Cover image via Netflix.<\/em><\/p>\n Learning to tell a short joke is a big lesson in storytelling. Each joke has its own setup, elaboration, and punchline. It’s a classic three-act structure: beginning, middle and end.<\/p>\n Editing is crucial to telling a joke successfully on film because comedy is all in the timing. If the rhythm of the storytelling is wrong, a funny joke can fall flat.<\/p>\n Although we most often think of jokes in the context of stand-up comedians,\u00a0or\u00a0simply telling a friend a funny story, we are actually all “editing” in real-time \u2014 adding pauses for laughter, leaving things out that hinder the story, and adding emphasis to\u00a0make sure the punchline really lands.<\/p>\n In this post, I’ve brought together some compelling insights into constructing and cutting comedy \u2014 largely based on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0Ghostbusters<\/em><\/a>\u00a0remake.<\/p>\n