Can AI ever be funny? What writers can learn from comedians using the tools
Short answer: AI isn't funny on its own. The laughs still come from a human point of view, delivered with timing and risk most chatbots avoid.
What AI can do is help you move faster. Think: idea to rough cut in hours, not weeks - but only if you bring the angle, tension, and edit.
What comedians are actually doing
Jon Lajoie leaned on AI to animate quick sketches - a talking baby podcasting with a family dog, birds wearing jeans, a Jesus-and-Easter-Bunny bit. He's clear: the tech didn't write the jokes. He did, then used AI to test and visualize ideas he'd normally shelve.
King Willonius takes a similar route with a different tone. He writes the comedic angle first, refines it with a chatbot, then iterates prompts to generate music, voices, and video for parodies like "BBL Drizzy" and fast-food diss tracks. He won't ask a bot for jokes - the nuance isn't there - but he'll use it to execute once he knows the target.
Comedy scholar Michelle Robinson calls most AI jokes "corny," fluent in structure but off in feel. Caleb Warren, who studies humor in marketing, says the opportunity is clear: humans drive the idea, AI helps ship the piece.
Practical workflow for writers
- Write the premise and point of view first. Your tension and edge are the irreplaceable part.
- Use a chatbot to outline beats, character intent, and set-ups/callbacks. Don't let it draft the punch lines.
- Iterate prompts to generate temp visuals, music, or voices for proof-of-concept. Expect to throw out most outputs.
- Edit for timing yourself. Comedy lives in the pause, the cut, the misdirect - not in a model's first pass.
- Test lines with a small audience. Keep what lands, rewrite what "almost" works.
- Document prompts that led to usable assets. Build a reusable kit for future bits.
Use cases that actually help
- Idea validation: rapid storyboards or animatics to see if a premise has legs.
- Character experiments: voices and looks to explore tone before real production.
- Micro-content: quick parodies tied to a moment, where speed beats perfection.
- Pitch assets: scrappy cuts that communicate vision without a full crew.
Lines you shouldn't cross (and why)
The backlash is real. Sarah Silverman joined authors suing chatbot makers over book training data. The estate of George Carlin settled after an AI-cloned "special," and Zelda Williams called deepfake videos of her father "gross" and "maddening."
Translation for writers: avoid cloning voices or likenesses without permission, especially of living or deceased public figures. Get consent, keep receipts, and label AI-assisted content.
- Don't imitate distinctive living voices or dead artists without clear rights.
- Credit collaborators and specify what was AI-assisted.
- Keep a log of prompts, source assets, and licenses.
- Use watermarking or captions to reduce misattribution risk.
- Review current guidance from the U.S. Copyright Office. Read their AI policy.
Production tactics worth stealing
- Write the joke beats first (setup, escalation, inversion, call-back). Then prompt.
- Feed your own lines into TTS so performance still sounds like you.
- Over-generate options, then "direct" in the edit. Treat AI outputs like raw takes.
- Speed is your edge on timely topics. Ship small, often, and archive what lands for bigger pieces.
Industry pulse: momentum and pushback
Studios, VCs, and creators are experimenting. A major firm even set up an AI gallery to showcase projects, while shows like South Park lampoon deepfakes and bumbling investigations.
Lajoie calls this AI's "Napster phase" - lots of hype, messy boundaries, and legal fights. The takeaway for writers: distribution favors fast movers, but ethics and consent matter if you want staying power.
Bottom line for writers
AI won't replace your voice. It will expose whether you have one.
Use it to draft structure, visualize ideas, and ship faster. Keep the premise, risk, and timing human - that's where the laugh lives.
Resources
- Tools for making quick video concepts: Generative video tools (curated list)
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