Tips for writing humor:
These are general tips for writing humor in a way that both you and your readers will find fun, and also a way that avoids giving all your characters the same dry sense of humor.
1- Humor is a trait Seems a bit dumb to say, but bare with me.
Not all your characters will be funny, and not all your characters who crack jokes will be generally well received. Making all your characters be considered funny is like making all your characters charming, or manipulative, or naïve, or whatever other traits come to mind.
Humor is a trait, and therefore should not be given to every character in a story, because if every character is funny and able to make jokes with good timing, then no character is actually funny, because no one's funny-ness stands out.
2- Not everyone has a dry sense of humor This is kind of continuing my earlier point, that if every character has the same sense of humor, your reader will get bored, and jokes just won't really hit the same.
Giving all your characters the same sense of humor may also make all of them blend into one in your reader's eyes, because humor is such a massive part of personality and how we perceive others.
3- Being funny takes intelligence Real humor does come naturally, yes, some people are funny since childhood, others are not.
But as one's intelligence develops, so does their humor.
Your younger siblings friends may find them super funny, but when your sibling tries the same immature jokes on you they're just met with a blank expression.
As your sibling gets older and deals with more people, they will gradually learn that different crowds require different jokes, and this is what makes a funny person funny.
This subconcious understanding of who their audience is, and the ability to adjust their humor accordingly. This doesn't mean they're faking or pretending, it just means that they know which side of their humor to show to who.
You need to incorporate this into your funny character, don't have them make the same jokes around everyone and be perceived as funny all the time, show how their humor adjusts to the humor of who they're talking to. Because, again, if every character finds the same person funny, if every character has the same sense of humor, then they will slowly blend into one for your readers, and that's absolutely not something you want.
4- Don't be afraid to make characters cringy Lovably cringy or insufferably cringy, it depends on age and how much your reader likes they character, but don't be afraid to just make characters have bad senses of humor, or good senses of humor with horrid timing (because good timing is half the joke).
If you want your funny character to actually stand out and be liked by readers, surround them by unfunny people or people who are accidentally funny, and at the same time, this makes all your character stand out from one another, and helps them actually seem like completely different people.
In summary, diversity in humors is the way to go to make your characters distinct, and know which characters you want to be funny, and which characters you think shouldn't/wouldn't actually be funny people.
5- Internal monologue humor Now your funny character may be a side character or someone who doesn't appear as much as you'd like, but it wouldn't make sense for the story for them to be any more prominent than they already are.
What do you do in this situation? Internal monologue humor is the way to go!
Now this humor is heavily reliant on the character, remember that timing is half of a good joke, fortunately, timing isn't needed for this type of humor, since it's all happening in a character's head, so you can give any character this type of humor, and adjust to fit their personality.
A blunt character for example may make statements about the world around them and other characters that your reader would find funny, and in a way it's also you pointing out things in your story that you think can be made fun of.
Saiki k is a great example of this type of humor in media, because while Saiki is not funny or considered funny by those around him, he is considered funny by the viewer because of his overly realistic observations of the world around him.
Now I will say, Saiki is also psychic, so his exact way of expressing humor probably wouldn't apply to your character, but it's still worth watching a few clips of it to get a better understanding of what internal monologue humor is exactly.
Another good thing to add to this type of humor is confusion, because your readers may find it funny when your character is confused by something that is very obvious to them.
6- Not all stories require humor And I'll leave you with this statement, that I think I don't need to expand on much.
There's no specific way to tell if your story needs humor or not, it's just about vibes and feelings, if something feels out of place to you, then it probably is out of place.
Lack of internal monologue humor and funny characters can really show your readers - without telling them - that this story and the events in it are very serious, there is no way to twist them into something humorous.
I'll end this post by saying that humor is the silent soundtrack of your story, it can make or break it, and no one can tell you what feels right and what doesn't. It's your story, and you need to trust your gut.
Some scenes work with loud exciting music, others need silence for the message behind the words to set in.
Feel free to send asks if you want help with specific characters or stories, as I'm more than happy to expand on some of my points here!
Maybe some of this advice will help, maybe it won't, either way, I hope this feline has enlightened you!
