Lesson 7 · Joke mechanics · 5 min · Exaggeration
Exaggeration: make it bigger than life
Take something true and blow it up to cartoon size
The big ideaHyperbole works when it starts from something real and recognizable. Everyone has felt the feeling; you just turn the volume to 11.
Watch the pro do it
Watch forA doorbell ringing becomes a full-blown emergency. Watch his body as much as his words: the panic, the freeze, the outrage. The situation is tiny and true; the reaction is enormous. That gap is the joke.
Via Sebastian Maniscalco on YouTube
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More pros doing it
Vir takes something everyone agrees on and exaggerates it until it becomes absurd. Food is a perfect topic for this: pick a hill to die on and escalate.