What’s fun depends on both who your readers are and the context. But at the same time, there are some basic tricks to elicit smiles and laughter. On the following pages, we give you some of humor’s most important tools.
From the beginning, humor happens by itself: It rises from the author’s personality and way of looking at the world. Some of us simply have a sharper eye for the absurd and comical in things. But whether you feel born a comedian or not, it’s a good idea to think about how humor really works and how you can use the ingredients of humor to further enrich your lyrics.
First and foremost – humor is a way to ease tension.
If we assume that a gripping story is usually characterized by ups and downs – periods filled with intensity followed by relatively calm parties – then humor can be a way to create appropriate breathing breaks for your characters, and for your readers.
Two of the greatest masters of humor, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, used to mix serious or even nasty parties, with passages filled with pleasant fun. This technique is effective for several reasons, partly as a way to keep readers on their toes (you never know what will come next), and partly as a way to give them a liberating relief when needed most. PG Wodehouse, who wrote an unlikely 96 books, was a different kind of humorist. He completely avoided the tragic and instead created charming characters whose own codes of conduct led them into trouble when confronted with other more unscrupulous characters.
What these and other great writers understand is that humor, just like any other ingredient in a novel, should not just be there for its own sake. It must fulfill a function and contribute to the story’s forward movement or the development of the characters.
Imagine a scene where an employee far down in an organization is assigned to drive the company’s board chairman to the airport. The car can get a puncture, the radio volume button can get stuck at maximum volume… you can imagine how many fun things could happen here. But when we see how the characters react to these incidents – which of course contribute to the humor – we also learn more about them. The story automatically becomes richer, with more opportunities for action and complexity.
A good way to understand how humor works in literature is to carefully read some of the masterpieces and then disassemble and analyze them. As you read, ask yourself: Why am I smiling right now? How did the author behave so that I would not expect this, at the same time as it was so spotless?
Note: Writers at Non Fiction Ghostwriting are the best in story telling
A CLASSIC AND very effective comedy scene written by Mark Twain in Tom Sawyer’s Adventures. After soiling his clothes in a fight with the new neighbor boy, he has been punished for painting “a thirty meter plank, which was three meters high”. His whole Saturday seems ruined.
He fails to bribe slave Jim to do the work for him, and he is aware that with his scarce resources he will not be able to hire any of the other boys. But then he comes up with a plan.
He decides to make the tedious job appear as a very pleasant and special occupation. When the boys arrive to laugh at him, they suddenly recover. Tom does not seem a bit broken, but is on the contrary in an excellent mood, grateful for his task. Deceived by his reluctance to let them help, they begin to shower him with treasures, ranging from tin soldiers and game balls to a dead rat in a string. When the fence is finally covered with three coats of paint, Tom has been able to enjoy a day off with fun company and also learned an important strategy in life. As Mark twain writes: “If you want to do something desirable, you just have to make it difficult to achieve.”
This is a fantastically rich scene and a very clever way to develop Tom’s character – a cocky little guy whose main interests are to do things he is not told to do, to delegate the job to other boys and to use his cunning to achieve his own benefits. The scene also gives a solid presentation of Tom’s world: a poor little cave populated by lantis, and a place one soon suspects will be too small for the clever boy Tom.
This is not fun
Taste undoubtedly plays a role when it comes to humor: What makes a person laugh can only be confusing for another, and what arouses disgust in some can be festive for others. Still, there are some things that are not fun for anyone. It is just as well that we cut them down from the beginning.
MOCKING AND MOCKING are not fun. Humor based on race or ethnicity usually falls into this category. If you write about a group that you belong to, of course this can also be ok – a Jewish man can write about his arrogant Jewish mother in a fun way – but the reader immediately understands the difference between this and an attempt to depress someone.
JOKES are fun for the person who tells them. For most others, it is most tiring.
SIMPLE INSULTS are not fun. Letting a character call some politicians “stupid in the head” does not show any great wit, and is therefore not very entertaining.
KNOCKING IN a joke degrades the humorous to something long-winded and traditional. If you deliver a witty reply, your readers will laugh. But if you repeat the joke one, two or three times, continue with it in the next scene or apply it to another character just to try to squeeze every little giggle out of it, well then you have let your audience down.
PREDICTABLE humor all too often occurs in fiction of various kinds. It also includes the inconvenience of building up expectations of some form of dividend but then delivering something worn out and tiring instead of innovating.
12 comic components
- IRONY
- SARCASM
- MISCONCEPTION
- SELF-DISTANCE
- SELF-GOODNESS
- EMBARRASSMENT
- ABSURDITIES
- SERIOUSNESS
- PERSPECTIVE
- AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION
- CLEARNESS
- EXCITEMENT
You will not be able to entertain your readers continuously, but if you yourself appreciate when it’s fun and are ready to give it a try – well then humor can be a great way to grab hold of your readers and get them to keep reading. After all, everyone loves a good laugh – and everyone will want to know what’s in that birthday present.
