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mbarkerOriginal 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.
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.
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