(This post is a chapter from my book, as titled above. All about helping aspiring comedy writers learn the deep mechanics of joke writing.)
Joke #1
"Thank you. It’s nice to be here tonight. I am in a good mood. Although, I do have to say, I am a little tired. I’ve been stalking a Kenyan woman."
* * *
Stalking a Kenyan.
That’s the joke. First joke of the book.
I’m a professional joke writer, I have written well over 100,000 jokes in my career. And I’m coming right out with Kenyan Stalker.
You’re welcome.
The joke (if you still didn’t trigger in), is that I’m tired because I’ve been chasing a Kenyan woman, and they’re ultra long distance runners. Best in the world. That would be exhausting -- stalking a world-class distancer. Never become obsessed with a Kenyan sponsored by Nike.
I’ve used this joke to start my standup shows for years.
Why?
Well, first up, I really like the joke. It’s minimalist, it takes some thinking, and it’s a great image joke once it appears in your head.
Also, it’s a great “tester” joke. It tells me what I can expect from an audience during a show.
You can basically divide a comedy audience into three cognitive categories -- fast-processors, mid-speed processors, and slow/non-processors.
When I tell that joke, some people get it instantly, and burst laugh. (That’s the gold standard of laughs, especially in standup -- when you say the joke, and people are so taken by surprise by it that they just burst out laughing, like the laugh is an instant physiological response that they can’t control. Love that.)
Instant laughers are people with fast-processor brains. They can speed-sort everything inside of those words, find the image of me -- middle-aged white dude -- totally exhausted, running after a fast, tireless Kenyan woman. Absurd. Narrative.
Funny.
Fast-processer minds are lovely for comedy. The faster the berrier.
Other people -- mid-processors -- have to wait a beat for the joke to appear in their heads. “Kenyan? Why would he be -- oh, they’re long distance runners! He’d be stalking her for 26.2 miles. Now that WOULD be exhausting.”
Mid-processors, fine. I can wait a beat.
Slow and non-processors? A little harder for me. They tend to never put the parts of the joke together on their own. Non-processor minds prefer that jokes be fully built for them. Unfortunately for those brains, I usually don’t do that. I may explain the joke afterward, but I like giving out pieces of the joke, and then watch as it explodes inside of people’s minds when they put the pieces together.
That’s my fav comedy. Give you just enough, watch you combine it, wham! I don’t want to just put the entire meal on your plate. Let’s cook it together.
I’ve told that joke, I don’t know, five hundred times? A thousand?
And it almost always pays off. Which is also why I use it to open shows. You want to know you’re going to land a punch when you take your first swing.
So where did the Kenyan joke come from? I know the answer to that question, and I know it exactly. I clearly remember its appearance in the world. The very night and second it was born.
I was at The Velveeta Room, in Austin, Texas. Which is/was a weird little standup comedy club attached to a sketch comedy room named Esther’s Follies, on 6th street, in downtown Austin.
The Velv -- as it’s known -- has been there for decades, amid dozens of music venues and bars. The club “barkers” people in as they walk/stagger past. “Bring her in, make her grin!” (Wow, I can hear the door guy, Michael, saying that in my head. He’s been at that door for years, decades. Has probably shouted that to over 100,000 people.)
Barkering to a walking audience means you’re barkering in drunks. Who aren’t on 6th street for comedy, most likely they’re on 6th street looking for sex, along with all the other drunks who are on 6th street, looking for sex. It’s a big drunken mating ground, with some entertainment thrown in as an excuse for coming down there to chase sex and spend money on alcohol. (Really, at its core, all of American culture comes down to chasing sex and drinking alcohol. Amazing how true that is.)
There was an Austin standup named Maggie Maye. A very nice person, a funny person. And young and attractive. Many Austin comedians lusted after her, which added yet another weird layer to that already weird comedy community.
Maggie was on stage that night, doing a bit about her family’s ties to Africa. I was in the back of the club, watching a nebbish little white guy comic stare at her. And I could see the thoughts jumping around in his head. He wanted Maggie Maye. He probably saw her many nights of the week, because comics all play the same gigs, over and over. He was, in a way, stalking her from gig to gig. Watching her. But no way he could catch Maggie Maye.
So, you see where this went. And what leapt into my mind.
Stalking Maggie would be tough.
Don’t even try to stalk a Kenyan. (Not sure if she was from Kenya, doesn’t matter for the birth of that joke. It was all there, in pieces, ready to be put together.)
So a joke came to be.
For a very long time, that one-liner was the entire joke. I said it, collected the laughs, pointed out that half the audience was a tad joke slow, then went on to the next joke.
Then one day -- probably five years after I wrote the original joke -- I was teaching a workshop, and decided to see if I could make it longer, using joke mechanics. And, it turns out, I could. It soon became over a 10 minute bit about runners, and Africa, and marathons, and stalking, and social media, and lots of stuff. All burrito’d on top of that first joke.
I’ve now done that longer bit hundreds and hundreds of times. All around the world. It, too, has gotten thousands of laughs.
So, thank you, little moment at the Velv. You’ve yielded a lot of value to me over the years.
And it still… works.
(If you want to hear the rest of the bit, go search YouTube. I think it’s on there. Or part of it is. Hard to keep track. Comedy sprawls. I’d write it all here, but it’s really long now, probably even twenty minutes, if I added in all the tributaries.
From little comedy acorns grow entire forests of jokes.)
* * *
I ask GPT:
GPT, what joke mechanics are used in this joke - “It’s nice to be here tonight. I am in a good mood. Although, I do have to say, I am a little tired. I’ve been stalking a Kenyan woman.”
GPT Says:
That joke uses several classic joke mechanics to set up surprise, tension, and comic release. Here’s a breakdown of what's at play:
Line: “It’s nice to be here tonight. I am in a good mood. Although, I do have to say, I am a little tired.”
Punchline: “I’ve been stalking a Kenyan woman.”
Let me know if you'd like a rewrite of the joke using a different mechanic (e.g., act-out, reversal, or callback), or if you're analyzing this for a class or show!
Here’s how you can use that joke—and its breakdown—in a workshop setting to teach joke mechanics. This format is designed for trainers, coaches, or educators leading sessions on stand-up, comedy writing, or persuasive humor.
Example Joke:
“It’s nice to be here tonight. I am in a good mood. Although, I do have to say, I am a little tired. I’ve been stalking a Kenyan woman.”
Participants will identify and analyze multiple humor techniques within a single joke to understand how timing, misdirection, and audience expectations create laughter.
Activity:
Read the joke aloud to the group (or have a volunteer do it).
Ask:
Goal: Encourage awareness of instinctive audience responses. Humor doesn’t land the same way for everyone—this primes students for deeper analysis.
Distribute or display the following labeled breakdown for the class to analyze together.
1. Set-Up / Expectation Subversion
The opening is familiar, casual, even polite. “I’m a little tired” cues a mundane cause, like travel or family.
2. Left Turn / Misdirection
Instead, we get a disturbing and absurd cause—“I’ve been stalking a Kenyan woman.” The contrast between the expected and actual creates comic whiplash.
3. Incongruity + Implication
The joke relies on the audience connecting the dots: Kenyans are elite runners, so “stalking” her becomes physically exhausting. The punchline makes the audience complete the thought—activating shared cultural knowledge.
4. Taboo / Shock
“Stalking” is taboo. The comic steps into dark territory, but the ridiculous framing makes it safe to laugh—it’s clearly a fiction, not a threat.
5. Timing and Economy
Three lines, each doing heavy lifting. No fat. The misdirect lands with force because it’s lean and rhythmic.
Prompt:
Split into small groups. Your task is to rewrite the joke using the same structure and mechanics, but:
Example Starter Setups:
Debrief: Share group rewrites and analyze which joke mechanics are still present.
Individual Prompt:
Write a three-line joke using:
Then:
Pair up and test your joke on a partner. Get feedback: What was the expected direction? Did they laugh? Why or why not?
Ask:
Would you like this as a printable handout, or formatted as slides for presentation? I can also adapt it for different age groups or comedy styles (clean, dark, corporate, etc.).
I Tell GPT
Rewrite the Kenyan joke for me --
Sure. Here are several rewrites of the original Kenyan joke — each using the same core mechanics (misdirection, incongruity, and taboo), but shifting tone, context, or premise. I’ll include the original first, then offer variations:
“It’s nice to be here tonight. I am in a good mood. Although, I do have to say, I’m a little tired. I’ve been stalking a Kenyan woman.”
Mechanics used:
“Great to be here tonight. I’m feeling good—just a little winded. I spent the morning trying to keep up with a Kenyan marathon runner on Tinder.”
Changes:
“I’m a little out of breath—I’ve been shadowing a Kenyan ultrarunner for a documentary. He doesn’t know.”
Changes:
“I’m exhausted. I spent all day chasing my goals. Unfortunately, one of them was a Kenyan sprinter.”
Changes:
“I’ve been trying to get in shape. So I started doing what elite athletes do: I found a Kenyan and just started following him around. Quietly. From a distance.”
Changes:
“I’m a little tired. I accidentally enrolled in a marathon training program. It turns out it was taught by a Kenyan. I’ve mostly just been chasing him from very far behind.”
Changes:
Let me know the tone you’re going for (edgy? clean? clever?), and I can tailor more rewrites—or build a longer bit using one of these as the opening line.