[OT] psycho_alpaca's guide on how to funny.

[u/psycho_alpaca]

Because I was inspired by this lovely post on dialogue by /u/232C, and also because people often ask me about it and also because I have to keep my mind busy on Sundays so I don't shoot myself between the eyes, I decided to write this little guide about humor writing. Bear in mind that I'm not the most qualified person in the world to write about humor (or any other subject with the exception of Jon Bon Jovi trivia, for that matter), but most of my responses here are at least an attempt at being funny, so I figured that's what I do best. Anyway:

 

HOW TO FUNNY: A RULEBOOK

 

1) You're not going to make money by making people laugh.

Humor is not a big genre, as far as popularity goes. In the pantheon of great writing, we have very few examples of immortalized authors who dedicate themselves to comedy – there's Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, maaaybe Chuck Palahniuk… and that's pretty much it (It's not. I'm forgetting people. Please let me know in the comments section, as angrily as possible). My point is: I don’t remember the last time I saw a humor novel on a best sellers list. Pure literary comedy rarely sells well. I don't know why that is, but I get a feeling it has something to do with the fact that comedy is a genre that, if not done well, reads awful. We can get through a so-so fantasy or paranormal novel (even an atrocious one like that Miss Peregrine's Home for Shitty Characters and Convoluted Plots abomination) without throwing up, but there's nothing worse than reading 300 pages of an author's failed attempt at humor. It's like watching a fish thrashing out of the water. It makes us cringe.

2) How good comedy writing can still help your not-comedy story.

That being said, most books feature humor as a subgenre (John Green is wonderfully guilty of that, and he has four books on the NYT best seller Young Adult list right now), meaning that they aren't 100% comedy books, but comedy is present throughout the story. Most Young Adult books, for example, are pretty much even mixes of comedy and drama (unless they're genre pieces like Hunger Games and the likes).

So let's talk humor from the perspective of a primarily non-funny story. The happy truth for those who enjoy being funny on paper is that a funny prose is an amazing asset for any book. It can make or break a story. We'll forgive a lot for a book with a good funny prose, just like we'll forgive someone telling us a shitty story if they tell it in a fun way. I've mentioned John Green before, but he's worth mentioning again: none of his books are pure comedies, and yet they all feature jokes and little play on words and an overall irreverent and funny prose all the way through. It's so effective that we're willing to put up with a sometimes very slow paced plot and a lot of repetition. In Paper Towns, for example, Quentin spends something like a hundred pages going from subdivisions to abandoned strip malls to school to his house without ever finding a clue on the whereabouts of Margot, but we're still reading and still entranced by the book, because Quentin's irreverent narration makes us feel like we're listening to a real and funny person talking about his real and funny life.

(It's worth mentioning that comedy won't save your book if your book doesn't have an interesting plot, though. In the end, we're still reading Paper Towns because we want to find out where the hell Margot is. And we only care about where she is because she's an interesting character and Q is an interesting character. There are layers under the funny prose keeping everything together in that book, and there should be in yours too.)

Okay. So I talked about the importance of a good joke. Now how do you do it?

Like this:

3) First rule of written comedy: Don't try be funny all the time.

I've learned this the hard way: good comedy lies on the jokes you don't make.

It used to be that, in any first draft I wrote, every few words would be a different joke. So, if I ever wrote a story like this:

"psycho_alpaca slipped on a banana peel and fell."

You can be damn sure the first draft was something like:

"The sun beat psycho_alpaca's face like alcoholic ex-boxer watching the semi-finals of the second league bocci ball tournament and getting very angry that his favorite player is losing. He took a step out of his soul-sucking house where his decrepit wife cooked dinner (or maybe the house was decrepit and the wife soul-sucking: he could never quite remember) and wasn't halfway down the street when a fucking asshole banana peel slipped itself under his shoes and sent him flying in the air like a cannon ball on crack-cocaine and then shooting back to the ground ass first like a rag doll with emotional issues."

See how weird that read? Even though these jokes might work separately, they feel forced here because they're crammed together in a single paragraph. It feels like I'm using my story as an excuse to write as many jokes as I can (which I sort of am, but the reader doesn't have to know that), instead of peppering my book with humor here and there. Good humor is sparse, and catches you off guard when you least expect it, like a good prank, or syphilis.

So by all means, write all of your jokes down on a first draft, if you can't help yourself. But then look back at it and kill most of your babies. Don't try to be funny on every line, or you'll end up not being funny at all.

4) Second rule of written comedy: good comedy comes from good characters.

You know why Harry Potter isn't funny, except for maybe a few passages along 7 books? Because Harry Potter is a boring character. The Wizarding World behind Harry Potter is incredible, and the story and things happening to and because of Harry Potter are amazing. But Harry Potter the dude is as bland as an Avril Lavigne cover of a Nickelback song. He's a blank slate protagonist, meaning he has no strong defined qualities that set him apart. He's written in a way that pretty much everyone can relate to and put themselves in his place: He's a good guy, likes his friends, breaks the rules a bit but nothing extreme, just like you'd expect from a teenager. So of course he doesn't make us laugh. Laughter comes from interesting characters, not from predictable goody-good heroes.

You know who makes us laugh the most in the novels? Even more than Fred and George? Luna (not you, Lovewell, my eternal nemesis. I mean Luna Lovegood). Luna's looney and spacey attitude is hilarious. And it works and makes us laugh because Luna herself is so interesting a character. Her ramblings about conspiracy theories and fictitious animals are golden, and lines like "I enjoyed the meeting. It was like having friends" put anything Fred and George say to shame. Why? Because Luna is not a common comic relief trope like Fred and George, nor is she a standard bland protagonist like Harry. Luna rings real, with her serene, hippie-ish aura, her weird thoughts and quirks and her backstory as the daughter of the editor of an independent counter-culture magazine. She's an incredibly interesting and rich character, and that's why she's funny. Also, by the way, why Snape can be hilarious at times, even though he's such a tragic figure.

So, to get back to the issue: if you try to make an uninteresting character funny, you're likely to have a hard time. Either you'll risk writing them out-of-character or they'll end up being… not fun. Harry can't say 'NOT MY GIRLFRIEND YOU BITCH' to Bellatrix, because that feels out of character for him. Harry's a boring twat, no way he'd say that. The most we'd get out of him would be a 'I WILL SAVE YOU BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO AND I'M BORING, GINNY'. But Molly? That line was so unexpectedly funny, and yet it retrospect, it's exactly how we'd expect Molly to react. It makes perfect sense. Again, because even Molly Weasley is a more interesting character than Harry Potter.

And now you'll ask me: but Alpaca, how do I write an interesting character?

And the answer to that, obviously, is who the fuck knows. That's what every writer is trying to do ever. Though, if people like this post, I can ramble on about how to create interesting characters in a future post.

5) Third rule of written comedy: I don't have a third rule, but I feel like two rules is too short.

Also, unexpected is funny. But not random. Like Molly's bitch line. You have to surprise your reader, but not cheat them. You want them to go 'Oh, shit, that was funny' not 'Oh, shit, that was out of character."

6) I don't care about any of that generic advice crap, Alpaca. Can't you just give me a cheat sheet of funny?

Here's what works more often than not:

-Moody people are funny. Characters who lack the patience for all this shit will make for funny moments, if you dialogue them right (see 232C post for how to dialogue good). Hell, I wrote a whole novel around a moody teenage zombie girl that derives most of its humor from the fact that she's kind of a bitch.

-Self reference. If you mention something on page two about how Daisy loves ducks, and then on page forty seven someone offers her duck for dinner in an attempt to win her heart and then all of a sudden a bunch of duck-murder-related things start happening, the reader will feel like they're 'in' on the joke because they 'get' the duck references. Seriously. Pattern recognition. It's a thing.

-Have a wild card character. Every good story has one. John, from John Dies at the End. Zaphod from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Bachman, from Silicon Valley. A crazy, alcoholic, party-monster side character goes a long way.

-Use bad words very carefully. The word 'fuck' is like a very very big and shiny golden necklace. Sure, it can work, but only in very specific situations. Most times it'll just seem like you're trying too hard.

---

Anyway, I hope this helps and inspires some people. I see very few good comedy works out there… it'd be nice to have more writers working on making us laugh.

Cheers!

[u/FyreFlu]

What about self-deferential humor?

I'm not asking for me, I'm too garbage to be funny, but just for a friend.

[u/cmp150]

Thanks alpaca. I'm really going to take this to heart and try to pepper in humor here and there for my projects.

I love this line though,

Good humor is sparse, and catches you off guard when you least expect it, like a good prank, or syphilis.

[u/[deleted]]

Great guide, if I ever manage to finish writing some stories again I will sure try to include a bit of humor in it :)

[u/TheSlyPig04]

This was super helpful. As an aspiring writer inspired by Douglas Adams and co. I want to thank you from the bottom half of my smartphone.

I'm going to buy both of your books as soon as possible. I'd also love to read your ramblings on how to make an interesting character!

[u/Spoon_stick]

Though, if people like this post, I can ramble on about how to create interesting characters in a future post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3HemKGDavw

[u/YJSubs]

Use bad words very carefully. The word 'fuck' is like a very very big and shiny golden necklace. Sure, it can work, but only in very specific situations.

Not directly on writing, but i think many comedians these days use it as an easy way to get laugh from live audience.
The F become a punchline of some sorts.
I don't like it.

It's rare to find a comedian that never/rarely curse on their live show these days :(

[u/LeBeauMonde]

Thanks for putting together such a post - always nice to see write ups like these

I am going to contend with your first point though. I think there is a huge market in comedy writing. Some of the most popular "classic" writers were humorists and brilliant in their craft - Mark Twain and Charles Dickens were celebrities for their enormously popular comedy. Jane Austen comes to mind - the plays of Oscar Wilde or George Bernard Shaw.

And well, there's William Goldman, PG Wodehouse, Woody Allen, Dave Berry, Joseph Heller, Hunter S Thomson, John Kennedy Toole, Bill Bryson, Steve Coogan, Jerome K Jerome, Albert Brooks, David Sedaris ... All well known and successful. And then there is all the comedy writing in TV and movies.

I'm afraid I simply disagree completely.

[u/I_am_fed_up_of_SAP]

Please let me know in the comments section, as angrily as possible

Jerome friggin' K Jerome

[u/hermionebutwithmath]

Very good post, but I am and forever will be wounded to the core by any insult of Harry Potter, true or not.

[u/[deleted]]

A few reasons why Deadpool was received so well!