Does Humor Need a Premise?

[Kirk Otto]

My definition of premise, is general, overall theme, such as: Love conquers all, Good will always beat evil, life is worth living, etc.

My question to you all is, does humor need a premise? I understand a novel, sure, must have a premise, but a short story? A skit?

I've always been a huge SNL fan, and I've always thought they took a funny scenario or idea, and wrote a funny script for it. What would the premise of Mr. Bill be? The best I can come up with is "play-do figure gets smashed." By some people's definitions, that's a premise, but by others (or so I'm told), it is not. In James Frey's book, "How to Write a Damn Good Novel," he defines a premise as I've defined above.

Should we be discussing what a premise truly is, or if humor needs a premise?

[Eleanor Tylbor]

Well Kirk...I suppose... I mean, I really never gave it much thought but now that I think about it and since you brought it up, my answer is: yes.

I've written comedy sketches and they do focus on one particular subject or one particular aspect of a concept. Like for example ("oh do tell us, Eleanor!") I wrote one focusing on tea bags... Well McDonalds and their failure to provide re-fills for tea lovers like moi. Then another sketch, which has received very favorable response shares the angst of a female although I suppose it just as easy could be a male, attempting to exchange a bra in a lingerie store. There is one common theme throughout so I guess you could say that in my case (and some would say that I am a case in my own right) my humor has a premise.

What was the question again, btw?

[Kirk Otto]

Thank you for the feedback, Elealnor! I've asked some fellow avid readers their views on it, and it seems to be a good indecision among them. Some are taking your side, and some are taking the viewpoint I was asking from. The basic split was whether or not "premise" was different than "theme."

It made for a wonderful discussion! I felt like I was at a party of aristocrats, before TV/Film/Radio.

[Erik Deckers]

Yes, it's like any story or book or movie. It needs a premise as a way to get a character from point A to point B. It's the conflict that makes a story compelling. For humor, it needs to be something that the reader can relate to. The premise becomes the frame of the house that you build on.

Erik Deckers