Forum / On Writing Humor:
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Ramon CollinsFeb 05, 08:05pm"A critical element for all humor -- and this was first cited by Plato many centuries ago -- is that at least one of the main characters needs to be an orangutan." -- Dave Barry
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David AckleyFeb 05, 08:19pmAlthough in another context and with a different member of the ape family, the point would seem to be underscored by James Agee in his essay on the essential comedy of Laurel and Hardy.
Agee describes a scene from one of their films in which Stan and Ollie are attempting to carry a piano across a rope bridge suspended over an abyss. Halfway across they meet a gorilla.
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DolemiteFeb 05, 09:55pmThe essence of humor is someone else's discomfort.
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Ramon CollinsFeb 06, 01:36am
David: Agee's such a fine reviewer and writer. I can picture his set-up and chuckle (snuck!).
Serge: Very true -- the writer must make the reader think, "I'm glad that didn't happen to me!"
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Letitia CoyneFeb 06, 01:44amJimmy Carr says humour lies in the conflict between the expectation built up in the story and the payoff dropped in the punchline.
Lxx
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Ramon CollinsFeb 06, 08:42pm
Letitia: Good quote. It'sallabouttiming.
"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." -- E.B. White.
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James Lloyd DavisFeb 06, 10:26pmI agree with Mr Dennison's assessment.
"One man's pain is another's delight."
I don't know who said that, but I'll take the credit.
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DolemiteFeb 06, 10:59pm
"I don't know who said that"
Popeye
1934;-)
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Ramon CollinsFeb 07, 01:35am
Hiya, JLD. How's it hangin'?
Serge: Popeye and Jesus said, "I am what I am." True -- they were what they were.
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David AckleyFeb 07, 01:55am
"It is what it is." Bill Belichick ( too many times to count.)
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RW SpryszakFeb 07, 01:27pmHumor is like quantum physics. If you look at it, it changes.
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Ann BogleFeb 07, 05:28pmI have a "joke" I have tried several times around my apartment, alone. It "works" 90% of the time, but I have felt that I need to sneak up on it, and a couple times it fell flat. I haven't "tried it" on another living (present) person, yet, but I may try it on one person. Shy? I'll see. The joke is created by a shadow on the dining room wall. In the joke I wear my blue/orange/purple parka with fur ruff around the hood. I wear the hood up during the joke. I leave on the overhead kitchen light to create the wall shadow. Then I walk out of the kitchen toward [my] shadow on the dining room wall and turn my head from left to right, side to side, and say, "First Woman on Earth." Usually, it is very funny to imagine, perhaps due to my attitude in turning my head side to side, as if appraising this place called Earth (Home) as its first woman visitor. A couple times it was funny at first then fell flat, and the shadow looked more like a hoody hoodlum shadow than like "first woman on earth." Then I let it rest and tried it again a different day, and it worked again (definitely funny).
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Sally HoutmanFeb 07, 10:09pm -
Robin GrahamFeb 08, 08:54am
Bergson is good on this
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strannikovFeb 08, 02:32pmSomeone came up with this:
"Laughter: any laxative therapy of risibility for those suffering from constipation of the soul. Its efficacy is determined when the subject looks into a mirror."
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DolemiteFeb 08, 06:14pm
Superman is getting tired of being a superhero. So, he decides to go out and have some fun. He flies to Gotham City and asks Batman if he wants to go with him, get drunk, and get laid. Batman says no man, I gotta protect Gotham City, you know. So Superman flies to Spiderman and asks him if he wants to go out, get drunk, and get laid. Spiderman also refuses by saying he has to protect the city. So Superman goes alone. He's flying along when he sees Wonder Woman at her pool, sunbathing in the nude. He thinks to himself "I'm as fast as a speeding bullet. I'll giver her a quick pop and she won't notice" So he flies down, has his way with her and flies back up. Wonder Woman says "Baby, that was great!" The Invisible Man says, "Yeah! but my ass is KILLING ME!..."
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Robert VaughanFeb 08, 07:15pmLots of comedians say you're either born funny, or whatever. Applies to writing somewhat...you can tell when someone is trying to be funny, whether device, or artifice, or "jokish," humor is just a given: some have it, some don't. And, of course, it is as subjective as sexual attraction. Or any other subjective topic.
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Ramon CollinsFeb 08, 08:53pm
Robert: Pro comedians always say comedy is very serious business.
The biggest mistake writers make is prefacing their stories with, "This is a humorous little story." The reader (i.e. editor) will automatically think, "Oh, yeah? I'll decide." Kinda a negative start.
During the narration, often the writer will use; "Then she laughed." Or simply, "They laughed." That's telling; the writer hasn't SHOWN anything for the character, or characters, to laugh at.
Hemingway said, "When a story takes on a life of its own, the writer should get the hell out of the way." Generally, humor writers have a hard time staying out of the story.
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Christopher AllenFeb 09, 06:46pmInteresting discussion. I think humorous writing relies greatly on timing and possibly the number of apes.
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Ramon CollinsFeb 10, 01:20am
Christopher: I'm not going to monkey with your statement.
The funniest people I've known, in my long, shady life, didn't know they were being funny. That's the way to write humor.
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DolemiteFeb 10, 03:20am
Spider, spider, on the wall,
Ain't you got no sense at all?
Can't you tell that wall's been plastered?
Get off that wall, you stupid...spider. -
Sally HoutmanFeb 10, 09:04pm
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is."
- Francis Bacon.....
If you don't believe it, just ask the orangutan. He ain't lion.
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Christopher AllenFeb 11, 08:34am
The narrator of a book I published this year is one of those people, Ramon. He's unaware that he's funny, and I agree that this is one aspect of literary humor. The unexpected is also important and the timing of the unexpected reaction or situation. In situation comedy writing, there's the set-up and the pay-off. In a few sitcoms, like Friends' there is also a technique that has a second unexpected pay-off that takes the humor one step further.
Even when all of these technical elements "work," they may not lead to a text that every reader fins humorous.
I often wonder how real people are influenced by Hollywood writers' sense of humor. I know we're probably not talking about sitcoms, but the average reader is much more likely to be affected by sitcoms than Dickens.
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Ramon CollinsFeb 11, 08:57pm
Serge: That's a good use of typography to provide the unexpected.
Sally: Love the Bacon quote. Orangutans stopped speaking to me when they caught me with a chimpanzee.
Christopher: Two sure-fire ingredients to humor; "Thank God that didn't happen to me" and surprise (unexpected).
Sitcoms rely on a hilarious laugh track (as with those BBC sitcoms on PBS). Studios bring in friends and family of the actors and production crew, then send the edited-master-tape out for "sweeteners".
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Christopher AllenFeb 12, 01:12am
The "laugh track" is a character in my book. That said, I've been in the audience a few times and didn't have the feeling there was any difference between the live laughter and what ultimately aired when I saw the episode on TV. The Germans criticize American sitcoms because there IS actually a laugh track when they view the sitcom in German since the laughter has to be added back in to the overdubbed German voices.
Schadenfreude can be funny, but one doesn't have to be a humorist to appreciate it. As a humorist, I'm more interested in the way sitcoms teach people how to react to insult and injury. In sitcoms, the character is expected to stare into space until the audience has stopped laughing (at his stupidity) when in real life he'd be hurt. From I Love Lucy to The Big Bang Theory Americans TV has played a large role in shaping America's sense of humor.
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DolemiteFeb 12, 01:47am
Cultural difference/relevance in humor:
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David AckleyFeb 12, 02:54am
Looked a lot like 'Jackass,' uh... Serge.
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DolemiteFeb 12, 03:02am
Not advocating....exposing...
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DolemiteFeb 12, 03:04am
(though I thought it was hilarious)
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David AckleyFeb 12, 04:16am
It was.
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DolemiteFeb 12, 04:21am
;-)
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Sally HoutmanFeb 12, 03:32pm
Perhaps our cultures are not as different as we'd like to think...
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DolemiteFeb 12, 05:53pm
What can you do with an Englishmun?
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David AckleyFeb 12, 06:12pm
What's the funniest line you ever wrote? Please include citation so we can find it in context.
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Sally HoutmanFeb 12, 06:43pm
"What can you do with an Englishmun?"
Uh...shoot him with a brussel sprout.
Bah-doom-pah!
That's the funniest line I ever wrote, right there.
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Sally HoutmanFeb 12, 06:50pm
Acshally - David, you should start a new thread with that question. I can see that being a lot of fun.
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James Lloyd DavisFeb 12, 07:55pm
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