How do I utilize humor in a dark storyline?

Depends on the humor. Farcical? Epigrammatic? Deadpan/Dry? High/highbrow? Ironic? So much to pick from to slip into a dark story. I insert random moments of humor or make a character solely for the purpose. Think it's called the comic relief.

 

Hello Ireth,
There's an old (1976) Dustin Hoffman movie called Marathon Man that might help you out. Dustin Hoffman gets involved in the pursuit of an escaped Nazi war criminal, played by Sir Lawrence Olivier, who happens to be a dentist. The bad guys capture our hero and send him to Olivier's character to be tortured. The dentist puts Hoffman in a chair and proceeds to torture him by hurting his teeth. But while he's doing all these nasty things, the guy keeps up a patter like a solicitous dentist, advising Hoffman things like, "You should have this tooth filled," and "You're not taking care of your gums," etc. It's a moment of hilarity in the middle of a thriller movie.
Anyway, my point is that you should think long and hard about who and what each character is and does, and see if you can graft that into your plot. Humor can be found almost anywhere (probably not in certain situations; though a certain comedian talks about using humor to keep from getting beaten up on the playground. Keep trying, and keep writing!
Best,
Jack

 

Use a dry or black humour.

 

Well, humor is not my thing, but then...I suck at humor.

IMO, if the family is grieving, it is not time for humor. It would not be that things stop being funny, but that it just would not seem important. If humor is included, I would want there to be some lesson behind it, such as a being with more wisdom might possess, they might use it as a way of showing even with tragedy the world has many more aspects, and they too have importance. Perhaps you could show the same painful qualities, but have it add to the frustration of the Valar and not something they joke about.

I think humor would find more of a place in the story if there is some distance between the sacrifice and the hunt, or if the Valar have been hunting for a long time and this is not their first rodeo, so to speak.

Humor might be a way to lighten very strong emotions and raw nerves, but I would think it only micro-expression, not something anyone meant to dwell on.

 

Just remember: tragedy + time = comedy
It’s all about the timing of the joke, not the joke itself.

 

Well, I have had the comment, paraphrased: “Trail of Pyres might be depressing if it wasn’t written so damned funny” but it’s just something I do by nature, and I’m sure others disagree, LOL.

One of the classics is Han and Leia for a dramatic dark scene: I love you. I know. Beautiful in its simplicity. I saw Empire in a packed house on its “premier” showing and that one line made Empire tolerable for a Han Solo obsessed kid like me, LOL. Not to mention the whole crowd.

I wish I remembered a conversation I had with the screenwriter of K9 20+ years ago, he was a standup comic and writer/producer... but my brain is failing me. I think the best way to do dark situational humor is to play it straight, a bit like Monty Python movies often do. Do that in bits and pieces instead of the constant Python flow, and you should be good. From the sound of the project, I’d just say keep the humor natural.

To me, Pratchett feels a lot like Python.

 

It strikes me that this approach is a bit slapstick. On the one hand, you are showing these powerful beings brought down to "our" level — good — but on the other hand you are accentuating "our" level. I.e., these people have just experienced a death of a loved one, and your jokes center on our physical fragility. This may be bad, or too much for that situation.

Have you tried more of a "Let them eat cake" approach? You could make the Valar, for all their vaunted power and wisdom/knowledge, somewhat ignorant of real mortal lives and show up their fish out of water silliness. So for instance at a moment of trouble, whether big or relatively small and mundane, one of the Valar can say to the mortals, "Why don't you just do ____________?" Whatever's suggested is a very Valar way of thinking and doing things but is completely beyond the limits of mortals in that situation (or simply incomprehensible, flighty, whatever, if these Valar are entirely in disguise.) The response can be a blank stare, perhaps a mortal answering how absurd that suggestion is, then offering a much more pragmatic, useful solution. Something the Valar would never consider. Something that might even seem unexpected and clever to the Valar. In this way, you can still show up the foibles of the Valar, their discomfort in their present situation. But instead of reinforcing the fragility of the mortals, you can reinforce the strengths these mortals possess in the mundane world. It can be a sort of comeuppance while giving opportunity for the Valar to grow even further in wisdom and understanding, perhaps even to their chagrin.

 

I think humor in a dark story works best if it comes from the characters, not the narration. Have t\hem making jokes, coming up with gallows humor, stuff like that, because there will always be people like that in real life.

 

First piece of advice - don't try to be funny, ever.
If humour comes naturally then go for it, but humour is the hardest writing there is and should not be attempted without total confidence in your craft. (Of course, this advice only applies to people trying be successfully published. Everyone should feel free to have a go at something to improve.)

Second piece of advice - The Silmarillion is such a dry and serious story it is absolutely ripe for a humorous take. You could have a lot of fun with Sauron and his dialogue, and all those totally up themselves Elves and Valar could be made funny just through their own uber seriousness.

In fact, there's a title for you: The Up Themselves Elves.