Writing 201: Humour
Greetings and … checks the thesaurus snickering! It works damn you! Today the great Lady Verbosa (Anne Winchell) and I (Vivian Sayan) are together making this blogpost in a new format, we hope you’ll find this enlightening and entertaining!
The master plan
(Anne:) We plan on accomplishing several goals in this blogpost. First, we’ll talk about humour itself, what it is and why it matters. Then, in an exciting twist, we’ll break from strict blog format to present a list of pretty much every type of humour we could think of along with descriptions that might even be humorous in and of themselves! We’ll move to the times when humour doesn’t work, then into the purpose of humorous characters and how to write them. Finally, Vivian and I will give some advice before signing off. Sound good? Okay! Master plan established; Vivian, start us off!
What is the purpose of humour?
(Vivian:) Honestly, the exact purpose of humour is still debated in scientific circles. It is however believed that humour is a group cohesion building exercise by making everyone in the group enjoy something together in some abstract manner (generally) where no one is harmed. But as Anne and I will discuss later, there are many types of humour and all can be used for this, even the ones where people make fun of each other (or outgroups) to build this cohesion of one group and bonds.
(Anne:) In writing, humour can be used to connect the reader to the characters and world by taking advantage of that connection and making the reader part of the ingroup. Not only does the humour work in the world of your book, but also in reader engagement. Humour hooks readers, even in books that aren’t specifically humorous. Even the most serious books need some comic relief, or the reader will be overwhelmed! One of the purposes of humour in writing is to give your reader a rest and tie them closer to your characters at the same time. Or, depending on the humour, it may repel the reader. That’s why you, the author, have to be careful about choosing what humour to use! Always keep the reader in mind.
(Vivian:) Damn the reader! ....wait
Blog vanishes into the aether
What is humour?
(Vivian:) One way to simply define humour is, generally speaking, phrases, words, sequences, scenes or anything that does not involve the person but is conveyed through any other means to the person, that they find entertaining in some way and makes them feel better through joy. It is not perfect but I feel it is sufficient, what do you think Anne?
(Anne:) I agree, keeping in mind that humour can be physical, not just language-based. I’m also not sure joy is the right word. I would go more for pleasure, because sometimes humour is quite malicious, and while the audience definitely takes pleasure in it, it isn’t necessarily joy. As a base definition, though, this is definitely a good start!
(Vivian:) Definitely! Definitions are not necessary to be perfect as the variation of life always allows for edge cases and contradictions, as long as they get the general idea across. Your additions are absolutely correct including the pleasure one. Let’s move onto the next segment–start us off!
Why does humour matter?
(Anne:) In life and in writing, humour relieves tension, builds community, and makes us laugh (or at least inwardly smile). When writing, you want to use humour as a tool to help with pacing, mood, and character development. In terms of pacing, humour gives your reader a moment of levity. This is good and necessary, but you have to time it well. Later we’ll talk about how it needs to link with the emotional beat, because it’s vital that the humour add to the story and what you’re building, not detract from it.
In terms of mood, humour can actually have many effects depending on the type of humour it is. Generally, though, it tends to lighten the mood at least temporarily. This can be accomplished not just by characters, by the way, but by the environment or by events. As the writer, you can arrange things to create humorous situations even if it’s not directly linked to a specific character.
And character is where we get the biggest reason why it matters. Humour helps us understand characters. We judge people based on their sense of humour. How often do you see people say that a sense of humour is the most important thing they look for in a partner? It’s extremely important. In addition, the way that people react to humour is extremely telling. Do they laugh? Get offended? That reveals a lot about the character, and you can use humour in character interactions to show a ton of information. The goal in writing is to show, not tell, and humour is great.
Overall, humour is vital in telling your story, and you shouldn’t neglect it. Even the most serious stories need moments of levity. You don’t need someone constantly cracking jokes, but you might have a bit of snark, or have a character find humour in some observation. The breaks in mood and the effects on pacing are so important, so even if you want your book to be deadly serious, look at the types of humour below to find something you can fit in.
Subjectivity of humour
(Vivian:) Is humour inherently subjective? Very much so; it is based on culture, life experiences, and very much how you view the world as an individual. This, however, does not mean everything flies. Some kinds of humour will always be harder to pull off than others, others are easier, and some will be nigh impossible. Certain types of humour are such that if you pull it off with the audience, you’re in the wrong crowd even because the values contained within are absolutely atrocious. Anne and I will not place judgements on it within the blog, but I believe how we speak and stand on here stand for what kinds we will consider good and appropriate.
Always be careful when it comes to picking the type, the punchline, and what you actually punch at. And most importantly, context means everything. If the context is wrong, everything falls flat. As linguists say when it comes to everything in language, and it applies to humour, context, context, context, those three are the most important parts to landing a joke.
Common types of humour
Accidental
(Vivian:) This one can easily overlap with skadeglädje (check further down) because a lot of accidents are funny because they are painful. But it doesn’t have to be someone getting an eggball into the crotch and falling over! It can be more subtle things, two or more innocuous things that are just randomly happening and then combine to make something funny. A rather crude one I can make up on the spot is to imagine one of those Las Vegas street signs with colours flashing that is a peeled up banana halfway and superheroes are fighting, and, in the process, knocks the sign off, and it flies off the building. Down the street below stands a person and looks up, sees the banana falling down and screams, diving for cover and clunk. The banana goes peeled up part down the manhole just besides the dude. You all got the mental image? Accidental happenings that come together to make a funny, if crude, image that we laugh at. 🍌🕳️
Cheerful/Light
(Anne:) You’re in a great mood heading into the office, and you pass a coworker with whom you’re friendly. Instead of just the usual greeting, you make a light joke that brightens their day as well! Cheerful, light humour tends to be pretty surface level and tends not to be anything negative about the person being addressed. While audience is always important, it’s especially important here so that it comes off as cheerful and not flippant or sarcastic. The person has to understand that you’re genuinely being good-natured, and there’s no underlying darkness. A lot of people tend to assume the worst of others or else are extremely self-conscious, and either way, a lighthearted joke might seem like something else.
It’s not though! It’s just a light joke about some shared thing or a common experience intended to lighten the mood. Characters might do this when things get tense. A light remark can break the mood, though that’s a case where being too cheerful might come across as sarcasm.
(Vivian:) You know what the worst part about you is, Anne?
(Anne:) No?
(Vivian:) Darn, I had hoped you could have told me because I got nothing! Some mysteries are not meant to be solved I guess.
Dark/Morbid
(Vivian:) As the name suggests, this is from the dark aspects of life: deaths, trauma, wars, literally anything that can give you PTSD is done here. Why do people joke about these? Because it is a way to alleviate the seriousness of them and a way to cope with it. Life is dark and horrible and sometimes, you need to crack a joke about something just to handle it before the horrors hit you like a train later.
(Anne:) This is also known as gallows humour or whistling past the graveyard. One thing to note, though, is that it’s a lot different when the person making the humorous remark is the person or in the group in the dark or morbid position doing this humour. Someone telling a joke about another person or group’s pain hits different. They both can work, but it has a different impact, and not everyone appreciates people using their pain as a joke when they haven’t suffered in a similar way.
(Vivian:) Times were tough during the pandemic we just got out of. Fortunately my dad had the fortitude to not catch it and get worse. He didn’t get any more dead during the whole ordeal!
And yes, my dad has been dead since before the pandemic, just so we are in the clear.
(Anne:) Wow, way to bring down the post, Vivian! At least you have a way to joke about it, unlike–
(Vivian:) MY MOTHER!
Denigrating
(Anne:) Denigrating humour is generally when you punch down at another person. Normally the rule on humour is to punch up, as it’s generally seen in broader society as better or more correct to make fun of people with power. But that’s not always the case! Sometimes it feels good to make fun of people. You see this a lot with bullies, for example, or in other relatively abusive relationships. The target tends to be either oblivious or hurt/offended, but it’s funny to the speaker/character and often to bystanders (depending on their sense of humour, again, humour is subjective).
One time when most people think it’s okay to punch down is when you’re a member of the group that you’re mocking/insulting. That’s considered an “acceptable target,” as Vivian puts it.
(Vivian:) A thing to remember is that what is an acceptable target is very much context and society dependent. What once was a socially acceptable target is no longer and what can be in a small group that you hang out with can stop being an acceptable target when you’re in another group.
(Anne:) Good point! Context is everything. We’ve all heard of locker room humour, which is generally pretty sexist humour that wouldn’t be acceptable in other settings but for some reason is excused there. Honestly, if humour remains in that private setting, it’s sometimes harmless. However, a lot of men internalise the denigration of women from locker room humour and carry it into their everyday interactions with women. You also get situations (specific to America, I think) where white people make racist jokes, and again, it tends to reveal their prejudice and carry into everyday life. Context matters, and a lot of humour can’t work in the general public. If you’re trying to show prejudice in your character, though, this is a great way to do it!
There are also a few groups that are acceptable targets even if you’re not in them. For example, a lesbian can joke about how lesbians are disasters when it comes to dating and never realise that the other woman is into them. This is light enough and well known enough (in many circles) that it might go over well regardless of who’s saying it. Lawyers and landlords are also generally acceptable targets (in American culture) regardless of who is making the comment or joke, and a few other groups. You can usually call IT people nerds, which is a light insult, but fits a cliche that people are almost always okay with. Once you get into real insults though, even members of the group can’t always get away with it. There’s a wide range of denigration that occurs in jokes.
(Vivian:) A quick side note, in Sweden, landlords would not be an acceptable target because here, they are not viewed in a negative light due to the laws and requirements they are under. Anyway, a classical type of denigrating humour is self deprecation, where a person is punching on themselves downward.
(Anne:) Oh, I forgot about self deprecation. I’m such an idiot. And of course I only consider American culture, being an American. We’re so self-obsessed! But obviously the world revolves around America, so it’s only natural! Still, how foolish of me to only think of myself. Come look at the selfish American, everyone!
Self deprecation can be humorous to the audience, but also the speaker/character too. It also reveals character. Characters who can make fun of themselves tend to be more endearing to the reader (and people who can laugh at their own shortcomings are fun), but do it too much, and it’s a red flag. Instead of looking like a joke, it looks more like an honest admission, and it shows that you have little or no self respect. Now, you might want to show that in a character! But be warned, readers get tired of this pretty quickly, which is another reason not to overdo it.
(Vivian:) Self deprecation can also be used as a mark of humility when it is in the appropriate amount. That the character does not think of themselves too highly and even be used as a tool to make them more relatable to other characters.
Dirty
(Anne:) I’ll leave this one to Vivian as it’s zhir cup of tea!
(Vivian:) You are being very chromist! Who doesn’t like a dirty joke? Wait, what even is a dirty joke? It is generally jokes related to sex or reproduction. As sexual creatures, you humans, and most aliens, require some mechanism to interact with other individuals involving some organs to deposit or receive genetic material. Riveting commentary eh?
Biology aside, this means that it is an intimate part of our behaviour and how we relate to each other. This means that humour can be derived from insinuating or hinting at this in situations where it is not befitting. Like the example above in Accidental, who imagines a penis in a vagina during a climax of a film? It is absurd and dirty and it makes it funny. It is because of our experience of how a penis and vagina works that a banana in a manhole de-rails our brain into thinking it is like sex.
(Anne:) Note: some people get super offended at this, and sometimes the fact that they’re offended or the way that they respond is also funny!
(Vivian:) And sometimes you can get so offended you cannot help but laugh at it because it overwhelms your brain!
Flat
(Vivian:) It is a table! The ground! Floor uh uh…PIECE OF PAPER! No wait, it is Bleep
(Anne:) Booo! That joke sure fell flat, Vivian you perverted Limax! But I’m no better. As a professor, I always try to lighten the mood and make things more memorable through jokes. When I was closer in age to the students, it often worked well! However, I’m now twice the age of my college freshman who I typically teach, and my jokes are outdated with references no one gets. Now, don’t get me wrong, my students still all laugh, but it’s the kind of forced, awkward laugh of people trying to placate the person who controls their grades. And even worse, sometimes they don’t even realise it’s a joke!
Those are examples of a joke falling flat, and it has its purpose in writing.
Fourth Wall
(Anne:) Have you ever seen a movie or film where the characters suddenly turn and address you, the audience, directly? That’s fourth wall humour, or more specifically, breaking the fourth wall. It’s funny because it becomes an inside joke between you and the character, like they’re letting you in on their world and asking you for your perspective, inviting you to participate in the story. The show The Office was chock full of this as characters were constantly looking at the camera during scenes as if to ask, “Can you believe this bs?” It called attention to the absurdity of the various scenarios and gave the audience permission to laugh even more because we know the character is fully aware of how crazy things are and is willing to share that with you.
(Vivian:) From Deadpool:
Fourth wall break inside a fourth wall break? That’s like….sixteen walls!
Not sure about the maths there…
(Anne:) That’s a great example of how it can be funny! However, breaking the fourth wall can also be done in a serious way. In House of Cards, the main character talks to the audience as he… Well, if you’re squeamish about cruelty to animals, you might not like what happens in literally the first five minutes. You know the adage in storytelling that no matter how many people you kill, you can’t kill the dog (or cat)? Yeah, it takes the opposite approach. That’s not funny at all. So the fourth wall isn’t automatically humorous.
Basically, fourth wall humour exaggerates other types of humour by revealing the character’s self-awareness that they’re in a story and bound by certain rules that they might just break by stepping outside of that box. It connects the audience and character directly, moving beyond the restrictions of the storytelling medium to communicate person to person. When the character has witty observations about their current situation or just looks at you in exasperation as they find they’ve been pranked in some way, audiences tend to find it funny. Depending on genre and style, your entire story might be like this, like The Office, or it might just be the occasional break in the fourth wall that highlights a particularly humorous moment.
Inside
(Anne:) You’ve probably noticed some back and forth between me and Vivian. We tease each other a lot (see teasing below), and in addition, we have quite a few inside jokes. An inside joke is something that is funny to you and a friend or group of friends even if it’s not funny to anyone else.
(Vivian:) But Anne! How do you as a writer set these up so the readers will get them?
(Anne:) Wow, what a great question! (No sarcasm! See sarcasm below). Setting up inside jokes can actually be really fun. Normally, inside jokes are things that aren’t funny except for one instance that you and your friends shared, and then you bring it up again to repeat that humorous instance. In books, this is exactly what you can do. Have a moment early on in the book and relationship where something innocuous happens, but for whatever reason, it stands out as either humorous or just significant. Then, throughout the book, you can have characters refer back to it to create humorous moments. This is great if the initial happening is important to the plot, as it keeps it in the reader’s mind and also shows the connections between characters.
Another great thing about inside jokes is that it brings people closer together, so you can show characters strengthening their relationships by having these inside jokes. You might have two characters who just met a wizard who’ll be joining them on their quest. She casts lightning and accidentally hits herself, singeing off her eyebrows. After that, the other two will probably be ruthless with their humour. They may have all just met, but now they have something that connects them. Whenever she’s about to cast a spell, they might crack a joke that they hope she doesn’t try lightning, or if she has to cast a lightning spell, they might comment on how they hope she doesn’t care about her eyebrows. And while her eyebrows are growing back, there will definitely be teasing!
(Vivian:) On top of that, imagine them going into a classical inn! She sits there and finds a guy that just looks so handsome, and everyone knows it is a temporary crush but still wow. One of her new friends goes over, talks with Mr. Handsome, and over they come to her. The friend goes, “This is my friend X. X, I told him how much you really love his eyebrows snickers”
(Anne:) I love the example! It’s little, it’s silly, but it shows that they share something unique to them. Everyone else is probably puzzled at why it’s funny, but it makes sense to them. Inside jokes are a wonderful way to build group cohesion and friendships both in life and in writing. Just make sure you set them up well, and as a bonus, you’re letting your reader in on the joke as well so they grow closer to the characters and become part of the ingroup.
(Vivian:) Please set it up so consumers or readers learn the joke with characters, don’t explain it through exposition or the likes after. It kills the joke.
(H)Irony
(Vivian:) A friend of mine's child couldn’t say “Irony” so they said “Hirony” instead, no one knows why; it is funny to this day.
(Anne:) Great example of silly humour there! Irony is a fun one because it can involve all sorts of story elements, not just characters. Irony is when you use language or have a state of affairs that’s opposite of what you’d expect, resulting in humour. With character-oriented irony, you can create this in the character themselves, like having a character’s outward appearance contrast with their personality, resulting in humorous interactions. If you have a big, gruff character who’s actually a teddy bear, you could get some fun scenes where they scare off people while trying to befriend them. There’s a great moment to build character and inflict trauma on your characters! You can also of course have it in conversation, with characters deliberately using language at odds with reality. You might have two characters who hate each other using overly polite language and praise, and the reader might find it humorous to see how the two use politeness to stab at each other.
One specific subsection of this is dramatic irony, when the story itself might not be humorous, but you the reader are able to see things that the characters can’t, and that more omniscient view results in humour. Dramatic irony is used in things other than humour, by the way, and can be seen in a lot of dramatic plays. Modern media uses it, too. If you’re making a movie about the Titanic, we the audience all know how it’s going to end. But you might have the characters commenting on the sturdiness of the boat and availability of lifeboats (audience: lol that’s a lie!) and how beautiful the icebergs look as they lean over the edge (audience: lol watch out!). You can see how the audience’s knowledge creates humour that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
Parody
(Vivian:) This is when you take something that was done straight and without humour and make fun of it somehow.
(Anne:) Many of my favourite movies are parodies of some sort. The classics by Mel Brooks are great examples, and more recently (well, recently in comparison to those, I’m still talking like twenty years ago) the Scary Movie films were great. I have to admit that I haven’t seen a good parody since then, at least that I can think of. Parodies capitalise on the most recognizable elements of a story and concentrate and exaggerate them, often eliminating the subtleties of the original and just hitting the audience over the head with those selected characteristics.
Physical/Slapstick
(Anne:) This type of humour is, as you might guess, physical! It’s often considered low brow humour because it appeals to the masses. Some of it shares its humour with accidental humour, since people doing things like stepping on a board and it flying up to slam into their face are examples. However, this is considered slapstick humour, not accidental. It’s really common in old black and white movies (Charlie Chapman made an art of it) and also cartoons, since it appeals to kids as well as adults. However, you’ll see it all over the place.
It’s different from accidental humour in that it’s deliberate in some way. Either the person knows what they’re getting into (or thinks they do!) or, if it’s a movie or book, the creator does. One other difference is that no serious harm is done. In fact, it’s rare that any harm is done. Even an anvil dropping on your head just results in a huge bump and some circling birdies that go away soon. As a writer or creator yourself, you can bring in physical humour as a way to break up scenes and add something a little less intellectual. People don’t want their brains challenged all the time, after all. Sometimes we just want to see some physical calamity that ends with a laugh and no permanent harm.
Potty
(Vivian:) It involves bodily functions, usually not sex but the other ones. This is especially funny when you’re a kid!
(Anne:) That’s similar to physical humour in its appeal to kids, and potty humour tends to focus on physical things as opposed to high brow intellectual humour!
(Vivian:) If it involves faeces or urine, this is the kind of humour. It has a tendency to become less funny as you grow up but we all can remember instances as adults where something involving those were actually funny.
Pranks
(Anne:) People seem to either like to pull pranks or hate them. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who’s neutral on them. Pranks are tricks designed to embarrass or hurt another person without their knowledge in front of other people for the amusement of those other people. While there are some harmless pranks, most of the ones I’ve seen have significant negative impacts on the target, and all of them are nonconsensual on the part of the target unless they’re staged. Even when staged, they’re made to look like the target has no knowledge.
This is also the go-to excuse for when someone hurts someone else, or does something to humiliate them in public:
“It was just a prank. Get a sense of humour already!”
So yeah, I don’t think they’re funny at all, and they generally make me lose absolutely all respect for the person who pranks someone else. However, some people find them really funny! (In my mind, only bullies find them funny, but hey, the world has plenty of those!). Ahem, I’m probably the wrong person to talk about this one! Vivian, what are your thoughts?
(Vivian:) Little does she know what awaits her behind the door… Pranks can be done in a good natured manner, it all depends on the person, relationships, sense of humour and the likes. The bigger the prank is, the stronger your initial relationship must be and you can easily overestimate it and lose friends and loved ones. Drops ice water on Anne’s head
(Anne:) [CANCELLING VIVIAN NOW]
Haha nah, we’ve got a good relationship, and I would just plot my revenge. 😈
Puns
(Vivian:) You know what really hurts? Getting hit by a p-anne! Yeah yeah kill me. We all know puns play on words/sounds to make the dumbest jokes possible but they are still somehow funny.
(Anne:) Sadly Vivian’s name doesn’t lend itself to puns very well, I’m just sayan. 😂 Okay that might not be especially funny (though I’ve definitely heard that in the context of Dragon Ball Z), but you get the point! Puns can be pretty funny, and this is typical Dad Humor, too. Almost all dad jokes are puns of some sort, and I personally enjoy them when done well.
Sacrilegious
(Vivian:) What is there to say? Jokes based on religious beliefs, or more, the violation of them. How well this goes over depends on the culture. A dumb one from my own culture of Limaces with their main deity Divinum: What does Divinum shout when zhi stubs zhir toe? “ME!”
Sarcasm/Snark
(Anne:) Vivian almost didn’t let me put this in its own category because zhi doesn’t consider it as its own humour. Aliens have such a good sense of humour, amirite?
(Vivian:) Gee thanks for throwing me under the bus.
(Anne:) Sure, that’s exactly what I was doing 🙄 Sarcasm is often done through tone of voice as opposed to the actual words, but as you can see, italics work too! Basically, it’s when you say something and mean the opposite, so it’s a little like irony in that respect, but you make it obvious that you mean the opposite through tone of voice, or, in writing, through italics or some other direct statement that it’s sarcasm.
Snark is similar but a little more direct, and it’s cutting remarks that don’t quite contradict someone but are clearly meant as an insult or mocking comment. The person this is directed at often feels insulted, but it can create humour for other listeners or be a means of relief and pleasure for the speaker/character. Of course, some people just like sniping at each other.
(Vivian:) You don’t say? 😒😁
(Anne:) I’m so happy to have someone as smart as you helping with this section! Aren’t Vivian’s demonstrations sooo useful? But yeah, that’s sarcasm and snark!
Self-aware/Meta
(Vivian:) Let me get the rant out of the way first deep breath
Can people, series, and stories please stop being meta self aware and then instantly piss all over it!?
Seriously some started it and now everyone wants to do it, it is BORING now. It is literally no longer funny!
Okay, self-aware humour can be funny still, but you gotta do it real smart these days. What is self-aware, meta humour? It is when the story and characters nudge, and notice I say nudge and not “slam into”, the genre, medium, or more that they exist in. If they are too explicit, it is the bad kind. A good self-aware humour punchline should be subtle and feel integrated into the story and not like they are talking to the audience. This goes for all humour, but so much more so here. You mention a trope and do it? You’ve done it wrong. A bad example I can think of easily is that the universe itself has similar media, and they make a reference to a trope that you are clearly, as a writer, not going to invoke, that is common but is subtle about it. SUBTLE! The whole “If this was a TV show you’d kiss me now” thing is trite as some kind of self-aware BS about romance garbage.
A better one from scifi space opera showing this: Forcefield prisons. The character goes:
“You know what would be great now? Force Fields.”
“Why?”
“We could wait for a power outage and then escape without doing work.”
“I think that is why they don’t do that.”
“I know, one can dream.”
Sure it is still on the nose but you the thing is, it is not a huge “HAHAHAHAH” laugh, but a small “hah”, kind of self-ware joke. FYI, this is why I don’t have forcefield prisons in my writing.
Skadeglädje (Schadenfreude)
(Anne:) Did you take delight in Vivian’s anger about self-aware humour? I sure did! Ah, the joys of seeing zhim suffer at the thought of humour that references its genre or medium. That pleasure that you’re feeling (I’m not alone in this, right?) is schadenfreude. Vivian insisted on putting the Swedish word here, but I’ll be using the German because it’s what I’m familiar with. And if zhi complains, it’ll just increase my malicious pleasure.
Bottom line, people are evil. We like seeing other people suffer sometimes, especially if it’s deserved. Seeing someone get their comeuppance is wonderful, and creates the kind of pleasure and joy that may not make everyone laugh out loud, but certainly causes the levity and break from seriousness that humour entails.
(Vivian:) As we say in Sweden, “Skadeglädje är den enda sanna glädjen” (Skadegädje is the only true happiness/joy)
(Anne:) …Swedes…
(Vivian:) Alien residing in Sweden, thank you very much.
Teasing
(Vivian:) Teasing is technically humour at someone else's expense. The difference is that this form is more gentle and does not attack huge things, and the intention is to affirm a positive relationship between the joker and the jokee. When it comes to teasing humour, the worse it seems for an outsider the more it affirms a stronger positive relationship and trust between the people.
(Anne:) That trust is such a key thing. You trust the other person to understand the love behind the insult, and they trust your intention. Teasing can be quite fun! Of course, Vivian, being an alien, has absolutely no sense of humour and wouldn’t understand.
(Vivian:) Nope! What are jokes? But yes, trust is a crucial component of this category.
(Anne:) It’s sometimes interesting to see how strong your relationship with someone is by seeing whether they understand that you’re teasing or think it’s something else. There’s a lot of teasing in flirting, and you both have to be on the same page about it for the relationship to develop!
(Vivian:) Flirting is definitely not something my autistic ass can understand. But using teasing between characters is a quick and easy way to show how close they are regardless of the details of the relationship!
Twists/Reversals
(Anne:) Twists and reversals are classic humour. You set up a scene, and how do you bring immediate humour? Turn it on its head! People will laugh at the absurdity and at the unexpected joy of having their expectations subverted. Sometimes this is set up in the scene itself, with the characters or scenario subverting audience expectations from the beginning. Sometimes the subversion will happen at the end, when something new happens that defies expectations. When these happen, the creator needs to know what the audience expectations will be, which requires a keen understanding of subtext. You can find out more about subtext in this post. Basically, if the culture that your audience belongs to holds certain stereotypes or archetypes or expectations, you need to know what they are and do the opposite in an exaggerated and overstated way.
Do the people you’re writing to expect men to propose to women, as is traditionally the case in the West (or at least my area of expertise, America)? Then have the woman propose! However, just jumping to that wouldn’t have much impact, because the audience would just assume this is modern where that tradition isn’t always true anymore. To make this funny, you’d need to establish that this follows traditional gender roles. Once you’ve entrenched your audience’s assumptions, that’s the time for the twist! Reverse those expectations, and if you’ve set it up right and exaggerate the reversal, you can get an astonished, shocked, and delighted laugh from at least some viewers. The only danger is if you choose something that’s regularly subverted or you hint at your twist too much. People will expect it, and it completely loses its punch. No one will laugh then.
(Vivian:) if you are going to do this in alien cultures you need to spend a good while establishing the expectations for the readers/viewers. So it can be a set up that starts on page one and the punchline isn’t until 75% because you used a lot of that time to set up their expectations.
WTF/Nonsense
(Vivian:) Ever seen a thing happen, real life or mostly on TV, or heard jokes where your mind is for the briefest of moments trying to figure things out before you give up and start laughing because it is all so absurd and insane? This is WTF humour. Something happens so out of nowhere that all expectations are violated, and your brain simply cannot make sense of it so it gives up and starts laughing. The entire point here is to make it as absurd, as weird, and as out of left field as possible, and overload the brain in such a way that it becomes funny. The less sense it makes, the better. The humour from these kinds of events is generally that our brains cannot place whatever is going on into one of the many neat boxes we have of how life is that it has to be something funny just to deal with it. If you are uncertain, laugh!
Opposite of humour (seriousness)
(Vivian:) The penultimate battle has happened; the heroes and protags have fought bravely and barely escaped with their lives. One or two of them are now in critical condition and are standing at death’s doorstep. The others are doing everything to help, and emotions are high, but everyone is doing what needs to be done. Barely a word is said between the conscious members. One, however, sits near one of the dying ones holding their hand barely able to hold themselves together.
And someone cracks a fucking joke and the entire mood of seriousness and life and death is out the window flying away like a winged monkey.
Don’t mix
(Anne:) As you can see, this is a place where humour shouldn’t be added to a serious situation, or at least not that kind of humour. At this point in the story, the reader’s attention needs to be on the struggle for survival and specifically zeroing in on the one character holding the injured party member’s hand. We’re setting up for a significant moment, and it’s shattered. So why doesn’t this work? Well, a primary reason is the movement of the scene itself and how it focuses on the injuries and desperate struggle for survival. This is a mood and situation that the story seems to want to continue to build and expand on, so you don’t want to derail it. In addition, this is a long-anticipated moment.
It’s common for your protagonists to get crushed in the penultimate battle and face the “dark night of the soul,” as it’s known in the Hero’s Journey (which you can read more about here!). The characters have to face their darkest fears and overcome everything to gather their courage for another try when they will or will not be successful (usually depending on your book’s genre). At this moment, you want to be focused on that darkness, not some flippant joke. Who the hell gave that idiot permission to speak in the first place? As a creator, you need to keep careful watch over your characters to prevent them from destroying the mood, pacing, plot, character development, and even worldbuilding going on in significant, serious moments.
So basically, make sure moments that are significant maintain the seriousness they deserve, and if you want to carry a serious mood from one scene to the next or build up tension and conflict in the reader (which you definitely want to do sometimes!), don’t give them the release that humour offers.
Do mix
(Vivian:) Let’s change the scene slightly so it works with a joke! Anne can explain why after. No one has cracked a joke; the seriousness continues on. The friend holding the hand feels the other squeeze it gently and quickly looks up. The person there is slowly waking up and turns to face their friend. The one holding their hand looks at them and says, “You’re awake! How are you feeling?”
Their friend looks back, smiling weakly. "Y'know, I never knew how a squashed bug felt. Remind me to never smack them again."
(Anne:) This version makes such a difference from the first for a variety of reasons. First has to do with tone. While the first version had a random character “crack a joke,” this scene stays dark with gallow’s humour. When you want to maintain a serious tone, dark or morbid humour is often the way to go because it doesn’t divert the audience’s attention but rather keeps the focus on whatever is making the situation serious. The fact that it’s the injured character saying it has more impact as well. They’re the one directly impacted, so their joking is seen as a way to try to alleviate their fears as opposed to someone who’s fine making light of the situation.
This also continues the focus and flow of the scene. Before, the audience’s attention was totally thrown off by the joke; they’re jolted into paying attention to this other random character. Here, we follow the story’s increasing focus on these two characters, and it only gets closer as their relationship is developed through this interaction. So much is said about that relationship without any explanation. That’s the type of continued development you want, and the joke serves to increase character development and the story as opposed to wreck it. Since this is the “dark night of the soul” where people face their fears, this is an excellent way to develop the plot. Personally, I think the injured character is going to die and leave the other one distraught and barely able to continue until they vow to avenge their friend’s death! But what do you think will happen?
Humorous characters
(Anne:) We’ve talked about types of humour, but that’s stuff anyone can do! Characters, authors, all sorts! What about those characters whose sole purpose is to bring humour to a story?
Reactive Humour
(Vivian:) I am stealing this! Reactively humorous characters are the kind of characters that tend to utilise the situation itself and how people are behaving in order to make the jokes. There can be many kinds of characters: the smart witty character that always has a response to the antag’s statements to make the antag look like a fool and make us, and even people in the world, laugh, fits right here.
Given they have to react to what is around and happening on a moment's notice, a common trait for these kinds of humorous characters is that they are quick to think and generally intelligent in order to quickly come up with something witty and funny. Of course, you as a writer can take all the time in the world, but not the character!
Proactive Humour
(Anne:) If Vivian can steal reactive humour, then I’ll be proactive and steal this! Mwahaha! Anyway, characters who use proactive humour are those that strike first, so to speak. They start cracking jokes and doing a bit of slapstick before anything happens. Generally, these characters fall into the archetype of Jokesters or Comedic relief, which we’ll talk about in a second. Not always, but usually. These characters don’t have to be quick on their feet, but they do need a sense of when to break into the action with a joke. It might also be you the creator making a joke with them through accidental humour. A clumsy character might trip and shift the audience’s focus to something different. But the one thing this humour has in common, whether it’s a character choosing to do it or being a pawn in your clever hands, is that it happens when nothing else is really going on, and it isn’t in response to anything specific. Characters who embody this are frequently used to get the story moving in a different direction, change the mood, or just do something to shift the story.
Jokesters
(Vivian:) The funny guy! The …very funny guy! The …never ending funny guy …the one that will never stop being the funny guy …the one that just keeps on trying to be funny 😩 Anne, just take it from here.
(Anne:) No problem! Being a jokester is a character trait. Some people just like being funny, and take pleasure in making people laugh. Most of the time, it’s appreciated, but sometimes it can get a little over the top. In your writing, you want to balance that. Funny characters need to be funny at the right times–
(Vivian:) AM I NOT FUNNY JUST BREAKING IN NOW!? I AM EVEN SELF AWARE!
(Anne:) …and as Vivian has brilliantly illustrated, sometimes the timing just isn’t great! Sometimes you want to show a character compensating for sorrow or insecurity by being overly funny, and so making them a jokester reveals a deeper character. That’s important. People who like making jokes do so for a reason. When I’m around my friends, I’m always cracking jokes. That’s mostly because I’m really insecure in social settings, and I never feel like I have something to contribute, so it’s an easy way to participate without actually contributing. I help the mood, just not the content. All jokesters have a reason.
And that can lead to a problem: clichés. If you have someone whose sole purpose is to be funny, that’s not a good character. If they have no reason to be funny, it’s not a good character. You need depth to actually have a realistic character that people care about.
(Vivian:) Think back to your school journey, how funny was the class clown when they would never stop trying to be funny? e.e
(Anne:) And from a writing perspective, you can do a lot with that class clown. If you just portray them from the perspective of other students like Vivian, they’re incredibly annoying and just a cliché. But if you show it from their point of view, you can do so much. Maybe they’ve been abused or bullied and this is their coping mechanism. Maybe they’re desperate for attention and have no other means of getting it. Add depth, and that annoying clichéd jokester can get incredibly interesting while also lightening the mood of your story through various forms of humour
Comedic relief
(Vivian:) Comedic relief! Who doesn’t like a good old person that can give you a smile on the face when times are tough, you are down, or what not? Life is too short to be all serious. We need someone willing to make jokes and not feel the social burden if it falls flat. I make my autism not a secret and never will, but I can see people are so easily shy to do anything out of fear of being socially rejected, so a comedian that doesn’t care can be a god sent! Who of you all have not had someone that just knew how to lighten the mood and didn’t care how dumb they looked? I sure can!
The thing to remember is that, unlike the jokester as previously mentioned, which tries to be funny all the time as a character choice of their own volition, a comedic relief is a character (or several or other things) that the writer uses to give humour to the audience. They can be intentionally set up by character traits, life story, behaviours and many others to be able to be entertaining in a humorous manner.
The big issue is when they get like me at the worst of times and completely lose touch with reality and the situation. Not every situation is fit for a joke as we have gone through above. And then they are over used and, what do you say Anne?
(Anne:) I agree that comedic relief can be so important if used correctly. Depending on the character type, the style of humour can vary and will reflect the character’s personality. Is it dark humour? Or are they attempting something lighthearted? Or are they completely out of whack and make a WTF comment? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but as Vivian says, some characters are willing to break the ice of a tough situation no matter the consequences.
Authors have to carefully choose when to use comedic relief in their stories. It impacts the pacing and lightens the mood, which is often necessary after a particularly dark portion of the story. We talked above about undermining the emotional beat, and that comes into play here. It’s also good to note that the comedic relief isn’t always a character. Sometimes it’s an external event that breaks the mood and gives everyone–including the reader–a break and a laugh. Sometimes it’s something that the characters don’t find particularly funny, but the reader does. Remember, it’s the reader who matters.
Another important thing to avoid is the clichéd comedic relief character who offers nothing else. Their sole purpose is to pipe up in serious situations and bring everyone back to reality and out of their overly serious thoughts. If there’s nothing else in their character, they’re a cliché, and you want to avoid that unless you’re writing a parody. If that’s the case, absolutely go overboard with the comedic relief! But if you’re aiming for realism, give them other dimensions, make them a real character, and just also give them the trait of courage to say something funny when times are tough.
(Vivian:) An example of when it goes too far I can give from what happened in my life. My boss’s father died, and it came to be known to the entire staff, and of course, everyone sent their condolences and sad stuff and all.
Imagine how wildly inappropriate it would have been if someone cracked a joke and said “Now you finally get that inheritance!” or the likes. Absolutely awful behaviour.
(Anne:) I will say that if you’re trying to get your audience to hate a character, which you do sometimes want, having them crack a joke about inheritance immediately after a beloved father’s death will certainly get you there!
Our advice
Vivian
My personal advice is, look to your own sense of humour. What do you think is funny? And keep in mind my personal saying:
“What you said or meant is of no concern to me, all that matters is which interpretation entertains me the most.”
And of course, make certain you keep it in your own style and humour. Humour is meant to entertain and keep slightly off the path of your story, but not derail you from it.
Anne
My main advice is always remember your audience and context. Who you’re speaking to is extremely important, and of course the situation is vital. Based on those things, you want to figure out what kind of humour to use, and in writing, you also want to figure out if your character is reading the room well. Just because you need to understand audience and context doesn’t mean they will!
Bottom line, though, is to have fun with your humour. People can usually tell if it's forced. Don’t use it just for using it. Make it genuine.
Summa summarum
(Vivian:) What would you say if I said this was all nothing but a joke!? Okay, it’d be bad, but hopefully it will help you think about your own humour!
(Anne:) Perfect example of flat humour to finish us off! 😜
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Copyright ©️ 2024 Vivian Sayan and Anne Winchell. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as definitions, uses and purposes of, and types of humour as well as ways to use that in your stories are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific language or exact phrasing is individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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