Inside Jokes A Comedy and Creativity Manual for All Writers

by Kunkel, Caitlin; Bassist, Elissa

• ISBN13: 9781538770771
• ISBN10: 1538770776
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2026-01-13
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Summary

A step-by-step practical guide to all types of comedy writing, filled with invaluable advice, exercises, interviews, tools, and jokes that will turn anyone into a funnier writer and person, from authors/editors/teachers/perfect 10s Elissa Bassist and Caitlin Kunkel.

Comedy writing is hard. Or is it?

Not with INSIDE JOKES.

INSIDE JOKES is a masterclass in a book that teaches you how to write anything funnier, from short humor to essays to psychiatric in-take forms. Each chapter has technical and practical advice to turn comedy outsiders into insiders, comedy readers into writers, and nonfunny nonwriters into funny writers. Included at no extra cost: interviews with professional comedy writers, brainstorming and writing exercises, prompts, and assignments that will take your writing from nonexistent to shitty first draft to award-deserving.     
 
INSIDE JOKES is a blend of writing guide, creativity bible, and therapy session with secrets that most writers learn through trial and error and professional humiliation. It’s for:

• People who are funny already
• People who worry they can never be funny
• People who’ve been asked to give a wedding toast (hot tip: mention ex-partners in a list of 3, 5, or 17)
• Writers who work across genres or want to learn 
• Employees who just want to get one solid laugh in their department meeting  

Basically, INSIDE JOKES is The Artist's Way for the funny soul. 

Elissa Bassist and Caitlin Kunkel have taught thousands of classes to thousands of students at thousands of institutions, including people who are now writers for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Onion, Reductress, The New Yorker, film, TV, their own books, and more, a lot more. They’ve taught nationally and internationally at universities, improv centers, writing conferences, and popular online schools. INSIDE JOKES collects their experience, lectures, step-by-step replicable processes, and no-fail techniques to make comedy writing accessible to anyone with something to say.

Author Biography

Elissa Bassist is the author of the memoir Hysterical, a semifinalist for The Thurber Prize for American Humor, and the creator of the “Funny Women” column on The Rumpus. She’s worked in media and publishing since 2007, as a managing editor, an associate editor, an assistant editor, a TV and film writer’s assistant, a producer, a performer, a speaker, and a barista. Her humor and sad essays have appeared in over 30 publications and anthologies, and she’s taught for over 20 writing programs. Elissa lives in Brooklyn and is probably her therapist’s favorite.

Caitlin Kunkel is the co-author of the gift book New Erotica for Feminists: Satirical Fantasies of Love, Lust, and Equal Pay and co-founder of the comedy and satire site The Belladonna. Her comedy writing has appeared on public radio and in The New Yorker's “Shouts & Murmurs,” The New York Times, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Caitlin created The Second City’s online satire writing program that has trained and continues to train thousands of writers. She co-founded the Satire and Humor Festival, was named one of the “Fifteen of the Best Humorists Writing Today” by Paste Magazine, and serves as a judge for The Thurber Prize for American Humor. She was raised in the wilds of Rhode Island.