My First News Joke

In the Best of Boom show here at Boom we have a news segment in Act Two. We have been encouraged (because it's kind of our job) to write jokes for it so I decided to jump in right away and give it a shot. The thing I'm not used to is editing. I've heard some brumblings over what happens to your joke once it's submitted, but I wasn't worried.

Some sketches had some re-writes and edits done to the Good Time Hour by our director Jim, and writing with Sean in Old Man McGinty, he would take a pen to certain lines here and there, so I'm cool with it, but it's new.

So here's the joke:

"Controversy over the latest draft of the Iraqi Consitution has critics pointing out that if the constitution follows Islamic law, women's rights would be severely limited. Said a spokesman for the Iraqi government: "We wanted to follow the American constitution to the letter. Therefore, the Kurdish minority will not have voting rights for 100 years, and women will not have them for 140, and we will give gays the right to keep paying taxes."

It's okay. I kind of feel like it's too long, but since I wrote it amongst all the rehearsals we were doing, I figured it might get tightened. Pep gave me some notes and then essentially re-wrote the punchline, just like people warned me would happen.

Here's Pep's version:

"Controversy over the latest draft of the Iraqi Constitution has critics pointing out that if the constitution follows Islamic law, women's rights would be worse than in Saddam’s day.

Said a spokesman for the Iraqi government: "We are following the American constitution to the letter. Therefore, Women won’t have the right to vote for 150 years, Kurds are worth 3/5 of a person, and homosexuals who marry will be stoned to death."

It's not quite my joke anymore, but it is in the show tonight.