Let's face it, we all love a laugh. We need funny events, funny jokes, comedy shows, cartoons, or even just listening to someone with an infectious laugh, because when we laugh it's nature's drug free high. We feel good about life, just for those moments.

Thousands of people trawl the Net each day in search of the latest jokes. There is a definite sense of one-upmanship if you can tell a joke the other person has yet to hear. Better still if you can regularly do it. Just think about the thousands of emails circulating workplaces with jokes, funny pictures, or daft video attached.

The sad thing about this activity is that we are all relying on someone out there to come up with, or who can point us in the direction of, these daily funnies. It never occurs to us that maybe we could come up with a joke ourselves. To create a joke that no-one has heard before, and start it on a world wide internet adventure is an exhilarating feeling, but too much like hard work for most. They'd rather spend time posting the same tired old gags on internet joke forums, or trawling joke sites in the vain hope of spotting something new.

Yet jokes don't just materialise out of digital nowhere. Someone somewhere has created them. Admittedly a lot are taken from routines of well known comedians, albeit in most cases without due credit, or lifted from comedy shows, but a significant amount are created by ordinary folk who had a lightbulb moment.

We can all do it if we take the time. We often say funny or amusing things that we immediately forget about, or something will happen during the day that raises a smile, or, better still, forces a laugh. Imagine being able to recall all those wonderful moments and write them down. What a wealth of material. You could undoubtedly write your own comedy series.

If you're not blessed with total recall then play around with words. The English language is fertile ground when it comes to growing your own jokes. Puns and double-entendres abound. Give yourself half an hour, arm yourself with a dictionary, and flick through, picking pages at random. Look for words with more than one meaning. Bar is a classic example.

A man walked into a bar. Ouch!

When you're looking at definitions, make a note too of common terms and phrases associated with that word. Use a well known phrase as your punchline and work backwards. The more you train yourself to look for amusing connections, the easier it becomes to create funny lines. Given a few practice runs there's no reason why your creation shouldn't be the latest hot joke doing the Internet rounds.

I'll leave you with a joke I created a while ago, but which came about when I was playing cards. The two key words here are hand and trump. I came up with the punchline first and then filled in the rest.

A Doctor is not surprised to see the name of a particular patient on his list. The elderly gent in question has recently had heart surgery and treatment for painful arthritis in his hand. However, there is another reason for his visit. "It`s very embarrassing, Doctor. But I keep breaking wind in company. I was at the golf club Thursday and couldn`t stop myself. On Friday it was all quiet in the chess club until I let one go. Same thing has happened at the Dancing Club, the Social Club and the Gardeners Club. I can`t seem to stop blowing off." "Alright" says the Doctor, "Let`s check a couple of things. Are you wearing any gold or precious stones?" The old man is somewhat puzzled but says, "Good Lord, no. Never been into wearing anything like that." "And are you still digging vegetables on your allotment?" "No. The wife was concerned it was too much for me, so she put my shovels away in the loft where I can`t get at them." "Mmmm" says the Doctor, "I think I see your problem. High spades, a dodgy heart, too many clubs and no diamonds. With a hand like yours you`re bound to trump!"

Graham Parry
http://thejester.biz