Feel really terrible at writing sketch comedy. I think this is just something I just cannot do. Anyone with tips? Advice? Anything?

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A couple of years ago, I just started typing comedians’ monologues, word for word, as I heard them. After a while, I could identify patterns in their word choice, timing, cadence, etc. It served as solid inspiration for me to understand *why* I thought someone was funny. Helped me be a bit funnier than my baseline

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Get the book “Truth In Comedy” by Charna Halpern, Del Close and Kim Johnson. Recommended by a lot of oldschool SNL alums, including Bill Murray and Mike Myers.

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Don’t be afraid to write something stupid, you’ll get into a flow. Anything that makes you laugh out loud is most likely good, so focus on refining anything that gets a physical reaction when you think of it

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Also feels like it just comes naturally to some people.

This is a hard one. Writing can be taught, but funny... not so much. You can learn the mechanics and timing and tricks, but structure alone won't make something funny.

That being said, are you sure you're not just being too hard on yourself? Sketch comedy comes to life in the performance more than the script. It could be you're just dealing with mediocre actors?

Have you tried taking sketch writing classes? What city are you in? I write sketches but do 80% of the process is with my sketch team (usually write solo but the feedback, pitching ideas, rewrites etc w/friends /team)

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