We use our poetry to write our own life stories, and not all chapters in those stories are serious. Writing a comedic poem is an excellent way to brighten up someone’s day, and tell a funny story.
- Story: Every poem you write has to be based around a story so that there is one main purpose and it flows. For a humorous poem, you can base the poem on a funny story that happened to you or someone you know and maybe add to it. You could also pick a joke you heard and expand on it in the poem you write.
- Parody: A parody is when an already existing story or other piece of material is made more humorous by changing the language but keeping with the way it is written. This is a great technique to practice and will definitely help expand your poetry writing skills. For example, you could make a parody of one of Shakespeare’s poems if you were to use the same rhyme scheme but use comical, modern-day words to tell the story.
- Exaggeration: When writing comedic poetry, everything has to be a bigger version of what it actually is, to make the story more humorous. Don’t worry about making something unrealistic, because that is the style for this type of poem. It is a good idea to start by giving very vivid, overly-dramatic descriptions of everyone and everything in your story, because this will add to the exaggeration of the entire poem.
- Language: Humorous words give rise to humorous stories. Think of appropriate words that make you laugh, such as certain sounds or even short phrases. Make this poem fun to be read out loud. You can choose to come up with your own rhyme scheme, repetition, or just write in prose.
- PowerPoetry: Have fun writing this humorous poem. Even though you might start with a true funny story, feel free to use your imagination and create your own new story as you write the poem. Then, be sure to post your comedic poem to PowerPoetry.org and give everyone a laugh.
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