This American Life had an episode, Tough Room, in which Act One [1] was chronicling how jokes get whittled down. This was from 2008 - don't know how freelancers

This American Life had an episode, Tough Room, in which Act One [1] was chronicling how jokes get whittled down. This was from 2008 - don't know how freelancers' jokes fit in but here the writers' jokes weren't submitted over email but read out loud, one after the other, in a room where your coworkers unemotionally approve or ask you to move on. It's worth a listen. [1] https://www.thisamericanlife.org/348/tough-room/act-one https://www.thisamericanlife.org/348/tough-room/act-one