Humor :: Tips, Tricks, Advice?

[Unsung Muse]

I'd really like to try my hand at Humor...
any tips, tricks, advice?

 

[Recidiva]

Uh...are you funny?

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Be funny.

Seriously... read Jammies... she CRACKS ME UP.

I can't write humor to save my life... I can be unintentionally funny... but doing it on purpose? Ugh. it's a disaster. my two humor pieces suck.

 

[Unsung Muse]

Uh...are you funny?

Well, I do host a comedy show (that's not a "yes", that's an "i hope so" )...
but I've never attempted *writing* comedy, let alone tackling "erotic humor".

 

[Recidiva]

Well, I do host a comedy show (that's not a "yes", that's an "i hope so" )...
but I've never attempted *writing* comedy, let alone tackling "erotic humor".

What comedians do you consider to be funny?

 

[Kain__Thornn]

Nothing will ruin a good humor line like bad delivery. Be good at the delivery and the rest will fall into place.

 

[CopyCarver]

I'd really like to try my hand at Humor...
any tips, tricks, advice?

I published quite a bit of humor six or seven thousand years ago, and reached a couple conclusions, which are far from all-inclusive:

Humor is extremely nebulous--what one reader thinks is hilarious will bore/annoy/offend the next--and there is no known means of escaping that reality. The best you can do is write what you think is funny and share it with however many readers share your view.

It's often possible to get great humor--and to simultaneously make a very worthwhile point--by taking a topic that "everybody knows" to be true, examining the flaws in the theory, and extrapolating the weaknesses until you reach the diametrically opposed conclusion.


Personally, I find nonsequitors, spoonerisms, and malapropisms hilarious, if they're original and used sparingly. Jammies' "hema-tomato" is a case in point. (The old Norm Crosby routines, however, were way too much of a good thing, for my taste at least.)

An off-center, against-the-grain view of the world is another favorite: the old "I can't see anything through the microscope" gambit.

 

[Unsung Muse]

What comedians do you consider to be funny?

Hmmm, I'm a huge Eddie Izzard fan. Otherwise, I'm not much for stand-up... if that's what you mean?

I'm intrigued by the "writing" challenge (wanting to push myself). Funny can be sexy. Sex can be funny. I would assume the balance/blend is key... Maybe I need to *start* before I can pose smarter/better quesions

 

[ABSTRUSE]

How are you with sarcasm?

 

[Recidiva]

Hmmm, I'm a huge Eddie Izzard fan. Otherwise, I'm not much for stand-up... if that's what you mean?

I'm intrigued by the "writing" challenge (wanting to push myself). Funny can be sexy. Sex can be funny. I would assume the balance/blend is key... Maybe I need to *start* before I can pose smarter/better quesions

If Eddie Izzard is funny, you at least get it!

I'm funny, but I don't think I set out to be. If it happens, it does. I haven't done a humor piece other than as an essay.

My guys are sharp and funny with each other, but it's not a funny piece. It's just part of the banter (I like banter. Go banter!)

 

[Selena_Kitt]

How are you with sarcasm?

now there's my kinda humor...

I also like dark humor, gallows humor...
but I'm so weird...

 

[ABSTRUSE]

now there's my kinda humor...

I also like dark humor, gallows humor...
but I'm so weird...

I like stupid funny as well. thats how I write humour.

 

[CopyCarver]

now there's my kinda humor...
I also like dark humor, gallows humor...
but I'm so weird...

I like stupid funny as well. thats how I write humour.

Interestingly, there's no inherent contradiction here--witness Monty Python, Martie Feldman, Richard Pryor, and--especially-- Mel Brooks.
(You can't get much stupider, much darker, or much funnier than "Springtime for Hitler & Germany."

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Interestingly, there's no inherent contradiction here--witness Monty Python, Martie Feldman, Richard Pryor, and--especially-- Mel Brooks.
(You can't get much stupider, much darker, or much funnier than "Springtime for Hitler & Germany."

Humor is brilliant.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Interestingly, there's no inherent contradiction here--witness Monty Python, Martie Feldman, Richard Pryor, and--especially-- Mel Brooks.
(You can't get much stupider, much darker, or much funnier than "Springtime for Hitler & Germany."

Ok, The Producer made me laugh... (so did History of the World, Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs) but I STILL don't get Monty Python... *ducking*

maybe it's just cultural... ?

 

[Unsung Muse]

How are you with sarcasm?

Ah, my middle name. I think you may have clarified my *real question* for me: "audible" sarcasm is easy, comes naturally, is (almost always) recognizable... but -- given the number of times I've wished there was a *sarcasm* emoticon -- "written" sarcasm must be a different animal.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Ah, my middle name. I think you may have clarified my *real question* for me: "audible" sarcasm is easy, comes naturally, is (almost always) recognizable... but -- given the number of times I've wished there was a *sarcasm* emoticon -- "written" sarcasm must be a different animal.

I get that.

 

[neonlyte]

Stupid humor is often a re-telling of the everyday. For example, the Python trick of dressing men in womens clothes and have them hold 'everyday' conversations. Word play, Cleese and the Recruitment Sergeant Major at the 'Mary Recruitment Centre'.

If you're going for comedy writing, try the absurd, it's not that different from the real, it's the way it's presented that makes it funny, like Cedric the Flying Sheep. (Why isn't one sheep a 'shep' or several sheep, 'sheepsies'?)

 

[Boota]

I mainly write comedy, and I find it to be very challenging. Telling a joke verbally versus explaining a funny situation in an effective way in text is vastly different. Picking the right sentence structure and the best way to arrange your paragraphs and lines for maximum effect is the key. Even if you have to break the "rules", the delivery takes precedence. The thing I always try to remember is that if it's funny, it's right.

 

[Weird Harold]

I'd really like to try my hand at Humor...
any tips, tricks, advice?

Depends on what kind of humor you want to write. The tricks and tips of writing slapstick aren't the same as for writing parody or satire.

My best attempt at a humor story started out (mostly) as an excuse for telling ugly jokes but wound up including some slapstick, some drunk jokes, some misunderstandings, and a whole lot of just plain silliness.

The humorous erotic stories I enjoy the most don't try to make the sex funny; they just feature characters who don't take anything terribly seriously. If your character(s) see thhumor in the situation then your readers probably will too.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Vella writes some funny stuff.

When I've spoken to her about writing humor, and I've heard it from others as well, do not go in expecting to please everyone. It seems that it is quite impossible to please everyone's tastes where humor is concerned and there will be some nasty feedback from folks that expected something different or simply don't 'get it'.

I, personally, like off the wall humor. Making things fit where I least expect them to. Surprise things that are so obvious but until pointed out simply haven't crossed my mind. I wish you the best of luck, and I think Mr(s) Izzard is a great place to get laughs as well.

~lucky

 

[gauchecritic]

Parody is fun to do. Fairy Story by me or Sub Joe's Mayfair Lady.

You get a ready made plot, characters, setting and just add whatever you think is funny whilst you write it.

Personally I'm not at all fond of those stories in the humour cat. that make you wait all the way through for a supposed punch line at the end. Why spend two thousand words when 50 would have done?

The advice for humour is the same as that for almost any story: Just write.

 

[AchtungNight]

I too am a fan of humor and satire. It comes naturally to me and I use it in all my stories.

Besides what's already been said, the best advice I can give you is this: Look hard at your subject. Not just the sex, the characters, the plot, the backstories, the story as a whole. Think about how people might see each of them. What seems funny to you? Then use that in a joke if you think it works. Weave enough good jokes in, and you've got a good comedy. Weave enough jokes in about reality that make the reader look at things in a new way, and you've got satire. The jokes you use can be old or new, they just gotta be used right.

Best of luck to you. Have fun writing.

 

[Huckleman2000]

I taught a class once about acting in comedies. I found that some things cannot be learned, no matter how skilled the teacher.
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"Writing funny", like funny acting, relies on precision, but must appear effortless. It relies on technique, but requires talent. It's self-contradictory, yet it isn't.

Think about that last sentence.
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Okay, did that make you at least smile? I was trying to illustrate a few technical ways of being funny:

1. Funny things come in threes. The first two instances lead the reader/viewer into a pattern of expectation, which is then exploited in the third repetition.

2. In this instance, the pattern was in parallel sentence constructions, but also in parallel ideas. I could have broken the pattern in the third sentence ("It's self-contradictory...) by making a simple declaration of a non-sequitur, like: "It tastes like squid." Actually, that might have been funnier, but it wouldn't have illustrated my next point -

3. Redirect the reader's attention to draw focus on things that are mainly humorous on second thought. "It's self-contradictory..." - that sentence doesn't make any literal sense, but it sounds plausible in context, and most readers would have skimmed right past it without realizing it was nonsense. That's why I added the one-sentence paragraph after, "Think about..."

Here are some other things that often work for humor (with some pretty leaden examples, but you get the idea...):

-Incongruity of style. For example, using an elaborately formal style to describe something trivial. it also works well for 'snark'. ie, saying rude things in a polite way.

-Incongruity of situation. For example, being the only person who dresses in costume at a party. The Country Club soiree' that becomes an ersatz wet t-shirt contest.

-Comeuppance. Poetic justice. Nothing pleases people like taking someone down a notch or two when they deserve it.

-"Inner monologue" For example, voicing the inner thoughts of the character as the actual dialog progresses in a different direction. Like in 'Annie Hall', when Woody Allen used subtitles in the scene where he and Diane Keaton's character were first alone together.

All of these, really, are just techniques that help the "set-up/punchline" structure of humor in general. Like so many things, it's in the management of tension and release.

Look at GingerV's stories here's one. I think she writes with a wonderful and sexy sense of humor.

 

[Kain__Thornn]

Observe your favorite comedian in action. Try to catch that same style without stealing material.