Writing Humorous Content

Writing Humorous Content

One of the hardest things in life, aside from climbing a tree with your hands in your pocket, is writing humorous content that would actually make people laugh.

Yes it is one thing to write a book and tag it comedy and then it is another thing to write a book and readers tag it comedy, you can easily make yourself laugh by creating absurd witty unrealistic scenarios with a touch of comical dictions and pronounce it amusing, but the thing is would a second person relate to such?

Would another individual, on hearing about your wide, humorous mental expedition, find it funny? Now there, right there, that’s precisely where the problem is at, “making up the funny part.” Making an individual besides yourself laugh.

Normally, it has been seen as a talent. This inborn gift identifies the born best comic authors from the other category of serious, focused authors. This just champions further, and I say this while consenting with logic, the question: how did Trevor Noah do it in his bestseller, Born A Crime?

Is there a secret that Daisy May Cooper and Tina Fey haven’t let anyone in on? Surely it transcends the typical adding of sugar, spice, and everything nice, right?

Maybe there is no secret aegis that provokes peals of laughter from indulgent fans, certainly, this would make you question your biological composition if indeed there resides a funny bone within you, this would certainly make you question if you are damned to creative oblivion, being stuck in a sphere populated by a gross number of 9 billion-plus essence while conjuring malice to those who are born with inherent abilities to goad people to laughter, I mean it looks like you are.

But unlike Charlie Chaplin who was born with it, the likes of Dr. Seuss and Oscar Wilde were able to prod, comically, people to laughter, and the most adoring thing about it is that they did it while being damned to creative oblivion, living among nine billion-plus people in a sphere while conjuring malice towards others with inbuilt comical genius.

Which is incomplete sameness with what you are doing, they were once like you, every great humor creator has passed through that stage of either self-realization; where they woke one up one morning to find a cankerous growth of ingénues ways to crack ribs or they hunkered down on an article like this wondering what it takes to be funny enough to write a humor work, But “how exactly?” remains the question.

Before I lay down the tips and let you put two and two together, it would be needful to inform you that everyone, anyone can be a humor creator, the genre is not reserved for a specific “coterie” of individuals, so far you can identify a barrel worth a laugh then there is the tendency that you understand humor and that is an essentiality for writing down a humor content.

1.       Consider the unexpected.

Humour work depends cripplingly on the concept of surprise. the manner in which it unfolds in a somewhat nonsensical erratic way tends to tickle an individual take for example the anonymous quote “marriage is simply a walk in the park, Jurassic park” or it’s best explained with precepts from the skulduggery book series by Derek Landy.

• “…’ Are you going to shoot me?’ Vengeous sneered

‘I wouldn’t be surprised.

What would a thing like you know about honour?

Only a heathen would bring a gun to a sword fight.

‘And only a moron would bring a sword to a gunfight ‘…“

• “..I’m placing you under arrest for murder,

Conspiracy to commit murder and,

I don’t know, possibly littering…”

• “…Valkyrie patted Fletcher’s arm ‘Don’t worry, ’ she said,

‘If the bad man comes,, fletcher responded

‘I’ll bravely give out a high-pitched scream to distract him.

 I may even bravely faint to give him a false sense of security.

 That would be your signal to strike”

‘We make a great team’

‘Just don’t forget to stand in front of me the whole time, ’ he said…’

• “…’ so that plan worked out’

‘Skulduggery, your entire plan consisted of, and I quote,

“Let’s get up close and then see what happens.”

All the same,’ he said, ‘I think the whole thing worked out rather beautifully.’

Of course, the concluding lines of each individual sentence were least expected, they turned in an insurmountable direction,  they were a million miles off reach, but somehow you read them, somehow it didn’t seem possible or even expectable but it did surface, and as well, it had an effect on you. That’s simply an idea you should put to practice while creating humorous work. The fickle surprises are what indeed bring about the amusement in such conditions.

2.       Make use of the good direction

This is rather not typical, but certainly, it is most effective this would leave readers in a state of awe asking how possible is it while laughing at how possible it is, by now it’s evident that you are puzzled by the stream of sentences you ran down, but let’s look into Dark Blood, a rather CSI dubbed style detective thriller book authored by Stuart MacBride.

He penned down.

“…A thin face peered out; Richard Knox. Pointed nose, pointy chin, and a crooked-teeth overbite that made him look like a partially shaved rat. His hairline was receding, probably trying to get away from his face. ‘Cold’

The big man closed his eyes for a moment, mouth working silently on something. And then he said, ‘We’ve been over this, Richard; you know what I’m saying?’

‘Just an observation. ’ Knox’s voice was nearly an octave higher but still broad Geordie. He took a grip of the handrail and picked his way down the steps to the wet tarmac. ‘Not like this all the time, is it?’

DI Steel grinned at him. ‘No, most of the time it’s worse. Why don’t you try somewhere warmer? Like Hell? That’s meant to be nice this time of the year…”

It’s undoubtedly obvious that no human can go to hell for the purpose of finding warmth, it’s completely impossible—that’s what makes it funny, likewise, another excerpt  from a quirky high school chemistry teacher reads;

“Do not eat that. If you do, you’ll die. Then I will have to revive you and kill you again for being an idiot”

Well, no teacher can do that; the killing part is left debatable, but logically we see that no human possesses the ability to revive the dead. That’s what making use of the impossible direction gets you, do you understand?

3.       Expatriate in detail

Unlike other forms of writing that require precision and straightforwardness, writing a humor work you’d need to express your details in detail, you won’t want to leave any thread dangling, you’d need to gather everything in one accord, no need for cliff hangers remember you are not writing on a thriller or a paranormal genre.

This is where your descriptive skills are put to the test; this is where the adeptness of your narrative technique is quizzed.

On the count of how good you are, there is no guarantee that your descriptions would make anybody laugh, but it would paint a clearer picture of the intended this alone can bring about a smile; a smile means you’re on the right track to being the next Mark Twain; a smile is a pass mark for a humor work—it’s like a D7 or a C5.

4.   Make fun of characters using sarcasm, dark humour, and, if possible, demeaning remarks[subtly]

One of the best forms of comedy is tactical jabs thrown at living things; It’s funny because it can be a definition, it’s funny because of the impact, it’s funny because it hurts, it’s funny because it is true.

Much of what stand-up comedians see as a progressive gimmick is the act of ridicule, whether done to oneself or a distant deceased relative. This alone composes the American reality show “ridiculousness” This gimmick of self-ridicule is the largest benefactor to America’s funniest video and slapstick comedy.

Surprisingly, the manner in which people tend to exaggerate mishaps tickles most readers’ sense of humour. Raphael Bob Waksberg as well as a number of other producers understood this; he reflected his understanding in his attention-demanding series “Bojack Horseman”.

Now Bojack Horseman who everyone understands is partly horse partly man goes to give a eulogy on the day of his mother’s funeral, he transforms what is supposed to be a sober atmosphere into an oddly comical and side-splitting aura by constantly ridiculing himself and his dead mother with the use of dark jokes and the attempted imitation of the  facial expression of his dead mother, he employs the likes of “there is no point beating a dead horse”,  “can I just say how amazing it is to be in a room with my mother and I can talk and talk without her telling me to shut up, hey mom knock once if you think I should shut up.”

The point of this should be to highlight human flaws hyperbolically and use it as a tool linking your work to the sense of readers in a very relatable manner that preaches about the possibility

5.       Make the third item ridiculous

There is always a list, there is always a third item which should be considered as important because it’s always where understanding lies, it’s a harbinger for clearness, see the matrix 1,2 and 3, see the wilder vs. fury trilogy, the third was clearly a determinate for who is stronger among the two, etc., you get my point.

When giving an example, the third party you’d identify should always be the black sheep, e.g.

“…’what would killing the elders result in’…?

Panic?  Fear? Three empty spaces in the sanctuary…“ (Skulduggery Pleasant 1#).

Is it getting less vague? Do you feel the content in this article is equipping you on how to produce humour content?