On writing: humour

[StillStunned]

Do we even dare to go here? Humour is such a hit-and-miss element of writing. What elicits guffaws from one reader might only draw a smile from another, and could have a third reader sighing in exasperation and noping out of the story.

But still. I suppose most of us think we ourselves are funny, and many of us have probably tried to add humour to our writing. Maybe not an entire story that's intended to be funny, but at least a joke or two to lighten the tone.

So, does anyone care to share their experiences? Their tips and tricks? Their caveats? Maybe some examples, either from their own writing or someone else's?

Please try to be positive and constructive. It's alright to say that you don't find something funny, but be polite about it. We all put effort into our writing, and even though we know not everyone will love it, nobody wants to be told that they suck and their jokes are bad. If something doesn't tickle you, maybe try to explain why.

Depending on how the discussion here goes, I might start a companion Writing Exercise thread where we can leave our little gems.

 

[StillStunned]

I'll start. An easy form of humour is to create expectations, and then rip them up. This is probably foremost in my mind just now because my new story does that:

Once upon a time, a happier time long, long ago, there lived a farm lass called Jackie. Jackie was pretty, with curly hair and freckles on her face from spending long days in the sunshine, and tall and strong from working on her parents' farm.

All day she laboured, tending the beasts, ploughing, sowing and harvesting the crops, chopping timber in the wood, and everything else that needed to be done to maintain the farm.

One day her Ma came to her and said, "Jackie, lass, it's time you married. Have some children of your own, so they can help on the farm when your Da and I are old and weak."

Jackie, being a dutiful daughter and very fond of her Ma besides, considered this for a long moment. Then she replied, "Fuck that, Ma. I'm too young and pretty to have babies. I have brothers and sisters aplenty who can provide you with grandchildren to look after you."

The contrast between the old-fashioned fairy tale style and the sudden use of "Fuck that" shakes up the reader's assumptions and tells them, "No, this isn't that kind of story." The rest of the story continues in the same way, combining the fairy tale style with explicit sex, and names that could almost be from a fairy tale, but are actually porn names: Lord Morningwood, Everhard and so on.

It's not very sophisticated, and it's not really meant to be. It's intended to get the reader sniggering at what's basically puerile humour, and on that level I think it works.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

In my writing, humor is the integrality of the characters and seldom used in the narrative. One example:

Tyler couldn’t help but laugh when he heard Cile whisper in Katie’s ear, “The next time you want to launch a roundhouse kick while wearing a dress, maybe you should put some underwear on first.”

 

[AStrangeDesire]

I tend to not try for humour. I don't think I'm good at it, and am typically concerned that it'll take the reader out of the story.

I've put in the kind of 'twists' of expectations here and there, and have the odd comment that it was funny / unexpected, but I aim more for surprise and if a chuckle comes out of it, that's an unexpected bonus for me

 

[Actingup]

I love using humour, although I hardly ever see my stories as actual comedies. The best advice I have is to understand that the audience is not uniform and not everything has to work for everybody. It's good if your story works for serious readers as well as those who like a good joke. In that sense, I think we can do no better that follow the best approaches of Pixar, where there jokes that only adults will get.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I very seldom write full-on humor. But virtually everything I write has humorous (to me) details or asides. For example, the space freighter’s computer being called Alexa in Coleoidphilia.

 

[yowser]

I love humor in sex, and it lends itself to comedy more than is often necessary or welcome (tangled underwear, caught in flagrante, overall messiness, etc), but it is devilishly difficult to analyse. I am reminded of the quote from EB White:

“Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.”

Of course humor is not just jokes, and my own observation is that amusing things almost always involve something unexpected: a comment that comes off wrong (or can be easily misunderstood) a sudden departure from the norm. The reader's (viewer/witness) mindset gets an abrupt upheaval or inversion. And timing is everything.

I think it is harder to write humor than sex, the two together, while not impossible, strain the efforts.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I find writing humor a lot of fun. I have no idea if I'm good at it. I only really leaned into it with three stories, the first two were in LW, and the third was experimental in a lot of ways; the less-than-median score could have been a result of the humor falling flat or many other problems too. But I got a positive comment about the humor in the second story, so that was nice. Maybe I should look for more humor-oriented ideas where I can get really playful, but too much of it wouldn't go well with my current WIPs.

My favorite kind of humor as a writer is the omniscient third-person narrator calling the protagonist(s) out on their failings, maybe because it can be so easy. It can be as simple as, "'I understand,' he lied," but there are a lot of possible variations on that general idea. I attempted several things like that in my LitCon story.

 

[EmilyMiller]

An excerpt from what is probably my most direct attempt at humor:

—

Author: And anyway, no fair on the rape shit. It's not like I write it titillatingly, it's more Greek theater, like Euripides would write it.

Emma guffawed. "Euripides? Will the pretension never end? But that boy could fuck, ah, the memories."

"And what's with me being an expression of your autism," asked Lily.

Author: Wait, you're not even in this story.

"Yeah, I was waiting for Emma in the green room. I got bored."

The angel and she-demon embraced, and Lily and Asmodeus air kissed.

"Loving your work, As. You're really selling it, though the script is a nightmare, as usual," Lily said.

"Yeah," replied the Demon Lord, "She can type this shit, but you sure can't say it!"

"Ah, well," said the angel, "at least her Star Wars references are occasionally entertaining, if you like that sort of thing."

"Who doesn't, right?" added Asmodeus.

Social pleasantries complete, Lily returned to her original subject, "So, otherworldly? What the actual fuck? And you say you hate Sheldon Cooper."

Author: Yeah, fuck Sheldon Cooper, fuck him in his stupid ass! But... but I write you with such love.

"Love? You lean into every hackneyed ASD trope. I was at an ND support group last week. Eden Baker was there too, and Anđela Malinar. And we were all saying how tired we were of being cardboard stereotypes."

Author: Um... sorry, I guess. I do my best.

"And I've got the same issue with you as Emma, here. Do we really both need to get raped quite so often? And, was coerced sex with my late Father really an authorial imperative?"

Author: It was meant to be a classic tragedy... like Oedipus.

Emma interjected, "Girl, you aren't Sophocles. You aren't even Ariana from the souvlaki taverna, OK?"

"Oh!" said Lily, "the one with the big eyes and the cute ass?"

"Yeah, her. The one who didn't write Antigone," replied the she-demon pointedly.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Even if I'm not larding it with authorial jokes, I think my writing usually has diegetic humour: the characters like each other, get to know each other, partly by a display of their sense of humour. At times they speak amusingly or wittily or wryly to each other, and each such passage is (intended to be) a realistic bond.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Humor's in almost everything I do to varying degrees. What I really enjoy is using humor as a whiplash, yanking people out of a heavy emotion with a sudden jolt of something bright. Interplay between humor and darkness is a wonderful thing, sometimes used to soften the darkness, sometimes used to accentuate it. Both of my erotic horror pieces have high degrees of humor.

One of my stories involved a large amount of physical, psychological, and sexual torture. Some humor in the middle to further the sense of cognitive dissonance between being tortured and fucked, and then also throwing something funny in to just be like "What the hell is going on right now?" And then at the end of it, when all's said and done, a nice light funny moment as a pallet clenser to help rinse off some of that darkness.

The other one, the lead up was selling it as one way. Big demon cat that eats you if you don't get clothes for Christmas. Very stereotypical horror tropes: black cat that appears and watches the guy, then disappears when he tries to point it out to people, weird things happening in his house, his neighbors begging him to just take some clothes, but he refuses, and they act all mournful about it. Then he wakes up on Christmas morning to something rustling in his bedroom. Giant cat demon, he tries to pass it off as a dream, but she's very, very real, and very, very menacing, and then...

Something came flying at him from the direction of his closet. He held up his hands and yelped. Soft fabric landed on him, covering his head. He pulled it off, squinting at it in the kaleidoscopic lights. His beige Dolce & Gabbana cashmere sweater.

"Dreadful," Jólakötturinn tutted. "So expensive, but so boring. You only bought it because it cost a great amount, did you not?"

A static hiss in his brain as he struggled to comprehend. "What?"

Something else flew through the air, hitting him square in the face. He yanked it off, inspected it. He gasped and immediately started to smooth it on the bed next to him. "Watch it! That's a Todd Snyder! You don't throw Italian wool-cashmere topcoats!"

"But, darling, it's navy. So uninspired." The cat sighed and hummed to herself. "Oh goodness. What unholy color is this?"

She held up his Ralph Lauren Lisle Crewneck t-shirt.

"Stop going through my things!"

"I asked what color."

"Coral orange mélange," he said sulkily.

Jólakötturinn laughed. "Sounds like you just threw three words together and hoped no one would notice they don't make sense."

Chase carefully set his Todd Snyder topcoat to the side and was about to stand to confront the menace savaging his wardrobe when she tossed his Peter Miller Crosby trousers at him. He tried to catch it, but it fluttered in an unexpected direction and he flopped over.

"And what color is that?" she asked.

"It's rye!"

"Rye is a grain, not a color."

"It damned well is a color!"

She glanced back at him, smirking. "Not a good one."

And after she finishes savaging (and eating) his wardrobe, she mentions Project Runway, then proceeds to say she's going to eat him, threatens him, but notices he has a boner and decides to "feed" in the "old ways" which, obviously, means he fuck-worships her.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Generally, I don't write humor in the sense of trying to write a funny story. Sometimes my characters joke around, especially Maria.

 

[MK_Whimsy]

"And what color is that?" she asked.

"It's rye!"

"Rye is a grain, not a color."

"It damned well is a color!"

Were you going for a bit of rye humor here?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

An excerpt from what is probably my most direct attempt at humor:

—

Author: And anyway, no fair on the rape shit. It's not like I write it titillatingly, it's more Greek theater, like Euripides would write it.

Emma guffawed. "Euripides? Will the pretension never end? But that boy could fuck, ah, the memories."

"And what's with me being an expression of your autism," asked Lily.

Author: Wait, you're not even in this story.

You sure that doesn't belong in the Metafiction topic?

 

[SmilingLez]

Do we even dare to go here? Humour is such a hit-and-miss element of writing. What elicits guffaws from one reader might only draw a smile from another, and could have a third reader sighing in exasperation and noping out of the story.

But still. I suppose most of us think we ourselves are funny, and many of us have probably tried to add humour to our writing. Maybe not an entire story that's intended to be funny, but at least a joke or two to lighten the tone.

So, does anyone care to share their experiences? Their tips and tricks? Their caveats? Maybe some examples, either from their own writing or someone else's?

Please try to be positive and constructive. It's alright to say that you don't find something funny, but be polite about it. We all put effort into our writing, and even though we know not everyone will love it, nobody wants to be told that they suck and their jokes are bad. If something doesn't tickle you, maybe try to explain why.

Depending on how the discussion here goes, I might start a companion Writing Exercise thread where we can leave our little gems.

When it comes to humor, everyone has a different definition. So my suggestion - use humor in a way it works for you. Whether it is sarcastic, slapstick, tongue in cheek, intellectual/high brow, etc.

Guessing what readers want, will not allow you to do your best work. As always my opinion and YMMV

 

[StillStunned]

So, what kinds of humour do we have? Subverting expectations, parody, dialogue and jokes between characters, puns, in-jokes such as references to the real world, ridiculous situations, misunderstandings. Any more?

I think if you're going to write comedy in erotica - and I'm beginning to recognise that some of my recent stories have definitely veered into that direction - you have to make sure that the sex is good enough to carry the story. Otherwise you're likely to get something that's not quite erotica, not quite comedy, and entirely unsatisfying. And it's probably easier - for us as erotica writers at least - to write sex that will pass muster than humour that's good enough to fill the void.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Well, speaking personally. I'm good at comedy, but the erotica is always 'not quite erotica ... and entirely unsatisfying'. To the extent that I have to lampshade it. In one story she bent down to perform oral sex on him, then broke into laughter and apologized, because of what they'd just been imagining (another girl fluffing him). I thought that was a good get-out. If either the comedy or the sex has to give, sorry, I stick with the comedy and hope I've long since lost the readers who prefer sex.

 

[anthrodisiac]

So, what kinds of humour do we have? Subverting expectations, parody, dialogue and jokes between characters, puns, in-jokes such as references to the real world, ridiculous situations, misunderstandings. Any more?

Slapstick, as @SmilingLez mentioned, banter, gallows/dark humor (personal favorite of mine), deadpan, roasting, anti-humor (which is a fun concept), and satire (which I view as distinct from parody).

I think if you're going to write comedy in erotica - and I'm beginning to recognise that some of my recent stories have definitely veered into that direction - you have to make sure that the sex is good enough to carry the story. Otherwise you're likely to get something that's not quite erotica, not quite comedy, and entirely unsatisfying. And it's probably easier - for us as erotica writers at least - to write sex that will pass muster than humour that's good enough to fill the void.

I don't know if this is true for all erotica. If you want the story to still be hot, this is probably good advice, but maybe the humor is the point, and the erotica is less so. It also depends on what are the main themes and focus of the story, what the crux of it is. After all, sex isn't always the main point of an erotic story. In some cases it is, but there are plenty of stories that, if you took out the sex, would still be whole, complete stories all on their own; the sex is mainly there for flavoring (and because we're on an erotic site, that's the expectation). Several of the stories I've written, I could've stripped out the sex and not really missed much, but to take out the humor would've changed the whole shape and vibe of the thing.

It is true, though, that it can be a delicate balance. Humor can often serve as antithesis to erotica, as can many types of emotions, which is why a lot of erotic scenes tend to lose a lot of the other elements that were previously in play and the focus becomes entirely the sex. But mixing in other things besides hot and sexness can elevate a sex scene into something beyond titilation, you just have to be cognizant of the delicate balancing act that's required to make it work well.

 

[EmilyMiller]

You sure that doesn't belong in the Metafiction topic?

It’s not so much a story within a story as the author getting dragged into a story / convo with her characters

 

[OddLove]

As a reader I've come across things that I knew were funny to the writer and people like minded, but didn't resonate with me. It's usually like the really clever intelligent and intentional jokes that don't click with me. But it still works anyways because if the humor is being acted out through characters and I don't think it's funny, I will just mentally note that the character us 'clever' or 'witty'. It doesn't make me want to stop reading.

So in my opinion it's worth having in there for the people who will appreciate it more deeply.

As a writer, I will include things that I think are funny if it feels natural to the characters. But it's usually something I stumble into rather than intentional comedy on my behalf.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

It’s not so much a story within a story as the author getting dragged into a story / convo with her characters

Metafiction is fiction which takes as its subject the fact that it is fiction, at least in my usage.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Metafiction is fiction which takes as its subject the fact that it is fiction, at least in my usage.

Well, I guess if qualifies then

 

[Britva415]

It’s not so much a story within a story as the author getting dragged into a story / convo with her characters

I think that's even more meta!

 

[XerXesXu]

Season your writing with wit, that'll always improve its appeal; leave comedy to the professionals.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Well, most of my humor isn't really intentional, kinda in the way that @OddLove put it.

Dick jokes though, I can never resist a good dick joke.

Huffing, she scowled and complained, “But it’s important *now.”

Suppressing a laugh, the large boar rubbed his nose against hers. “But is there anything you can *do ‘bout it *now?”

“I c’n try an’ figure it out,” she mumbled sullenly.

Harry kissed her pouting lips, repeatedly, until she parted them and kissed him back. With one more kiss to the pretty sow’s forehead, he huskily told her, “Larry, sweetheart, I adore you, and I’m so proud of how you’ve taken care of things today.”

Blushing, she placed a hand on his shoulder and turned her head so she could peer shyly at him from the corner of her eye.

With a happy chuckle he kissed her ear and whispered, “But now, I would like it if you let go and let me take care of you. Lemme suck on your nipples, feast on your pussy, feed my fat dick into your lovely mouth, and leave tomorrow to the morning.”

Her cunt clenched at the thought, and warmth pooled in her nipples and nethers. Yet, she whispered uncertainly, “That sounds hard.”

“Yes, I’m very hard,” he pointed out dryly.

The second Larry’s giggles died down, Harry patiently asked, “Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” she immediately agreed.

See opportunity for dick joke, and I put it in. Sometimes I realize it doesn't fit, and I pull it back out again.