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Originally Posted by Lars

Punchlines
Text to me gets very, very formulaic after a while. There are different types of punchlines, but I’ll try to give a general idea of what I mean to help.

List Punches:

Typically these rely on hyperbole and make a list of references to a thing or thing to emphasize their point.

Generally the layout would go something like: “You’re not just ________, you’re ______, _________ AND _____________.”

I can’t think of a great example off hand, but something like this should give you an idea of what I mean:

“You’re not just a fruit, you’re a vegetable, every item stocked by a greengrocer AND deserve to be covered by a grocery bag”

They’re hyperbole, but done in a slightly varying way.

Hyperbole:

The first example that comes to mind is:

“You’re so uncool, dehydration takes a backseat to your social status” by Resin

But anything that goes “You’re so ________ that __________ happens,”

OR

“You’re not just __________, you’re __________ too.”

Stop/Pause Lines

There seemed to be a flood of these at one point, personally I like these because the pay-off comes right at the end. Often with people like Beyond (no disrespect) using hyperboles, I would get halfway through the punchline and could predict in my head the direction it was going. With stop/pause lines that isn’t always so clear. Many people do them wrong, but when done right they can be really effective.

tactical illness.