Using AI Tools for Comedy Writing: Where They Help and Where They Fall Apart
A piece from the Himared comedy writing collection — crafted for writers who think in punchlines.
Silvio Marchetti writes comedy for a regional theater group and has been experimenting with AI writing tools for about fourteen months. His assessment is less enthusiastic than most tech coverage suggests.
Silvio Marchetti: AI tools are decent at generating options quickly. They are genuinely bad at knowing which option is funny versus which one just looks like a joke.
What actually works in practice
Silvio uses AI tools primarily for brainstorming premise variations. When he is stuck on a setup, generating twenty alternatives quickly helps him identify directions worth pursuing. The tool does not write the joke, it expands the option space.
- Rapid generation of premise alternatives
- Identifying structural patterns in existing scripts
- Suggesting synonyms when word choice affects rhythm
The consistent failures
AI tools consistently produce material that is safe and predictable. Comedy that avoids offense often avoids surprise, and surprise is load-bearing in most joke structures. The tools tend to flatten material toward the middle.
Timing and rhythm do not survive AI processing well either. A joke that works when read aloud often loses its pacing when generated by a tool optimizing for clarity rather than cadence.
Silvio's current approach
He uses AI at the brainstorming stage, then closes the tab. Everything written for actual performance is written without assistance. He says the quality difference in final drafts is noticeable, even when the AI-assisted brainstorm was useful earlier in the process.