writercises | Entries tagged with humor

Original Posting 6/21/2019

Writer's Digest, December 1993, pages 33-35 had an article by Frank Gannon talking about writing humor. He starts out by commiserating with us, pointing out that humor writing isn't fun, it's a lot of work. It's also easy to screw up, and gets very little respect. Still, some people want to make other people laugh.Now, humor really isn't a formula. And in fact, "Humor, like frogs, can be dissected, but neither ever lives through the process." Incidentally, just to make things worse, people laugh at different things.Now, he does suggest looking at the work of other humorists. For example, Robert Benchley who seems to write parodies, first draft sorts of pieces. Then there's S. J. Perelman, who has a more complex approach. Simple funny bits, or more baroque expositions? You may prefer one style or the other. They can both be useful.Then he suggests several humor genres that you might want to write it. Here we go!1. The psychotic monologue. First person voice of someone famous, or perhaps a fictitious person. Who feels strongly about something, but a little bit offbeat? Or you might do a psychotic dialogue?2. Found humor. Something odd catches your attention? Write it up and present it. You may want to keep a file or several files of things that catch your eye.3. Less than obvious genres. Parodies rise and fall all the time. Keep your eye out for some of the new ones. Frank mentions several that were popular at that time, including the rich person who is down-home and unpretentious, the person from a ghetto who is amazingly accomplished, and so forth. Who knows, you might start a whole new genre yourself.4. If blank were blank… If someone were someone else. Or maybe if several someones tried to do the same thing? You're trying to take something from column a and stuff it into hole B. You may need a hammer.5. Did they really say that? Start with an actual quote, but push it beyond whatever the original person intended. Yes, they were being whimsical, metaphorical, or just ridiculous, but what if it was literally true? What if they really believed it?Frank starts to wrap up by saying, "So there you have it. I feel sorry for you, but please don't breathe near me. I don't want to get it."You can chuckle at least.He points out that humor writing, funny writing, will always have a market. As long as there are (fill in the blank with whatever group or problem you don't like), "there will always be people who want to read funny stuff."So, it's up to you. You may not want to write humor all the time, but a little bit of humor goes a long way. We all like to laugh, so go ahead and tell us about it. Give us a chuckle at least.

mbarker

Original posting May 10, 2019

Writer's Digest, June 1990, pages 18-22, has an article by J. Kevin Wolfe, about writing humor. The title is "The Six Basics of Writing Humorously." The subtitle goes into more detail. "You can write funny articles, books, scripts, greeting cards – whatever – even if you don't consider yourself a comedian. Here's how to capture on paper the wealth of humor that waits within you."Sounds interesting! So let's see…Kevin starts by telling us that "deep inside each of us lurks a Bozo." He assures us that anybody can write funny. "All that's required to write comedy is a sense of humor." Aha!Then he turns to that burning question, "What's so funny?" Unfortunately, analyzing comedy often kills it. But, Kevin recommends thinking about what's funny in yourself. Your quirks, your habits, your biases, your point of view can be great sources of material. Think about what irritates you about other people, too. You might laugh at their shortcomings, but you can also look at why that irritates you. What about the problems in your own life, the tricks that fate plays on you?"None of us is perfect; our flaws make us laughable. Write a few jokes about yourself. Humor is many times a painfully honest comment about ourselves, individually and as a species."Fairly often, humorists are the butt of their own jokes. "Our lives are filled with events that can be translated into humorous stories and anecdotes. Look for them."Pay attention to your specialties. Whatever you know best, that's also what you are best qualified to joke about."Whether the humor you write grows from within you or comments on the world we live in, we can generalize to say that people laugh at two things: surprise and misfortune."Surprise? Put together two things that don't fit together. The Pope skateboarding. "Surprise humor lead you in one direction and then takes a sharp turn. When a skateboard goes flying past, you don't expect the Pope!Misfortune? The rich and famous, the poor and ethnic, life where we are, being our self. Think about the butt of the joke. Somebody gets slammed. "There is usually an element of cruelty involved here, either verbal or physical, subtle or blatant."Sometime surprise and misfortune get mixed up. Misfortune can be surprising, and vice versa.Next, Kevin takes a look at the building blocks of humorous writing. He assures us that deciding to introduce humor into your writing is more important than exactly which kind of humor you are going to write. A book with occasional humor, a television sitcom or stand-up comedy routine with a lot of humor, the big difference is the amount of humor, the intensity and style of the humor. But they use the same techniques. "To produce laughs, use these elements."The key is the joke. Just like the sentence, "the joke is the element that humor is built from." So, what's a joke? Well, anything that makes you laugh. Pay attention, take it apart, pinpoint what made you laugh, and there's a joke!Now, jokes may seem complex, but they're really made up of two parts. The setup, and the punchline. The setup introduces the elements needed to get the joke. It makes a little bubble, that the punchline bursts. The setup introduces something we relate to. The punchline delivers the surprise, casting an absurd light on that thing. Sometimes setups present a humorous concept, and then the punchline comments on that concept. For example…Setup: Mattel has a new doll – Teenage Mutant Ninja Barbie.Punchline: She's the girl next-door, provided you live next door to a paramilitary gun shop.Sometimes there are implied setups, or punchlines that start right at the beginning and then grow. Learn to spot these concealed jokes, and then you can do it yourself. The examples he gives focus on building humor, with a repeated refrain, that then gets reversed in the final punchline."It is often said that effective humor lies in the timing, the second basic element of humor-writing." Timing? Well, compare it to music. When jokes are told out loud, the setup establishes a rhythm. Stay on topic, keep the momentum going, then… Deliver the punchline. "The timing of a verbal joke also depends on the beat in the rhythm that you skipped before and after a punchline." Pause to give the audience time to absorb the setup and get ready for the punchline. The second pause? Give them a chance to laugh!Now, how do you print or write a pause? Well, sometimes a period does the job. A comma followed by and or or might do it."The sad thing about the 60s was that the three most remembered voices of the decade were those of John F. Kennedy, Walter Cronkite, and Mr. Ed."The punchline should always be the last example."When writing a humorous story, try this method to skip a beat: place some brief action in the dialogue between the set up and the punchline." Not too long. Sometimes a he said or she said is enough. Then, end the paragraph after the punchline.The third building block? Internal logic. Admittedly, your humor is going to push situations to extremes, but the logic of the situation should remain consistent. You might start with an absurd premise, but then keep it constant.The fourth element is somewhat related, internal consistency. Usually you want to stick with one type of humor, don't mix them up. Biting satire with a slapstick food fight? No. So if you start with satire, end with satire.The fifth building block, though, is that your audience expects you to be unpredictable. If you're not unpredictable, the audience may be surprised, but they're not going to laugh. Make sure the audience can't predict where you are going. When your punchlines get stale, change. Old jokes are usually predictable. Use your own fresh material. Now, plenty of humor is based on clichés, commonplace situations, stereotypes. They're predictable, and don't take very much set up. You can make them unpredictable by twisting or parodying.Last building block? "The best humor is concise." Make it short, make it quick."As I said, all humor begins with the joke, and so must you. Search out the humorous stories you have to tell. But tell them carefully; trust your audience and your writing ability. Be confident: if your writing is funny, the audience knows when to laugh."There's a sidebar that takes apart humorous stories. He looks at four different stories and analyzes them in terms of four elements: a funny opening, colorful narration, colorful characters, and a concise plot. Let's see… nope, I'm not going to try to summarize that. He's got examples of each of these, and he points out exaggeration, reverses, quirks, outrageous parodies, humorous flaws, irony, all that stuff! It's a great introduction to humor in a very short space, but you gotta read it yourself.Okay? An exercise to go with this? Well, you could take something you've read that was humorous, and see how they've used the six building blocks, jokes with the set up and punchline, timing, internal logic, internal consistency, unpredictability, and conciseness. Or, you could take something you're working on and try adding some humor. Maybe just someone telling a joke to another person, maybe a sub plot that is humorous itself. Either way, enjoy the laughs.tink

mbarker

Original posting Feb. 6, 2018

Writer's Digest, July 1990, had an article by Nancy Kress on pages 38 and 39 about coincidence. I have to admit, just reading the title reminded me of Pixar's rules of writing, specifically number 19: coincidences to get your characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

Nancy starts out by reminding us that writers are often told to avoid using coincidences in fiction. Why? Because coincidence can make a plot seem unrealistic. However, Nancy assures us that used correctly, coincidence can enhance the tension and interest of your stories. But, to use it effectively, we need to know why and when it doesn't work.

As Pixar's rule number 19 suggests, Nancy tells us that "readers will reject coincidences that resolve plot difficulties." Don't use coincidences to get your characters out of trouble!

All right, when can you use coincidence? Nancy lists four situations:

1. "When the coincidence sets up a plot complication instead of resolving it." Or as Pixar rule 19 puts it, use coincidences to get your characters in trouble. "Subsequent events, not the coincidence, deliver tension, character development, and a satisfying resolution."

2. "When the event seem remarkable or contrived at the time, but are logically explained as more information is revealed to the reader and/or the protagonist." The tension here comes from the reader wondering how could that possibly happen. Thrillers sometimes have coincidences that turn out to be the result of elaborate plans. If you're going to do this, you need to make sure that your readers understand that you are going to explain it later.

3. "When the story is humor not intended to represent any reality whatsoever." Outrageous, funny, fresh – okay, you don't have to be plausible. Wild coincidences can help with the improbable twist on reality.

4. "When the point of the story is that life is more mysterious and unpredictable than we think." Aha! If you want to show the reader that we don't really understand how the universe works, you might get away with this one. On the other hand, your story is going to have to make the coincidences seem plausible, right on the edge of possibility. Make sure that your story is tied to reality, despite the incredible strangeness that you are pointing at.

So, check your coincidences. Do they fit into one of these four types, or is it just laziness? Specifically, does your coincidence advance the story or does it just destroy the realism?

If you have a coincidence that isn't working, there's really two ways to fix it. First, Nancy suggests, go ahead and eliminate the scene. Replace it with a similar scene that is more believable. If it happens to be the climax, well, you probably will have to do a lot of rewriting. Second, though, you might try to get your coincidence to fit one of the first two uses. You may have to change the structure a bit.

In any case, control your writing. Don't try writing by coincidence!

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original Posting Feb. 9, 2016

Okay. Try this.

Go to this link

http://nickandzuzu.com/?random

See what you get. Consider that humor.

Now, can you write a scene about it? Maybe a character stumbles over that insight? What is the basic conflict here? What can you turn it into?

Write!
tink

Current Mood: laughing

mbarker.livejournal.com

Based on http://johndbrown.com/writers/my-big-draws/

Now, this is where it starts to get complicated. See, John is going to get seriously analytic here, starting with taking apart The Phantom Menace (you remember, the Star Wars movie? Jar Jar Fun Fun and other pains? Yeah, that one. Article right over here, compleat with sections, appendices and all that. Imagine, you too can have your very own Thrill-O-Meter! Go to http://www.hatrack.com/misc/phantommenace/index.shtml and read all about it!)

Quick summary: We all like sympathetic wahoo, curiosity, wanna, wonder, humor, and insight. When a story fails, you get confusion, disbelieve and disregard, mistrust, irritation and anger, and boredom. Now what we as writers want to understand is what sequence (character, setting, problem, plot) makes what effects!

Readers need to understand the situation, trust the author, and believe.

And... that's probably enough. Go read the article for more details.

So, what's that got to do with Thing 1, Lesson 3? I'm glad you asked. Basically, thing one, lesson three is about John Brown's big draws -- and yours. The same kind of thing that John does with Phantom Menace, and that we did with our list of 10 stories (you did make your list, right? And what emotions they stirred in you?) But with more detail.

First, John makes a list of the emotions that his favorite stories generate. Along with some keywords. Not just sympathy, but sympathy, rooting, justice. And he notes that this is basically story. Take a look at his list.

He also notes how he likes to feel when he's finished. When the movie ends, when you close the book and set it aside, how do you like to feel? He's got three, but you might have more or fewer.

Finally, he looked at it in terms of three or four story parts: characters, settings, problems and plots. What do you like to feel about characters? What do you like to feel about settings? What about problems? And of course, plots?

OK? So we've got our lipstick. Stories make us feel emotions. We've got our draws. What specific emotions do we like in our stories? And now, we've taken that list of emotions a little bit further. Polished up the list, looked at what we want to take away, and played a little with which emotions go with which parts of the story.

Go ahead and tidy up your lists. What are the emotions, where do you like to end up, and what do you associate with each part of the story: characters, setting, problem and plot?

And next... we'll look at thing two! How do stories do what they do (that old Black Magic?)?

Current Mood: fun fun

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original posting 3 August 1994

[just for clarification--I started to write this about July 14th. I don't even remember what the point of the argument then was, but it may still be topical, current, and not totally out of date...]

Notes on Flame Bores...
or:
How to Waste Bandwidth and Irritate Everyone

On the networks, flame baiting (posting something deliberately provocative) and flame wars are often dismissed, ridiculed, and prohibited--and far too common.

There is an underlying cycle in these cataclysmic amusements that seems to occur here (also on other network groups, but we're mostly interested in this group). This cycle runs something like:

1. Many, many submissions, crits, and other "writerly" pieces flying (this seems to be a precondition)

2. Someone posts something--a bit provocative, a bit witless, or something. (Note that this often is a posting which would pass by without comment or with very little notice on any other day of the year)

3. For some reason (often inexplicable), someone else responds with a touch of acidity or bitterness. Not especially harsh, but perhaps a bit stronger than the provocation seems to require. Often the response is fired off rapidly after writing it, without much consideration to toning down the irritation.

4. The world goes nuts. Personal attacks, grandstanding, sweeping generalizations, and all the other fallacies and befuddlements come whooshing out of whatever closet they normally are locked in. This is the classic "flame bore" syndrome seen on so many lists.

[This is usually the point where we can really identify the original post as "flame bait." In many cases, it is really a pretty innocent posting--somehow the timing, situation, and other factors have turned a minor irritant into a major trigger.]

5. [patent-pending step found here on WRITERS] Humorous seltzer bottles, laborious sandtraps of illogical analogies, and other patent-pending methods of extinguishing the blazes (or at least burying them under words) are deployed by those members of the list who manage to avoid falling under the influence of the expanding whirlpool of emotive distress. This is relatively unique on the networks. It works surprisingly well--most of our blazes get damped down in a very short time compared to some of the hotheaded conflagrations visible on other lists. Typically avoids the worst of number 6...

6. [common result on many lists] At this point, there is often a slide into flaming exits, calls to "true writers" for some kind of crusade, and other diversionary hazards. Very dangerous, although sometimes the explosive effects do disperse the original minor flickers at the expense of more major damages. (There is a certain grim irony in this step, as step one almost ensures that the "flame bore" starts as a very minor part of current postings).

Not particularly amusing, but I do see this repeated cycle in postings on the list.

My advice to everyone: Hang on when you see one starting and (as far as possible) ignore the flaming bores. Do watch for the occasional sparkling bit of writing or other wonderful fireworks display touched off by the flaming bores, but be careful playing with the embers, as they may burn your fingers.

Current Mood: muddy

mbarker.livejournal.com

original posting: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 09:56:56 EST

Today, you have been crowned head of fools and given the great scepter of burlesque. You have three chances to excite laughter or contempt by extravagant images, to lampoon, to put someone or something into the limelight of ludicrous representation, exaggerated parody, and grotesque satire. Yes, for a short time, you can ridicule a topic of your choice, presenting a ludicrous imitation, caricature, complete and utter travesty, or even a gross perversion.

What are the three topics? People, places, events, whatever...humor comes in many colors (and melts in your mind, not in your hand:) I'll even provide the numbers for you:

1.
2.
3.

As the crowned head, of course, you may choose to wield your wand yourself and bash them, bash them, knock them on their keisters... or you can ask one of your subjects to pin the tail on the donkey. So, please, either write up the buffoonery or tell us who you would like to write--and how?

(incidentally, what kind of wood has burlesques?)

Current Mood: satiric

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The Place For My Writers Notes

Entries tagged with humor

TECH: Funny Business (moldy oldie) (470 words)

TECH: The Six Basics of Writing Humorously (moldy oldie) (1200 words!)

TECH: Using Coincidence in Your Fiction (moldy oldie!)

EXER: A Random Comic?

TECH: Who knows what evil lurks in the Phantom Menace?

Notes on Flame Bores...

FILLER: Writers POLL: burlesque

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