MOMENT.
(another way you can be funny is to add capital letters sometimes as if you are yelling. for emphasis. or if you don't think that's funny, then that's NOT another way to be funny.)