For some odd reason I recently began writing riddles and jokes about invertebrates, among other creatures:
Q. Why are anemones so popular?
A. The anemone of my anemone is my friend.
Q. Why are tubeworms so shy?
A. They‘re introvertebrates.
Time travel came up... temporally, at least:
Q. What’s the most common way to time travel?
A. Throwing the alarm clock at the wall!
Q. Why is time travel so confusing?
A. I already told you that next week!
Astronomy tried to take on a starring role:
Q. What do you call a mean meteor?
A. A nasteroid!
Q. How does the Earth say good-bye to the Moon?
A. Later, crater!
If there‘s an award for awful jokes, I hope to win it. It’s been about twenty years since I last grappled with similar material, and then to do just the illustrations for David Adler’s The Dinosaur Princess. So, how do you write a riddle or joke, anyway? Here's one method:
1. Choose a subject, let‘s say mammoths. List words that describe how they looked, their behavior, their habitat, and so on.
hairy trunk trumpet tusk snow ice huge big bones big teeth, etc.
2. Think of rhymes, similar-sounding words, and/or wor
2 Comments on This post is such a joke, last added: 9/29/2010
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Hi Loreen!
Great stuff here. I remembered that you got interviewed for a story in CWIM-2004 so I looked it up. It was interesting to know that you broke into things with a counting book. I'm an aspiring, not expiring, writer, transitioning into a new career-children's writing and teaching. I've been hesitant to pursue non-fiction writing because I wanted to do creative fiction. Perhaps, I've been too hasty. Here's a riddle for you. What do you call a cat that doesn't tell the truth? A lion.
Ken
That's a good one, Ken! So many jokes, so little time. How about writing creative nonfiction? : )