Thoughts on mixing Drama & Humor…

[amicus]

While catching up on back episodes of NCIS, my mind wandered to other similar films, such as MASH, more humor than drama, Northern Lights, about the same, West Wing, less humor…even a Tom Clancy novel, “Red October”, but maybe it was the screen-writer, Sean Connery, “Buckaroo…” if one recalls…I just watched a biography of Keifer Sutherland, of, “24”, fame and I don’t recall much humor in that show, but a lot of drama.

Shakespeare surely had humor…and tragedy…

I like to add humor to my historical fiction writings, it rounds out the characters and likewise for the romance and Romantica characters and situations that come to mind.

But I have a new novel in the works in which I plan no romance and no humor, straight drama, however, as I visualize the characters I wonder if the main character can be all business and no humor at all?

Just wondered if others consider the elements that make up a story, a character, as you write them, before, or not at all?

Amicus

 

[Liar]

Short answer: Just because a story is serious, doesn't mean that characters in that story can't have a sense of humor. But the funny should then be in the universe that the character is in, not in the universe that is shared by the writer and the reader.

I mean, in a serious novel, you could have a passage that tells:

It was a good night,. They drank, joked and laughed their throats sore until the early morning hours.

Or, you can cut into it, listen in on a few minutes of the good humored banter between characters and allow the reader to share the good feeling. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

Just don't narrate puns or make the plot humorous.

 

[amicus]

I should look up the Swedish for, "Good Morning, Liar", God something as I recall, but, you are up and about rather early, are you not?

It is just after one a.m. here on the West Coast, I figure nine or ten in the morning there? A lady friend in Scotland is 8 hours ahead of me there...

I try to make all my characters, well the good guys anyway, lovable and human in one way or another, which is rather why I offered the question. The main character I am considering is humorless and driven by purpose, a very quiet man who does not discuss his past and is emotionally closed, admiring only merit and ability.

His character is plot driven basically, as a military intelligence analyst who, in the new political climate, finds his resources and personnel cut in half but is still tasked to protect the nations security through the over 20 intelligence agencies of the U.S. government.

Oh, my, I left the television on the same channel that Charlie Rose was on and PBS news with Jim Lehrer, just replayed a clip from Fox News with Daniel Hannan, the Brit Euro MP, and, of course, in PBS style, rebutted the piece with one of his own....

Ah, well...thank you...and a good day to you...

Amicus

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

AMICUS

I recently read two William Styron books. Both are serious drama, and both are punctuated with humor.

 

[fastandsloppy]

So much of the world is aburd. I find that an iota of humor in even the most serious stories actually adds believablity to the story. Not narrative puns or asides (as Liar said) but humor based in irony or absurdity of situations or outcomes only mirrors life more closely, IMHO.

Ditto with witty dialog. If everyone speaks with weighty seriousness that just doesn't sound true to me; some people are clever conversationalists, some people are comically dense. A little wit or a little banter helps define different voices for different characters. Obviously you can't let that kind of thing swamp the tone of your story, but a little of it adds a ring of truth.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

I always thought that was one of the strengths of US drama as opposed to home grown stuff on this side of the pond.

The US characters were more likeable because they had a sense of humour and it made them more human.

The British approach to drama was to put two characters in a room and have them shout loudly at each other until anyone watching hated all of them and wanted them all to die. Thankfully we seem to be moving away from that (contrast the first, awful, series of Torchwood with the recent, excellent miniseries of the same show)

 

[DeeZire]

I wonder if "humor" and "human" are derived from the same word?

Life without humor would be drudgery. That's why God gave us Jon Stewart.

 

[Slowride_]

"Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh." WH Auden

DeeZire- Nailed it on the head with Stewart. While other talking heads so willinging show their aanger, Stewart uses humor and wields irony like a sword.

Humor often defuses some of the stress of a serious situation. More than once in my life I've been asked how I could joke 'at a time like this.' How could I not?

 

[ABSTRUSE]

While catching up on back episodes of NCIS, my mind wandered to other similar films, such as MASH, more humor than drama, Northern Lights, about the same, West Wing, less humor…even a Tom Clancy novel, “Red October”, but maybe it was the screen-writer, Sean Connery, “Buckaroo…” if one recalls…I just watched a biography of Keifer Sutherland, of, “24”, fame and I don’t recall much humor in that show, but a lot of drama.

Shakespeare surely had humor…and tragedy…

I like to add humor to my historical fiction writings, it rounds out the characters and likewise for the romance and Romantica characters and situations that come to mind.

But I have a new novel in the works in which I plan no romance and no humor, straight drama, however, as I visualize the characters I wonder if the main character can be all business and no humor at all?

Just wondered if others consider the elements that make up a story, a character, as you write them, before, or not at all?

Amicus

Check out Dorothy Parker's "telephone call"....she used dark humor.

 

[amicus]

I fully admit and confess that irony and satire and subtleties can, and perhaps should be, ingredients in fiction but I sometimes think, along with over use of an extensive vocabulary, the author is flaunting his or her ability, i.e., showing off a little.

I find little satisfaction in pointing out a satirical situation and discovering few comprehend the nature of the effort.

I think perhaps the supporting characters around my central figure will add humor by chastizing his lack of it in subtle ways openly, and overtly among their peers...

See if that works and can be sustained...dunno....thank you all...

Amicus