Taking writing advice from a self-proclaimed deeply unfunny writer? Well, if you’re doing it, be sure to generate a laugh or two out of the irony. Or we’ll make a sad sack, you and I. 

But then why am I writing this? Because, I too, like the lowly you, humourless in our pith, with possibly not a funny bone to ourselves, have turned to research to find how we can become one of the Greats. What a joke, yeah? Research for humour? At least we’re laughing. But also, we are desperate.

Let us be honest, humour writers are a breed apart. To me they’re the best kind of writers. Most intelligent and sometimes more honest that any of us other ones. It’s the one thing you can’t twist out with a crooked finger. Either you have it or you don’t have it. Well, that is what I used to think. Or maybe, there is a teeny-tiny possibility that somewhere inside you there is an ability to be funny and you simply have to find it, that one funny bone lying inside like a vestigial organ, unused. Could we find a way to use it? Evolution might not work like that – vestigial organs in a double role, or vestigial organs resurrecting, return-of-the-appendix – okay now, we’ve gone into the territory of the absurd – but yeah, why think of evolution when we only live a hundred years? 

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But there is one thing that always is in favour of humour – it is an exercise in logic. Wit is good use of logic. You can depend on your logic, on stuff that makes you laugh, on being a keen observer of the human condition, and possibly some trusted advice, handed down by the funniest people ever. Let’s find out what advice they have for us. 

1. Dialogue as a Vehicle.

More than other things in this list, I feel counting on Dialogue as a vehicle to deliver the funny bit(s) is comparatively easy. But what this vehicle really is, is a way to deliver funny ‘characters’. I think that is what makes this way of approaching humour comparatively easy. 

Funny people are all around us. For say, we all have seen that positively serious shopkeeper Uncle who asks you everyday if you’re married or not, and finally one day he goes ‘I ask because your hair is gray now’. What? Never happened to you? Who said it happened to me? I was not the one fake laughing at his statement. Using laughter to water down my own anxiety and embarrassment about premature hair graying? Not me, not me! 

But yes, point being, funny characters are constantly around us, they can be typical funny, or subtle funny, or dark funny, or, or hear me out, annoyingly funny, like someone who listens to too much Oasis, or watches a lot of Friends. They don’t have to burst the reader out in mad laughter, (if you can do that, write a letter back to our blog and we will respect it in the way New Yorker or Guardian respect their letter writers). It can also be something that puts a sweet little smile on the reader’s lips throughout the text. This funny little story, ‘The Ghost Is Haunting Me Wierd’ in McSweeny’s is a great example of fun dialogue that keeps it all alive and definitely very funny. 

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2. What makes You tickle? 

Let’s go back to the opening paragraphs, when I said ‘maybe, just maybe, there is a teeny-tiny possibility that you have it within in you and you just have to find it’. The reason that this might just be true is if you are someone who has laughed in life at jokes, memes, people, society, or the best of all, at your own measly self, you have an instinctive understanding of humour and comedy. 

Unless hey, you’re one of those people who’ve never had a laugh in their life. I don’t know many as such but we’ve all heard about them in novels and tv. If you belong to that kind of mankind, kindly let us know the exactitude of how you’ve managed to escape the humour of this ‘It’s all very funny’ life. That’d be a great input to the humour world actually! 

3. Crutching on the good-ol What if.

The What-if is your friend when writing a funny story. The idea is that you imagine a slightly impossible scenario. Wait a second as it dawns on you, and then explore the absurdity of it all. One of the best literary magazine of all times McSweeny’s and their insanely funny Internet Tendency excels at bringing stories like this. For instance, in their piece titled “I Regret to Inform You That My Wedding to Captain Von Trapp Has Been Canceled,” the author humourously plays with the idea of marrying a fictional character, Captain Von Trapp from “The Sound of Music.” Everyday references blended with absurdity can create hilarious and unforgettable stories. 

Another great example of a What-if situation is this very short piece in New Yorker’s acclaimed Shouts and Murmurs section, which is to say their funny section, and it is called ‘A Network Executive Writes A Sitcom’. It is also a satire at the same time on the WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike about the treatment of writers by the network execs and so it becomes a powerful thing given its moment in time. 

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4. Nail Narrative, Form, Concept to the Comedy Cross. 

For writing a funny story, one needs not just to think of funny ideas or witty one-liners. Let’s say you’re one of those people who’ve got that in their corner. Then what you need to really nail in is the cauldron in which your funny one-liners can become the real zingers they are. No story is a good story if it doesn’t deal with the nuances of narrative properly. The form is also extremely relevant. The concept should be fused with humour. An example of concept is what we discussed in the previous point – a ‘what if’ scenario. This reminds me of The Onion, a master of satire. Their narrative and concept are always amazing, funny to their core and their form is a news report. Take their article ‘Courtroom Artist Hopes Next Defendent a Bowl of Fruit’! It’s so simply funny. News reports are great forms because they are inherently serious things and are bound to crackle us when they even slightly waver from the usual. Natural satirical forms!

So yes, once you nail the narrative, form and concept to the comedy cross, that’s when you put in the final nail, the jokes you’ve been hiding in your sleeve. 

{Curious about the various types of creative writing forms? We have a blogpost on ’17 Types of Creative Writing’ that can help you.}

5. We’re in the Golden age of Dad Jokes. 

When I asked my friend who makes a lot of Dad jokes, what about the Dad jokes doing so well lately? And he said ‘What about them? Is it because Dads are decreasing as a demographic? Of course, I’m quoting my unscientific hunch based on the fact that reproduction has generally slowed down. Gotta love the reductionists!’ 

Yeah, we all love the reductionists, but seriously, What’s the deal with all those first world countries putting ads in the newspapers about paying people to breed in their countries? The Dad must have gone down. And so, maybe, people are reacting more than usual to Dad or also called lame jokes. These are one liners, no complex setup, simply a – 

The idea here is that if you’ve only got Dad jokes going on for you, then don’t let us slow you down you old geezer! Put them around in the story, no one’s gonna mind. We all secretly live for them. 

{If you need help with writing the blurb for your book, check out Top 10 Book Blurb Examples by Indian Authors.}

6. Surprise and Subvert 

Now surprising and subverting might be a part of writing that goes beyond humour, but it very well can be used to analyze funny writing too. Humour often thrives on the unexpected. To create laughter, you can set up a situation where the reader anticipates one outcome, and then, with a clever twist, deliver something entirely different. Cyanide and Happiness or XKCD comics have perfected the art of this. Even in the smallest square of paper, they’re able to surprise and surprise you from one panel to the other. They might not be examples of literary fiction, but they definitely are great inspirations! Check this two-panel comic from Cyanide and Happiness called Line-Up.

Conclusion:

In the realm of humour writing, we’ve embarked on a journey to uncover the elusive secrets of making readers laugh. Despite our self-confessed humourless beginnings, we’ve discovered that humour is a logical exercise, a profound understanding of human behavior and an exploration of the unexpected. The art of crafting a funny story is within  reach, even for those who have never been the life of the laughter party. 

Know that humour is not an exclusive club but rather the unstately coffee shop in the street corner. Everyone’s allowed and the coffees always bad, always-a-pourin’. Some practice, keen observation, a willingness to embrace the unexpected, and you’ll be a regular in no-time. From there on it’s going to be chuckles, guffaws and outright falling off the chairs. Embrace the absurdity, harness the crazy, and let your funny bone shine. 

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