Writing Humor - Natural Talent or Hard Work?

Ah, but have they ever laughed when you intended not to be funny? That's the good stuff.

I don't know. Anything funny I've ever written has been the result of a sudden inspiration. It's far too easy to over-analyze humor (at least for me); I simply cannot work hard on being funny. Lightning strikes or it does not.

Of course, most of my funny comes from my own internal monologue (ie. me making smart-ass comments to myself, in my head). Inane (or is it insane?) comments just seem to seep into my writing whether I want them to or not.

See example above. I think that's very funny. You may or may not, but really, isn't it just more important that I think it's funny? (See? I did it again.)

 

I've only written humor once in my life, and it WAS funny. But I know that it's possible to analyze humor. But some people know what's funny naturally, and some people don't. It's very hard for me to write humor because stuff that's funny to me isn't funny to most people. So to write humor on a regular basis, I would need to work very hard at it.

 

IMHO, there's all kinds of humor, sometimes people can't write one kind but they can do another kind very well. I can write physical comedy well, but my verbal humor; to me it's funny, but to others it's so subtle and ambiguous they rarely get it.

 

I know completely what you mean. I love the kind of humor with utterly crazy antics, but I can't write it to save my life. I think my style is just far too serious for that kind of thing, you know? So my humor comes out as sharp sarcastic retorts but nothing physical. (It's probably also because my own sense of humor is rather sarcastic and ironic...)

 

For something to come across as funny I think you have to have a strong sense of characterization. Readers won't laugh at a flat character's antics.

In the wilder/inane humor fics a lot of the "funny" is the result of putting canon characters into compromising positions playing off the fact that they are horribly out of character, e.g., last weekend's terrible fic I wrote that had Tarkin calling himself Darth Not-So-Nice and thinking he was a "there can be only one" type Highlander. If you look at that concept from a mildly sober POV it's absolutely stupid, but presumably funny as all hell.

Additionally, I have some funny characters who just wander in and viola they're funny and for me these have been mostly OCs. They work well with one another and dialogue is so natural between them that it just turns into a easy banter, which is all based on their characterization. The trick with characters like that is trying to make them act serious once and a while.

 

I've always been a lot better at writing humour than at anything else. Heck, when I try to write something serious, spoofy ideas always pop into my head. I think the fact that I had to start a thread to house the ideas too strange to go into the actual body of one of my stories is somewhat telling.

But there are some elements of humour that can be quantified and stored for later use. I find that if I write someone completely in character but doing something that the character would never, ever, in a million years do, it's funny. Taking not-serious topics completely seriously can be hilarious, especially if you have someone on the sidelines trying to point out how not serious it is.

Now, my sense of humour can sometimes have a very limited appeal, and tends to go over the heads of some because I'm not a slapstickkey kinda person, generally speaking. I remember categorizing a piece as a comedy once, and the only comment I ever got on it was, "This isn't funny." 'Course, the second part was funnier than the first, but still. I think the less slapstick-like you get, the harder it is to write, but it can still be done by someone determined enough to do it.

 

exactly, about the characters, oqidaun! Darth Vader skipping through a field of dandelions to the tune of "Yummy yummy yummy I've got Love in my tummy" would be absolutely hilarious.

But then again having the dark one say something out of character would also be funny, but as I pointed out, my verbal humor isn't that good, so I will leave it there.

 

This is a wonderful thread. So many great points brought up and good advice.

I have tried to write humour but find it falls flat. I do sarcastic and subtly ironic pretty well but outright hysterical, belly-laugh, I just haven?t yet been able to do.

The point was well made Commander-DWH - if I write someone completely in character but doing something that the character would never, ever, in a million years do, it's funny.

I have a coworker who can take absolutely boring day-to-day life situations and make them seem hilarious a la Seinfeld. She should definitely do stand-up. Maybe it is the exaggeration of the situations into something earth-shattering that makes them appear so funny. And the stupidity factor draws people as oqidaun said.

 

Yes, PadKa, the more over the top something is, the more of a caricature you can make a mundane task, the funnier it becomes.

Putting on socks in the morning isn't funny, it's mundane. Trying to pick up a sock in the morning stuck to the floor is annoying.

But, trying to pick up a sock that's stuck to the floor, until your hand slips and you go flying across the room, knocking over a lamp and destroying a priceless Ming vase full of water in the process and knocking the potted plant on the window sill off, three floors down, hitting a passerby on the head in a very cartoon-like situation is much funnier. Especially when you get up and stand in the water and try to pick up the lamp with the busted bulb. Electrifying, if you'll pardon the pun.

 

*starts taking notes* Any other advice?

 

For some its natural talent.

For others, like myself, it takes work. Usually if there is something funny in what I wrote, its an accident.

 

I like funny, I love humour. If I want straight out hilarious I read BlindMan, that always gets me rotfl.
But can I do it? Who knows. Some parts of my stories make me laugh but I know I have a weird sense of humour. So I don't know if anybody else would laugh as well.
Kinds of humour, I prefer witty, and wordplay. I remember bursting into loud laughter in a tram because I had finnaly gotten the line "it's the season to be jolly. And other things ending on olly." By then it was middle of summer.
Things like that I just love.

 

I've gone for Both. My stories tend to be humourous, but I had to 'study' a lot of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series to see how he added off-the-cuff humourous remarks and asides before I felt ready to start doing that.

Now it feels natural, but I certainly couldn't do it instinctively!

 

I'm not very good at writing really funny stories. I'm okay with parody and subtle humor - like comic relief in an otherwise serious story - but straight humor is difficult.

 

Both. Oh, and knowing a few wisecrackers never hurts. Half of my humor is based on RL stuff.

 

Darth Vader skipping through a field of dandelions to the tune of "Yummy yummy yummy I've got Love in my tummy" would be absolutely hilarious.

Doing anything out of character with Lord Vader is funny. Encountering his first werewolf, getting all paternal, finding a woman who interests him, even if not funny, still an enjoyable experience.

Also, writers, write for yourself, and do the humour that you find funny. Don't worry about the audience, cos you'll analyse your efforts out of existence.

And then, if someone appreciates your stuff enough to comment, or they understood it, it'll feel great! Besides, I was told, growing up, that humour was a sign of intelligence.

I love to throw little things out, and if people don't get it, so be it, I'll have a wry smile as I re-read it, but if they do, fireworks in the sky.

With this 'fireworks in the sky' piece, ONE reader contacted me after breaking down in laughter commuting to work. Post if you spot the amusing item.

SCENE: Twi'lek and jawa detectives checking out Darth Maul's ship after Qui-Gon's death.


She [female Twi'lek] gave an account of their situation, rattled off location coordinates, and put her arm down, rolling her eyes as the jawa brushed past her, scurrying for the scarred vessel's open and possibly booby-trapped ramp.

Time stopped for the investigator. Latin had a term for this moment - carpe jawa.

She sprang after the cloaked investigator, gripping the material at the nape of Hardcastle's neck to keep him at the base of the ramp, her own blaster and gaze aiming towards the vessel's shadowed interior.

The hooded creature looked up at her, arms spread in indignation as it gabbled an incoherent protest.

"Yeah, you and whose army?" countered the Twi'lek

 

- carpe jawa.

Wry is right - love that.

widowskywalker in her humorous Bridget Jones type piece has Darth Vader in boxers with podracers on them - it's the whole situation he's caught in that makes that one hilarious.

"Death is a part of life. You must let go of what you fear to lose. Greed is a path to the Dark Side. And your lucky numbers are 1, 3, 7 and 25."

This a quote (not mine) from another thread which was dealing with a very heated debate. I love when people throw in things like this - Yoda so out of character - again absurdity.

 

Notice how easy it is to make people laugh in the real world when they're there, and it seems funny at the time, (Like when my best friend and I saw Harrison Ford in a SPEEDO -HF is my best friend's favorite actor- so she was blushing for dayyyysssss) but when you try to put it into writing, people go...

"That looks like it's supposed to be funny! Why is it not?"

~Courtney~

 

"Death is a part of life. You must let go of what you fear to lose. Greed is a path to the Dark Side. And your lucky numbers are 1, 3, 7 and 25."

Many moons ago, I was at an Italian Star Wars Convention - big adventure for me - and encountered a SW storyzine for the first time.

One story somehow had Indiana Jones swapping with Han Solo. Darth Vader couldn't really tell the difference, got quickly disarmed with the bullwhip, stuffed in a box/sarcophagus(sp?) for transport to the British Museum.
The Dark Lord of the Sith is inside this dark box, puzzling over the encounter, and going "It's dark in here. I'm frightened. Hungry."

It was funny, but a bit mind-blowing too, since it was my first exposure to major SW fanfiction.

Oh yes, well done PadwanKayla.

 

I've rarely if ever had to try at humor. I'm a funny person naturally... though I could have been dropped on my head when I was baby so that might have something to do with it.

 

I never really thought about it. I can't write anything serious, I know that. I've tried before to BE serious, everybody laughed.

I suppose there are people who write humor with hard work put into it and everyone thinks it's funny. But, I always thought it had to be natural. Because when you are trying too hard, it seems forced. However, I'm NOT an expert. Some things I write make people laugh. And let me tell you, nothing can make a humor author more happy then that.

But, there have been some things I have writen where people didn't laugh. They were like: Ok......not funny.

And let me tell you, nothing can make a humor author feel worse then that. First time it happened to me, I cried and hated myself for a week.

But, it's something us Comical Freaks have to live with. Sometimes people don't laugh. You get bad feedback, and it hurts. But it passes, and you can go back to making people get side-stiches!

 

But, there have been some things I have writen where people didn't laugh. They were like: Ok......not funny.
And let me tell you, nothing can make a humor author feel worse then that. First time it happened to me, I cried and hated myself for a week.

Write for yourself. For your own sense of humour. If people don't get it, don't worry about it. Frag 'em.

In my own experience, it can be VERY damaging to start second guessing yourself. After a long run of humourous stories, I juggled the idea (what you call plot bunnies?) of a Victory-class Star Destroyer kidnapping an ambulance for the medical supplies or they needed a medic...and had the ambo' racing around the internal corridors in an attempt to escape.

I took some time out to discuss with myself if I had gone too far, and my creativity dried up right there! I couldn't complete a story idea for years after, and the above idea - I'm fairly sure - never made it into print. Had loads of ideas, tried writing them, but couldn't complete them.

Okay, I mnay be an exception, but based on my experience, I would say write for yourself, and if others like it, its a bonus.

 

But, there have been some things I have writen where people didn't laugh. They were like: Ok......not funny. And let me tell you, nothing can make a humor author feel worse then that. First time it happened to me, I cried and hated myself for a week.

Okay, I was a tiny bit irritated the first time someone told me my story wasn't funny, but I eventually ended up saying, "Pssh! If my sense of humour went over his/her head, I shouldn't feel bad about it!" Due to the nature of my sense of humour (which is very dry, and often pretty subtle), people sometimes don't laugh at the lines I think are the funniest. And occasionally, some random reader will get it, and laugh out loud at my favourite line.

Everyone has a different sense of humour. Something I find to be knee-slappingly hilarious isn't funny at all to someone else, and vice versa. You've just got to write what you think is funny, screw the masses.

 

You're all very right. Humor is a complicated career.
I don't obsess with what people think, but I can't help but wonder sometimes, what DID they think? I figure, if they don't like it, their probelm. Don't ever let anybody keep you from doing what you love.

 

Writing humor can be a real pain in the abacus! Accept when you're heavily caffeinated; then I seem to have no trouble making myself laugh. Making others laugh... different story altogether...