The Comic Toolbox

Welcome to my The Comic Toolbox book summary!

“The difference between a class clown and a class nerd is that the class clown tells jokes everyone gets while the class nerd tells jokes that only he gets. Comedy, thus, ins not just truth and pain, but universal, or at least general, truth and pain.” (p. 19)

How it started: If a great introduction says anything about this book, it may make my hall of fame list of which only 8 appear.

One-Sentence-Summary: A book written for aspiring comedy writers with some general writing and humor tips.

I’ve finished reading The Comic Toolbox by John Vorhaus.

booboo real-time book rating: ★★★☆☆ (percentage of books with this rating: 34%)

How it ended: The book was 75% laser focused on comedy writers who want to do stories. I started skimming because this is not an interest of mine. I gave it three stars because the author fooled me into buying the book, which I’m sure if not bad if you’re his target audience, from another of his books.

To be funny: exaggerate.

This blog will contain both my summary and review of the book The Comic Toolbox.

“If you want to know why a thing is funny, ask yourself what truth and what pain does that thing express.” (p. 17)

As I read the book, you will find my in-progress The Comic Toolbox review and book summary notes below.

“The comic premise is the gap between comic reality and real reality. / Any time you have a comic voice or character or world or attitude that looks at things from a skewed point of view, you have a gap between realities. Comedy lives in this gap.” (p. 34)

“The comic premise is the gap between real reality and comic realty. Every form of humor, from the smallest joke to the largest comic tale, has some sort of defining gap or comic conflict. There are three types of comedic conflict: Global conflict takes place between an individual and his world. Local conflict is about people fighting people; you always hurt the one you love. Inner conflict features a character at war with himself. Inner conflict is always the richest and most rewarding.” (p. 44)

You are reading my book review and summary by John Vorhaus. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries.

Truth telling: “You can use this tool in almost any situation simply by stating the obvious. You could say of a two-year-old, for instance, ‘He has the attention span of a two-year-old.'” (p. 76)

“..if a situation doesn’t call for the truth, it calsl for a lie, or vice verse.” (p. 76) Think of the guy in the blistering hot tour van saying “It’s freezing.”

Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing, travel, and language learning.

“..rules, in general, are made to service the rule makers and not you and me.” (p. 79)

New Words

sot (n) – a habitual drunkard

Thanks for visiting and thanks to John Vorhaus for writing The Comic Toolbox!

Date Started: Monday, March 17, 2025

Date Finished: Sunday, May 11, 2025 (55 days)