Humor in Your Writing

[T.Allen.Smith]

I'm constantly looking for ways to improve my writing. I'm sure it's the same with many of you.

One of the things I've noticed as a reader of fiction is the effect small amounts of humor can have toward enhancing the overall likability of a story. It's the reason many people love characters like Tyrion Lannister, or the collective works of writers like Terry Pratchett.

I'm not talking about comedy writing here, I'm referring to the sprinkling of levity through humor as a counterweight to the gravity of terrible events & the horrific things that happen to our characters. Most of my writing is dark & gritty with a vein of serious desperation running throughout. I think it's in need of a few well-placed chuckles...the sort that doesn't pull away from the desperation but makes reading more enjoyable & characters beloved.

In real life, I'm known as a pretty funny fella. It's natural for me to make others laugh during conversation. In writing though, I struggle with humor. In truth, I know it's because I haven't focused on its inclusion until now, and like anything, technique requires practice. So, this is something I'm working on which I hope can take my writing to the next level.

As such I've been reading a few articles, like this one that discuss humor techniques...

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/how-to-mix-humor-into-your-writing

I'd be interested in methods you've employed that readers have found humorous. Also, any recommendations for good articles, books, blogs, etc. that may offer sound advice on the topic.

Thanks.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We write dark urban fantasy and deal with some very serious subject matter, but we also have a lot of humorous moments. The reason - people are funny. Life is funny. People in intense situations will often turn to humor as a release valve, what is thought of as "gallows humor." It runs rampant with emergency workers, police, and the military.

I think the best approach to finding the funny is letting it happen naturally as an extension of the characters and their situation. If you try to force it, it just won't be funny. It's hard to explain how to write humor, other than let your characters bend their viewpoints just a little to the side and see how they react. There's a saying that I like to repeat... a lot. Comedy is tragedy - with timing.

 

[Devor]

I've tried humor in the Challenges forum. It's hard to know whether you've succeeded or not. One minute I'll read something and find it funny. The next I read it and am like, "That's it? No, no, no, this is all wrong. But that's a punchline, right? I think that's a punchline. What am I supposed to do with this?"

Humor is all about word use, having a target, and having good timing. Otherwise it's still setup/payoff. But I don't have anything concrete, except with word use. Insanely specific words are more funny.

Humor is definitely something you can learn, but I haven't yet found a good resource for it. The only piece of advice I really have is to read webcomics. Order of the Stick is great, although a bit meta, but there's a number of good ones out there.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I think it's about contrast. If your story is mostly dark and serious you can add some depth to it by sprinkling in the occasional humorous comment or incident. Then it won't be the same darknessy seriousness all the way through. The glimpse of normalcy will show the reader just how bad things really are.

My current WIP is not dark and serious. It's happy and fluffy and nice and pleasant and all kinds of other feely goody things. There are serious undertones though (at least that's my intent) and sometimes they rear their ugly heads and mess things up for my poor MC. It's a similar contrast there: it's not all just happy fun-times all the time, there's sadness too. Hopefully that adds depth to both story and character.

Anecdote:
At some point, someone asked Charlie Chapplin why he didn't have funny music in his movies. His movies were comedies and the music should be funny too. Chaplin said that he wanted to have serious and beautiful music to contrast the silliness of his character. Something about how funny music was just more cream on the cake, while beautiful music would be a marzipan rose.

 

[Jake Belsten]

This is a very interesting discussion, as I think humor is one of the hardest elements in writing. Some thoughts I've had while reading the posts so far:

1) When to use humor - I agree with what A.E Lowan said. Humor should not be forced - you can always tell when it is. I think humor is one of those key elements that really makes up a person, and you've got to suit the type of humour you use to the character. For example, a normally very serious character isn't suddenly going to come up with a brilliant one-liner. An uptight, pompous noble isn't going to perform a bit of slapstick - some obnoxious sarcasm might be more his style.

2) Intentions of humour - humor isn't mindless, it's intentional and made for a purpose. The main one is obvious, of course: to make people laugh. A less right-minded character though could use it to spite people or "play them at their own game" - usually when the dark humour comes into play. It could also be intended to make someone feel better after a particularly grim moment. You can get unintentional humour, like in the form of Terry Pratchett's wizards - they're just a bunch of eccentric old men, but also incredibly funny. They don't mean to be - it's just in their nature.

3) Comedy makes us care when things get serious - one of the best uses of humor, I think, is (as Svrtnsse pointed out) how it contrasts with tragedy. Particularly humorous characters sometimes seem apart from the story, in an untouched world that can't be affected by serious events. They're supposedly just what they say on the tin: characters purposefully created to make the reader chuckle every couple of pages - nothing serious, tragic or life-threatening could ever happen to them, right? A good example I can think of is Fred & George Weasley in the Harry Potter books - if you've read them you know what I mean. So comedy makes us actually care for these characters, they seem like real people, and when their lives suddenly take a turn for the worse, that contrast makes your story even more powerful.

 

[Philip Overby]

I've tried to put humor in almost all of my stories. Some say to good effect, so I'll just take their word for it. The way I think works best for me is to not try to be funny. If you're trying to tell a joke or make this uproariously funny scene, then oftentimes whatever just comes out of you naturally is best. In real life you only really get one chance at a joke or some off comment. Sometimes people laugh and sometimes people stare at you. That can happen with writing. Something you think is super funny, others may think is stupid. On the other hand, something you think is silly and makes no sense, some people may love.

I've found some use humor when they don't really want to and it comes off shoehorned into the story. So the best attempts I find are just to let it flow right out of the dialogue.

Something like:

Mark struggled with trying to wrap the hamburger up. "I hate cheese. It gets all over everything."

"Easy Anakin..." Fred handed him a napkin.


Obviously not uproariously funny, but some people would get it and snicker while others would roll their eyes. There's no real way of knowing unless you have a target audience that gets the kind of humor you have.

Epic fantasy doesn't (usually) afford people the ability to use pop culture references. So you have to be a bit more creative with how you pull humor off. Urban fantasy allows a lot more room to use in-jokes and the like. For epic fantasy, I find my favorite characters that use humor either have a dry wit or are goofy in an endearing way (a fine line to walk).

Humor comes in so many different forms in fantasy though, so it's hard to say "Do this and it will work." Steven Erikson's humor is very different than Terry Pratchett's. While J.K. Rowling's humor is different from Joe Abercrombie's. Some people may laugh at Ron Weasley, but find Glotka's darker humor off-putting.

I think it's best to let your natural humor come out, whether it's quirky, silly, dark, sarcastic, dry, whatever.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Some good thoughts on theory and application. However, I was hoping for a more technique-oriented discussion. In the article I referenced, the author discusses humor techniques like the "Rule of Three" and "Comparison Jokes".

What I'm asking specifically is what specific methods have you used & had success with? Have you read any good books or articles that discuss techniques like these? What are your experiences in focusing your efforts toward learning these techniques and putting them into practice?

I believe that any writing technique can be learned. Just as we can train ourselves to write with active voice, we can train our minds to write humor into our worlds to the point where humor becomes second nature.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'll volunteer a piece. It's not enormously funny, but it's at a spot where I'm trying to take the edge off the chaos of breakfast in a big family by adding a bit of humor to it:

The reader will at this stage know who all the people mentioned in the scene are and who's talking etc.
EDIT: A lot of context is missing so the piece may be hard to follow. I've tried to explain it below though, hopefully it'll make more sense that way.

“I want to come too,” said Linus. “I'm a better climber than Elsie.”

“You're not,” shouted Elsie. “You even fell out of the easy tree here in the orchard.”

“I did not, you pushed me. Linnea, tell her.”

“Shush, Linus,” said Linnea. “Don't yell. You'll come with me and help feed the chickens instead. That's much more fun isn't it.”

Linus turned to tell her something and knocked his cup off the table. Elsie pointed and laughed at her brother. Linus howled like a siren, having spilled hot tea on himself. Eric scowled at Elsie and Linnea fussed over Linus with a napkin, trying to soak up the worst at the spillage. Loianna put half a sausage in Eric's tea when he wasn't looking.

At each end of the table Rolf and Beired observed the chaos in silence.

“So, what was that you said about settling down and starting a family my friend?”

There are two spots here where I'm trying to use humor.
First it's when Loianna (who's around three years old) puts the sausage in her brother's tea. The bit before that has been about the escalating argument between Elsie and Linus and about the spilled tea and screaming kids. The bit about the sausage in the tea is meant to take the edge off it and set a humorous tone. Leaving out that bit could have made the scene a lot more serious.
Consider how it would have seemed if the last sentence was something like "Loianna dropped her sausage on the floor and started to cry."

So the technique here is to list up a bunch of minor disasters and then end with something utterly absurd to take the edge off everything that happened before.

The second spot is the last sentence.
This is Rolf asking Enar about something Enar mentioned earlier in the story and it's mainly Rolf joking here. It doesn't matter too much if the reader thinks it's hilarious or not. The important part is that they get that Rolf is joking. That implies that what happened before really isn't too serious and that everything's really fine.
EDIT: Consider what it would have been like if Loianna had bit off too much and started choking on the sausage instead.

The way this joke works is based on how Enar (the MC, referred to as "my friend") mentioned that he'd like to settled down and start a little family. Then all this chaos ensues and Rolf makes a joke of Enar's previous comment about how having a family might be nice.

 

[Devor]

However, I was hoping for a more technique-oriented discussion.

What I'm asking specifically is what specific methods have you used & had success with?

Okay.

Here's a story that I wrote, and I'll discuss the process of writing it. YMMV on whether it's funny, and I apologize, but you'll have to read the whole long linked thread to understand it. I posted this as the judge for the contest.

I had a friend in college who wrote comedy skits for a college group, and helped on the set for another group that made professional youtube videos. The advice that he talked about was to "find the game in the scene." Here's a formal reference on where that advice comes from. I haven't read it, but it's been referred to me by a few people.

For the story above, I struggled to figure out what I would write until I figured out the game in each scene. For the first scene, the game came together when I thought of the following line:

"You have arrested and charged twenty-eight people with the same crime."

It's a ridiculous concept, so it made a great game. And it happens to pit the straight-man against the goofball, which is good because the straight-man represents the audience surrogate, responding to the goofball with some of the exasperation that the audience feels. By one theory, humor is about bringing a person's subconscious connection to the surface, so the goofball does the setup, creating a situation that the reader responds to, and the straight man delivers by bringing that subconscious response to the surface.

Plus, the best humor comes when it's personal, so I could make inside references to Legendary Sidekick, and to the other authors through their stories, such as the reference to Legendary Sidekick speaking to cats, which hearkens back to his stint as the Cat Goddess in the Fortunately, Unfortunately challenge thread. It also gave me an opportunity to try and skewer, to use comedic terms, the twenty-eight characters mentioned with hyper-specific funny words, some of which worked better than others.

Finally, I also tried to deliberately not be mean while kind of mocking Sidekick. So I opened, right away, with the only line of meanness before the audience even understood what it was about ("I tried to recall if thick headedness was part of his legend"). This had the purpose of establishing that meanness and creating a reference point for implying that meanness throughout the story. But because it happened before the reader saw anything to be mean about, it should create curiosity instead of repulsion ("this judge is a jerk").

That's just the first of five scenes, but it's enough that I'll stop here, at least for now. The only feedback I got was that the story was very humorous, making you smile, but not comedic, making you laugh. I did try for comedy with two or three lines in this story, but I mostly think that feedback was right. I suspect you're probably after comedy so I don't know if that helps.

 

[skip.knox]

How would I know if I have succeeded or not, OP? [aside: all original posters should be nicknamed Opie]

I can't be there to see if the reader laughs or not. So what would be your criterion for success?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Okay, here's an example from our WIP, Faerie Rising. To be honest, I have no idea what technique we're using here. I've never done that much reading about humor writing and when I draft I just follow character voices and the flow of conversation. This is also a nice example of how we tend to inject humor into intense situations.

In this bit we have interactions between Winter Mulcahy, a young wizard with too much responsibility piled on her shoulders; Erik, the city's Vampire King, a loud and brash Viking who has concerns about the crumbling state of affairs in the city; his lover Michael; and Katherine, a vampire queen, writer, and the mother of Erik's son, she lives next door to where the scene is taking place.

Erik pointed over her head at the map. “Does that look balanced to you?” He reached out to take her shoulders and she moved back. Erik gritted his teeth in frustration and followed her. “Dammit, girl, how many months do you think we have left before groups break out into open warfare? This skirmishing crap will lead right into it, and you know it.”

Winter felt her backside run up against the wall counter. “So you think I should unbalance the city now, rather than later? Is that it?” She craned her neck to meet his frustrated gaze.

“What I think is that you can’t do this alone!”

“I have to.”

“Bull****!”

The suite from The Phantom of the Opera suddenly erupted into the small break following Erik’s exclamation. Michael pulled his phone from his pocket and bent his head to read the text message. Again, he was bland. “Erik, Katherine says if you don’t stop bellowing at Winter and interrupting her writing while she’s on a deadline she’s going to kick your ass back to the Middle Ages.”

Erik turned to face the wall separating Curiosities from Katherine’s Retreat. “Dammit, woman, I’m making a point here!” he roared in a voice once meant to be heard over battle screams and swollen seas.

Michael’s eyes never lifted from his phone. “’And this point needs obscenities? BTW, you’re waking the spawn.’”

“Stop calling him that!”

One of Michael’s brows twitched and he put his phone back in his pocket. He glanced at his lover. “She said, ‘whatever.’”

Erik scowled “No, she didn’t.”

A small smile tugged at Michael’s mouth, but he said nothing.

 

[Feo Takahari]

My first laugh lines were entirely unintentional. For instance, one of my characters noted that another character referred to his lost love in the same terms he'd use to describe a broken television. I meant it as an accurate description of how he talked, but when I read that aloud, all my listeners laughed, because it was such a ridiculous comparison.

My current approach is to intentionally seek out the same deadpan descriptions I used to use unintentionally. One scene that deeply amused one of my prereaders began with a magic-user turning a guy into a girl to make a point, then proved that everyone present was either way more dirty-minded or way more innocent than expected. I did nothing to sell the scene as funny, and no one line was clearly the punchline--I just matter-of-factly portrayed a ridiculous situation, and I let readers fill in their own sense of humor.

I guess it's a matter of your overall style. I generally don't do much to sell my scenes--I show an arguing couple and let readers fill in how it feels to argue with a loved one, or show a lonely child and let readers fill in the emotions of being alone. If your writing is more lush and evocative, a bit more mugging and clowning might actually be appropriate.

 

[Jabrosky]

There was one time I wrote a pseudo-historical short about a queen of ancient Egypt who had an unpleasant experience with a (prototypical) hot comb. That was meant to be funny, but I don't think it worked out that. Another short involved a T. Rex attacking a party of noisy teenagers, and that did make some reviewers laugh. In general I don't think of myself as intentionally funny though.

 

[Ruby]

Hi, T.Allen.Smith,

I think some people have an innate sense of humour (English UK spelling!) and others don't. Then different people find different things funny. One person might hear a joke and roll on the floor in paroxysms of hysterical laughter while someone else raises his eyebrows, shakes his head in dismay and just doesn't get it.

I joined this site a few months ago and started with Phil's ABC Fantasy Genre. Everything I wrote was comedic. I then did Reaver's short story challenge and won the Comedy category. (Luckily my story about a simpleton wizard who wins a quest without knowing he's doing one, and a homosexual knight being stalked by an ugly sorceress, was supposed to be funny!) Even when I did Phil's 28 Day Genre challenge in February, and wrote a horror story for the first time, it was funny and the ending was comedic. I can't help it.

I know that when I've sent stuff to my CP she says it makes her laugh.

I just did the Fat Cat Caged Maiden challenge and there was lots of comedy in amongst the tragedy. I see comedy and tragedy as being very closely related.

I like reading writing that entertains me and makes me laugh and, I must admit, I dislike all this fashionable dark dystopian stuff. Having said that, I've recently castrated someone else's MC for the Fan Fic round of the Fat Cat Caged Maiden Challenge.

I'm not sure if comedy is as marketable as tragedy, although I would say it's probably my genre. I also don't know if it can be taught?

I've showcased a story called Alastair and Amanda Time Travel. It's supposed to be comedic. If you have time let me know if you find it amusing.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

How would I know if I have succeeded or not, OP? [aside: all original posters should be nicknamed Opie]

I can't be there to see if the reader laughs or not. So what would be your criterion for success?

If you gave your writing to crit partners or beta-readers, they should comment if they find some bit humorous. I do when I'm reading for someone. In fact, I always try to relay a sense of emotion. That's a critical piece of information the writer needs.

 

[Penpilot]

I'm a wise-ass, more ass than wise, but I like to make people laugh by trying to find the funny in anything and everything. In terms of techniques I deliberately use in my writing, I don't use any really. Either the wise crack/joke is there or it isn't, and I think part of the skill of humor is in recognizing the opportunity in front of you for something humorous to be said or something humorous to happen. The other part is being able to have your characters say or do the appropriate thing to get the laugh.

I know, could I be any more vague?

But here's something I wrote on the subject of humor on a different forum many years ago, but I think it still the way I still feel about humor.

The kind of humor that I try, and I stress the word TRY, to put into my writing tends to lean towards the inside joke between friends type. What I mean by this is that I let the past events of a character or between characters dictate what a wise crack will be or what's amusing. Yes, humor is subjective, so what I think one has to do is create a common context for the reader so that they can "get it" and that common context are the events in the story. 99% of the time, I don't set anything up. It just spontaneously happens. I get to a certain point, and I remember a bit of the story's past and I call back to it in a humorous way. At least, I hope I do.

A blunt and possibly crappy example.

The context.
There's a character, Fred who keeps a change jar. Everyone has a change jar, but this one's different, it's huge like the size of a small garbage can. It's so big that he uses it as decoration in the middle of his neat and tidy living room. Every day when Fred gets home, he automatically empties the change from his pockets into the giant jar. His friends give him a hard time about it all the time, and when he's not looking they deliberately fill his pockets full of pennies.

The funny??
One day, a friend drops a fist full of pennies into Fred’s pants. Fred goes home and drops the pennies into his massive change jar. A few days later Fred's friend calls him asking about the pennies. It turns out that, in rushing to get the pennies into Fred's pocket, his friend also dropped a piece of paper with an important phone number on it into Fred's pants. Crap, it's now mixed in with the massive pile of coins. The friend comes over to sift through the change jar, but can't find the number among the top layer. Fred's friend then begins to dig through the pile, lifting fist after fist of heavy coins out.

Fred's friend gets to the bottom, but there's no paper with the phone number. He's exhausted and dirty from lifting and sifting the grimy change. He looks up and sees Fred holding the piece of paper he was looking for. Fred says, "Bet you wish you didn't give me all those pennies now huh."

I don't know, mildly amusing, but I think it's how humor basically works. Again, it's all about the context. Take away the context and it's not funny. You know when you say to people, "you had to be there"? Well, I believe, in humor, the writer's job is to put the reader there in some form or another then hit them with the punch line.

 

[Devor]

I'm not sure if comedy is as marketable as tragedy, although I would say it's probably my genre. I also don't know if it can be taught?

If you look at short story markets they all say they want comedy, but I think it's because they have to reject almost everything they get. Comedy is hard.

That said, I've mentioned before that Drew Carey famously said that he learned everything he knows about comedy from a joke-telling book in the library (right around 2:00). I just wish I knew which book.

 

[Svrtnsse]

As an aside, I think it's telling that pretty much everyone in this thread has put some emphasis on how they're trying or attempting to put some funny in their stories. No one really came straight out and said "I did this and it's funny". I think it's sort of indicative of how tricky it can really be (and of how silly you feel when someone doesn't get your clever jokes).

 

[Devor]

As an aside, I think it's telling that pretty much everyone in this thread has put some emphasis on how they're trying or attempting to put some funny in their stories. No one really came straight out and said "I did this and it's funny". I think it's sort of indicative of how tricky it can really be (and of how silly you feel when someone doesn't get your clever jokes).

On the one hand, that's true with all writing.

On the other hand, the story I linked before, the fifth scene ("Another knight who's heart just floats in his armor")... I wrote this and it's funny. It needs just one little edit, to explain why the woman threw the tomato (I'm always too subtle). But I'll say with confidence that it's humorous.

 

[Svrtnsse]

On the one hand, that's true with all writing.

On the other hand, the story I linked before, the fifth scene ("Another knight who's heart just floats in his armor")... I wrote this and it's funny. It needs just one little edit, to explain why the woman threw the tomato (I'm always too subtle). But I'll say with confidence that it's humorous.

The exception that confirms the rule.

I'd go as far as to say my section I posted is fun though - for readers who like that kind of humor.

To try and stick to the topic; I'm fiddling around a lot with pacing to try and underline the funny in certain situations. Example:

Off to one side sat a large, open-fronted shed. At the moment it held one lone cart and some gardening tools; rakes, spades, things like that. Opposite the shed, on the other side of the main house, was a stable. For the moment it lay unoccupied, but the door to one of the boxes hung open and a horse stood in the shadow of a tree looking at them as they arrived.

“This is it!”Rolf threw his arms wide as if presenting a circus act. “Hyardum inn! The oldest building in all of Hemsfil!”

The horse chewed some grass.

The first paragraph holds some really long sentences full of description and detail. Then Rolf comes in full of pride and declares the building old and venerable. Then the horse just doesn't care.

The idea here is I'm building something up, and the cutting it short with something of an anti-climax. Again, this is probably more funny if you know the characters and care for them.