Yeah, I find it helps if there's a joke in there somewhere ;-)
Here's my advice of one way to go about creating a good strip:
1. Think of a joke, or a funny situation that can be conveyed in this format.
2. Choose your characters and backgrounds carefully. The expressions and poses of the characters should match the dialogue and situation. (One of the problems with the Norms strip is that the dialogue and expressions don't match at all).
3. Think about the dialogue, and write it properly, with punctuation and all that stuff they teach at school. That way we'll be able to understand it better. Also, it helps if the first person to speak in a frame is on the left.
4. Hold back on the narration. It's pretty rare that you need to use that more than once in a strip, if at all.
5. Remember, it's easy to be random, and it may be fun, but rarely funny.
Tony