Humor is something I honestly love adding into even the darkest of my stories. I think that in a way, humor is something that we as humans all share a love for. I hope so, at least. Humor can create a sort of break for your readers in stories where things tend to run on the darker side. Humor is a very subjective thing though, and what you find funny may not be funny to other people. However, there are ways of crafting humor that can at least make the situation more enjoyable, even if it doesn’t get a laugh out of your reader. So, for today’s post, I’ll be teaching you how to create humor in your next story and how to craft humorous scenes.
What is Humor, Exactly?
Humor is basically something that is found funny by people. It’s a very subjective thing and you may find some comedians so funny, you’re crying from laughter and you may find other comedians so boring, you’re falling asleep. This is the same for everybody else, as everyone’s sense of humor is different.
What Types of Humor Are there?
For a long time, there have been many identified, tried, and true forms of humor that tend to almost always make people laugh and are enjoyable for most audiences.
Slapstick is one of the oldest forms of humor present in entertainment and typically involves characters getting hit around, falling off buildings, smacking each other, and getting into exaggerated situations. Think The Three Stooges.
Witty humor is basically based on clever and intellectual humor, with snappy comebacks. This is something I personally noticed a lot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Not my personal favorite kind of humor, but it works for some.
Sarcasm is humor that mocks a situation or is based around irony. Basically, situations where a character is agreeing with something clearly awful in a very bored tone or something of the like.
Dark humor is when you turn an otherwise dark and serious situation into some sort of joke. Some people take this one too far, and end up just sounding racist for example, but dark humor can be things like making fun of taboo subjects.
Absurd or surreal humor is basically creating ridiculous situations that essentially just doesn’t make any sense. Absurdity is shocking in a way that makes you laugh because it’s highly unrealistic, but it’s so funny that you can’t help but laugh. This would definitely be something like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is honestly one of the funniest movies ever made and I can never stop laughing at it.
Parodies are another great form of humor where you essentially imitate something in a comedic way. For example, the Scream franchise is a massive parody of the horror genre and it’s done really well.
Self-deprecating humor is a type of humor that involves making fun of oneself and one’s own flaws and issues. A lot of standup comedians prefer this style of comedy and they often use it to spin their own stories as well.
There are certainly many other kinds of humor out there, but these are some of the more popular ones that we often find in literary mediums.
Whichever humor style you select really depends on what your goals for your story are.
Keep the Audience in Mind
When you go to choose the type of humor that you want, you should probably keep in mind the fact that your audience may prefer a certain form of humor over others. For instance, children typically find simple, slapstick humor funny while adults might be OK with that sort of humor, but not as enthusiastic about it. Meanwhile, young adults tend to like sarcasm and possibly dark humor.
You definitely don’t want to write for your target audience and then include humor that none of them will like. That’s a tough thing to have.
How to Create Humor in Your Story
Start With the Characters
Humor typically gets its start from having well-developed characters that resonate and connect with your readers. Developing your characters first is something that I think is important for any story, no matter what your goals are.
I’ve got two posts that I’ll link now about creating great characters:
Character dynamics and interactions are also great ways to build humor. For example, in Chapter 13 of my book, Malware, one character is explaining different weapon types to the main character, Blide. Now, Blide knows all about guns and he’s an expert, but the other character, Trey, has no clue about this. A humorous moment occurs out of this in the following exchange:
Trey: “Good, good. Just making sure. A lot of the times, people who don’t understand shit about guns like to think that all guns are machine guns. Machine guns are seriously just not the same as an M4 or M16, you know?”
Blide: “Sure. I don’t really care.”
Blide’s style is very sarcastic and he doesn’t really care to hurt anyone’s feelings, so he’ll say things that seem harsh but his sarcastic nature makes them border more on humor. As a writer, I often integrate humor into moments of complete bleak darkness and grim horror because I find that it breaks the terror of the situation and brings the reader into the story more. I’ve gotten good feedback on this style as well!
It’s great to pair characters that are basically opposite personalities of each other into a moment where there’s a humorous exchange. For instance, Blide from that exchange you just read is a pure psychopath. Trey is not really that, he’s more narcissistic. But because of this difference in personality, Trey feels the need to one-up Blide while Blide is just standing there.
Use Dialogue as a Vehicle for Humor
Dialogue is a great way to convey a lot of humor in your story, such as banter, which is basically quick and witty exchanges between characters. Banter is often seen a lot in romance stories between characters and is a very popular form of humor in dialogue.
There are also things in dialogue like understatements, which is basically when someone downplays a really serious and difficult situation and makes it seem much lighter than it actually is. In Soldat, Book 2 of my series, the following exchange shows some of the idea of downplaying:
“New Earth Movement? Like, the weird hippies or whatever?” Jason asked.
“Hippies is not the adjective I’d use to describe a deep state, but sure,” Azurai answered.
Situational Comedy
Sitcom, or situational comedy, humor includes placing characters in situations that end up being humorous for one reason or another. Oftentimes, sitcoms that we see rely on exaggeration and misunderstandings, as well as timing.
Sitcom style humor can possibly add more interesting moments to your story, but I personally wouldn’t overdo this unless it’s called for in your story. Even if your story is serious, having a few moments here and there of situational comedy works, but overdoing it will tip your story from being serious to becoming basically just a comedy.
Creating Moments for Humor
Humor that’s truly funny is usually something that can’t be expected or anticipated by the readers. You can add humor into a suspenseful scene, for instance, which can help keep readers even on edge more. For example, you can have a moment where the characters are terrified of a sound coming from a dark corner only to see that it’s just a cat or something, but then the real danger comes out in that exact moment. It’s like something out of Scooby Doo, but if you think about it it works.
Absurdity is also a great technique to use in crafting humorous moments, as you can take a small situation and keep adding onto it to make it even crazier and more ridiculous as the moment goes on.
Keep a Balance
If your story is not supposed to be an endless comedy such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail was, where everything was so ridiculous and hilarious that everything had to be basically stupid, then you don’t want to overdo the humor.
I listed a few scenes from my series, but my series is overall a very dark and depressing one that gets broken up here and there with humor and references to things to add a depth of realism to the story, but overdoing the humor will just ruin your plot.
You want to ensure that the jokes and the humorous exchanges are actually relevant to the overall story and that the pacing of these moments are actually timed well with the serious moments. You also want to ensure that the humor works with the characters you’ve selected, because some characters are not made for making jokes. It can be interesting if you have a super serious character crack a joke that gets the others to laugh, but that super serious character likely wouldn’t be doing that every other chapter.
Example from Malware, Book 1 of The Fallen Age Saga
I personally have a lot of examples of quick humor from Malware, despite any of the dark moments in the story. Blide himself is supposed to be very sarcastic and he likes to convey his thoughts often to the reader, though he sometimes lies to you too.
In one scene, Trey Talon, a representative from the CIA comes to get Blide out of prison. However, Blide decides to drag it out to mess with Trey, pretending that he wasn’t Malware. Blide would purposely give middle school-style responses to Trey in order to tick him off, leading to this interaction in Chapter 8:
Blide: “That sounds great. Once I find this Malware guy, I’ll let him know.”
Trey: “I’m sorry, what?”
Blide: “You heard me right. Once I run into Malware, I’ll let him know you guys were looking for him.”
Trey: “You just admitted to being Malware.”
Blide: “I never admitted anything. You deduced that all by yourself, so technically, I never admitted to anything. As such, once I find Malware, I’ll tell him you guys want him.”
Trey: “I just offered you a chance to get out of prison. What could you possibly want beyond that?”
Blide: “I already told you, once I find Malware, I’ll let him know.”
Trey: “Fine. I can tell that you’re just playing around with me. You’ll come around eventually.”
Blide: “I hope you find Malware soon, because it seems urgent.”
The main humor style in The Fallen Age Saga that I felt worked the best for the story was most definitely sarcasm, but you can use whatever humor style you want for your own story.
Don’t feel shy to include humor even in a story where you think it may not actually work out. Even grimdark books have humor! Humor is a great writing tool that can add a lot of depth to the characters and to the moments you’re writing. It can also be great to break up some of the sadder and darker moments to add things that make the story just feel a little easier to digest by readers. Still, you want to balance it out well with your plot and integrate it well. Unless you’re writing something like a romcom or a comedy-focused book, then go crazy with the humor.
Before you head on out, check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you never miss an update on my WIPs, latest releases, posts and more!