Asked for advice about writing humor, most writers reply, "Don't try."

That's a two-pronged answer. Humor may be the most difficult kind of writing there is. There are probably 50 excellent Washington correspondents, a score of top-notch foreign correspondents. Every newspaper has a master reporter. But there are fewer than half a dozen good humorists writing for newspapers.

The other prong of the response is that if you have the urge to write a funny piece, or you are ordered to do so, don't try too hard. The strain will show.

Mark Twain, the country's greatest humorists, said, "There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind—the humorous."

In his essay, "How to Tell a Story," he wrote, "The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling….The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it."