Nine-and-a-half theses on comedy

By Bertie Wooster • Vol 5, Issue 7 • April 6, 2026

1. When the humorist writes, he ought to will the entire piece be one of intelligibility.

2. Satire cannot be understood as merely the presence of references and proper nouns; artificial intelligence, Farnam Jahanian, Palantir, and Charlie Kirk do not a joke make.

3. When references are to be made, timeliness is of utmost importance.

4. More generally, timing is essential. In writing, this is achieved through punchiness and restraint.

5. They preach only false doctrines who teach that a sentence becomes funnier by being made longer, stranger, and more subordinatedly claused.

6. A joke explained is a joke better left unstated.

7. Similarly, it is certain that a joke, once made, need not be made again in the following sentence, nor in the sentence after that, nor as a concluding callback whose only merit is persistence.

8. Those satirists are in error who say that if a line is weak, it may be redeemed by placing it within quotation marks and attributing it to a sophomore in SCS.

9. No rule of humor is firmly true and to attempt matters of the heart is ever difficult.

9.5. Blessed be all those who attempt humor, however feeble.