Writing Co-Lab

Mapping is one of the most reliable engines of contemporary short humor: pair a real-world subject with a recognizable, contrasting frame (a literary character, a workout class script, a teen diary entry, a cooking blog, a Silicon Valley pitch deck, a celebrity memoir, a horror movie trailer, a LinkedIn profile, a dating profile, a criminal profile, I could list nouns forever), and you immediately create comedic contrast and potential. In this class, we’ll dissect how mapping works in successful pieces—how writers use tone, genre expectations, and cultural references to generate jokes, create tension, and invite the reader into a surprising new lens.

We’ll explore the many types of mapping (placing a modern figure inside a fictional world, smashing together two incompatible genres, filtering contemporary frustrations through outdated or overly dramatic templates, etc) and deconstruct how writers in the New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and more make it work. Students will also participate in some low-stakes guided brainstorming exercises and generative prompts to help spark ideas for their own writing. By the end, you'll have a better, wider sense of how to use these techniques to generate more comedic premises, sharpen your comedic voice, and strengthen your humor writing.

About the Instructor

Riane Konc is a satire and humor writer whose writing can be found in the New Yorker, McSweeney’s, the New York Times, The Cut, Mad Magazine, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Reductress, and more. She’s also taught satire and humor writing for Second City’s online writing program and for the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop, and she’s served as both a judge for the annual Thurber Prize for American Humor and as the ceremony’s co-head writer.