I want to write a story of science fiction and feel almost ready to publish it in the WIP’s section, but I feel I beed something else to make the readers enjoy the story. I chose to write something interesting and hopefully thrilling for the science fiction part but balance it with a little bit of comedy and supernatural or spiritual/philosophycal stuff.
So the point is?
Does any one kmow how to get better in writting comedy? Or, how to learn to write real comedy?
The biggest thing with writing comedy in dialogue is this: Don’t make it feel forced.
People can be naturally funny, but when they do such they’re usually not performing a stand-up set at the Laugh Factory. There are various forms of comedy you can incorporate into dialogue, whether it be anecdotal, dark humor, deadpan, insulting, or observational. The most important thing is making the reader laugh while also keeping the jokes true to the story, and readable. After all, you want your characters to feel as alive and real as possible. Don’t do too over-the-top jokes, because 90% of people wouldn’t have that kind of setup unless they’re directly telling a joke in the story. Writing a story from a first person perspective could help, or you could do a sarcastic, witty narrator.
A good example of comedy in dialogue would be this scene from Silicon Valley:
It manages to not only keep the dialogue in tune of the characters, but also manages to deliver humorous dialogue. Each character has a unique style of humor tuned to their personality, so it makes the show not only watchable in the sense that it doesn’t break up the flow of character dialogue, but it also constantly delivers various forms of comedy to resonate with different viewers.
The last and final thing… what makes you laugh? More than likely, it also makes others laugh. So… if you fail to incorporate anything else, start from there.
The way you explained it was really good, I am taking your advice for sure. I will go see the video and analyze what you are telling for good tiime. I will be deep in thought for a long time.
I’ve read somewhere that comedy is all about setting expectation, and then ruining it.
It’s like slapstick comedy, where hitting your head is supposedly bad, but everybody loves Mr. Bean and Tom & Jerry. Or dads’ jokes, where you’re anticipating the answer, though you know it’s terrible but must admit it’s somehow clever.
I’m not sure how successful it has been, but I try to encorporate lots of humor into my stories, such as The Magician’s Burden, Mass Mother Murderer, or The Enchanter’s Misery. There are lots of different characters with lots of different personalities, so their styles of humor are naturally different. Mostly, they consist of deadpan, sarcasm, or crude sexual/bathroom jokes.
Every time I write comedy, I try to keep this little philosophy in mind: jokes should be correct, so that they’re relateable and make sense, but they should also be cruel or ridiculous or outlandish in some way so that they have some bite to them. “A little bit right and a little bit wrong.”
I’m a subtly funny kind of person. Witticisms, banter, staring off into the middle distance…
A lot of that doesn’t translate well to writing. It is very difficult to write humor, as it’s hard to communicate tonal changes and facial expressions accurately.
I’d say just keep flinging shit at the wall 'till something sticks.
My advice is to read some fanfiction of anime parodies. Most anime parodies lean heavily on humorous facial expressions and conveying the characters emotions, and thus good fanfiction Authers are often good at detailing those aspects.
personally , I think if you have to make offencive shit to be funny…you kinda miss the mark . Also…just cose you find something funny , it doesn’t mean it is funny or that everyone will find it funny .
The kind of comedy I like…is often subtle and brillant . Its the small thing that make it genius . Like take ‘‘La Petite Vie’’ . Its from Quebec , canada and started as a sketch and it was so funny and so good…they turned it into a show .
why was it so good ? because they took small daily life things , words…and used them in a genius way that its hilarious . They brushed subjects like neglect , drug…abuse…cheating…addictions…and parentings and lot of others subject…but it was still funny .
Lately I have been watching a tv show called MOM and its another that is funny like hell .
now tis is my kind of comedy…and they are so good . cose they know how to hit the note everytime .
Thank you for your advices, all of this helps a lot. Now I will try to apply what you all have recommended, I will try to figure out my best approach to this issue. Hopefully by the end of this month or the begining of the next I will have some more practice and my WIP will be in real progress.
I like sarcasm and wit, but I think it can be very easy for a sarcastic narrator or character to feel like forced comedy. Sometimes it seems like the author is trying too hard to make a character seem clever, making that their only real trait and causing them to become a common and boring trope in the process. Or it’s just meanness pretending to be wit.
I’ve found the funniest stuff to be where the author doesn’t take themselves or their characters too seriously – but they do take the integrity of those characters and the work overall seriously.
I really would like to understand what you mean by “where the author doesn’t takes its character too seriously”. I guess it is like a satiric comedy about your own characters and their weaknesses? In that case would it not be something like using ironism instead of criticism, and at the same time keeping the sarcastic part in order ridiculize them or the circumstances they are in?
Edit: I really want to understand, would you like to elaborate?Please
I think “not taking seriously” is just an expression. Hmm, how can I put it…
It’s like those classic drama/soap opera/cheesy anime where the characters go out of their way to emphasize the drama/cheesiness of the situation, but then there’s this narrator voice that basically “welp, that happened.”
Seeing as most of, if not all interactive fiction games under the CoG label are first person, it shouldn’t be hard to add a personal flair to the protagonist. Most of what isn’t dialogue is usually the character’s thoughts or perspective anyway, so that could be a good opportunity for some comedy. Just make sure you don’t over-personalize it to the point where it compromises the freedom of choice, or… freedom of character, I guess.
I would guess that most CoG games are second person, not first. (aside from in the text of options, which are required to be in first person, at least in the Choice Of lines house standards.)
