Hi, sorry if I missed this in your FAQ, but do you have any advice on how to incorporate humor into a story? Also, how do you know when something is funny?
Humor is very hard to pull off for writers. Many aspects of humor depend on a person’s expression and delivery, on the way they say the joke and how they hold themselves while they speak. It relies on the inflection of the voice and certain hand gestures and expressions.
With writing, all you have are words on a page and the reader’s imagination, and it can be especially hard to write humor if you don’t find yourself funny and aren’t quite a comedian.
Here are some tips on how to write funny jokes and humor into a story and make sure that it stays funny.
1. Don’t Use Memes or Modern “Slang” as the Punchline
The thing about memes and slang is that they come and go. There’s a new viral meme every week, and trends are born and die faster than you can blink.
Once these things go out of date--whether they be turns of phrase or certain words-- society often brushes them off as “cringey” and will often react negatively to seeing it in a story.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read an older fic and they’d refer to dogs as “doggos” or say something like “it do be like that sometimes” and even though it might’ve been funny during the height of these trends, now they make me make a face and squirm a little in my seat.
The best way to keep hip is to not keep hip, so to speak. Come up with your own original content and your own original jokes and your writing will remain nice and ageless, withstanding the test of time and the test of cringe culture.
2. Randomness and Spontaneity Jokes are Best Left for Visual and Auditory Media
This kind of humor revolves around people blurting out random things and is kind of reminiscent of slapstick comedy.
Think of this TikTok audio that has been going around recently which involves audio from the Cartoon Network TV show Johnny Test:
“Why did you resist a police officer?”
“Why are you police officers?”
See how it doesn’t make much sense in words? The only reason why this audio was funny was because of the way the actors spoke it and the way the punchline was delivered, which readers cannot imagine in their minds if they’ve never heard it before.
This kind of humor comes off as childish and low brow, and will make more mature audiences uncomfortable rather than entertained. Having characters blurt out things that make no sense in the middle of a dialogue just interrupts the story and brings it to a grinding halt, and I see this mistake primarily made with fic writers struggling to make their stories more humorous.
It’s like the dialogue equivalent of dropping an anvil on your character; although it’s funny when it happens to Wile E. Coyote, it’s not funny when it comes to written word.
3. Dry Humor is the Easiest Humor!
Dry humor, also known as deadpan, is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality that’s meant to be blunt, ironic, laconic or apparently unintentional.
It’s not a “joke” or a “pun” that’s told specifically to make people laugh (i.e. “Where do cows go on dates?” etc.), it’s just something that people say the just so happens to be funny.
In my personal opinion, dry humor is the easiest way to bring humor into your story. It doesn’t require any characters to be “jokesters” and it doesn’t require a lighthearted situation. It’s just a remark--perhaps about a certain situation--that readers can interpret as humorous.
Some Examples of dry humor:
“You smell of death and destiny, of heroics and heartbreak!”
--Jaksier and Geralt, The Witcher
(Drilling sword stances...rather poorly)
“What the hell are you doing?”
--The Hound and Arya, Game of Thrones
“My first girlfriend turned into the moon.”
--Sokka and Zuko, Avatar: The Last Airbender
“And what could be better than serving up smiles?”
--Spongebob and Squidward, Spongebob
4. Situations Can Be Funny, too, Not Just Dialogue!
Sometimes characters can get themselves into trouble in ways that may not be funny to them but can definitely be funny to a reader.
Tripping, hitting their head, stubbing their toe--especially during times of high tension--can be an excellent way to incorporate humor into your story. “This can’t get any worse” situations that get worse, a character being put completely out of their element, and other such things are all great examples of this
Just make sure to do it within reason, though, as to make sure you’re not falling into the random/spontaneous joke category!
5. Write What You Think Is Funny, But Make Sure Others Check It!
I know some people may be insecure in their ability to write jokes, but the easiest way to make sure your story is funny is to write what YOU think is funny. There’s a pretty good chance that you’re just your own worst critic!
I know for me personally, I found that when my friends were reading the earlier drafts of my books, they would find things that they thought were funny without me even intending for them to be a joke! Everyone’s sense of humor is different, and everyone will interpret your writing, in various ways.
So write your story how you want to write it, and have someone read it over to make sure the jokes are funny! They don’t have to be laughing out loud--it’s possible for jokes to be hilarious without warranting an outward reaction--but as long as it makes them smirk at their book or perhaps let out a puff of air through their nose, it’s all worth it!
6. Read, Watch, and Listen!
The best way to learn how to write humor is to read, watch, and listen to humor. Look at comedians, at jokes in your favorite novels and TV shows:
What do they all have in common? What is it about them that really makes you laugh? How can you embody that in your story?
A little research never hurt anyone, and hey, maybe you might be able to improve your own sense of humor while you’re at it!
Hope this helped, and good luck!
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