Humor, the genre

[Kessie]

So I'm sitting here with a headcold and no humor in my entire body. And I started thinking about writing humor.

I always see people lamenting that there's no humorous novels in Christian fiction. Heck, all kinds of agents wish for more humor, too. So I was trying to think of how humor is written.

In Discworld, most of the humor is in the snappy narrative. I haven't read the Night of the Living Dead Christian, but I've previewed that one North! Or Be Eaten. It has the same kind of silly narrative.

The only humor I've managed to write has been taking a silly situation and playing it completely straight. My best one was a fanfic where I took a robot from a videogame, contrived to install Windows 95 on his mainframe, and set him loose. Hilarity ensued as he crashed over and over.

Also, I just read about how Jim Butcher got dared to write a book based on two horrible ideas: a lost Roman legion, and Pokemon. And he went and wrote the Codex Alera series. (Which I now want to read just out of curiosity.)

So, guys, what two completely random ideas would be awesomely funny if played totally straight?

[stormiel]

Well, the hampster wheel is turning but nothing comes to mind yet. Hope you feel better soon!

[Kessie]

Ever read any funny books? What made them funny?

[This Baron of Mora]

Recently found out that the word humor originally was a part of Medieval Medicine practice of which I believe there are four. Contained in the Spleen they brought about melancholy which is one definition of spleen (did you know you can be spleeny? yes it is a word). How we get the modern use of the word is that laughter was used as one method to balance the humors.

[firestorm78583]

Sorry about the headcold. Vicks blue cough drops and chicken noodle soup is my cure-all.

I've been partial to the writings of Douglas Adams and Peter David.
If you haven't read any of Peter David's works, I recomend this list:

Star Trek, the Next Generation - Q-in-Law (The 2 most powerful forces in the universe collide, Q and Lwaxana Troi).

Howling Mad (We know what happens when a werewolf bites a man, but what happens when a werewolf bites a wolf?).

Knight Life (King Arthur comes back and becomes Mayor of modern-day New York).

In David's novels, it is the absurdity of the situation. For example, the Lady of the Lake rising up out of the muck of Central Park lake to deliver Excalibur to Arthur.

Remember, in comedy there is the rule of three. You set up a situation, do it again to anchor it in the audiences mind, then change it the third time you do it. Look at how Douglas Adams described the Vogon ships;
"Huge as office blocks, silent as birds, and hung in the air the same way that bricks don't".
or this line;
"In those days, men were real men, women were real women, and small blue furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small blue furry creatures from Alpha Centauri".

I would mention the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. Sometimes the funny elements are the situations, but primarily it is all the puns. Anthony loads the series with puns. In fact one of my friends submitted a pun to Mr. Anthony and it was used in Geis of the Gargoyle.

"If fish ever came out of the water, they'd have to play baseball, because there's 20,000 leagues under the sea."

By the way, I had to read the Xanth series in small doses. I would read a Robotech book between Xanth novels. There's only so many puns your mind can handle before it explodes.

As far as my own writing, I am trying a combination of snappy patter and absurd situation, like sticking two of the bigest D&D geeks in a medieval tavern.

Well, that's my two cents worth on the subject. Hope it helps. Get well soon.

[myrthman]

I had an idea in another thread (some eon ago) of populating a Trekkish starship with fantasy archetypes. The warp drive was replaced with a rear-facing, fire-breathing dragon named, of course, Warp. Photon torpedo launchers were loaded with wizards who had memorized many, many Magic Missile spells; there would naturally have to be shift changes. Ship's doctor would be a cleric; the captain was an Elven ranger named Archer; and the security chief is aptly named D'Worf.

It never went beyond delightful musings, but I wouldn't mind revisiting it someday.

[Kessie]

Firestorm: I'm familiar with Douglas Adams, but not Peter David. I'll have to look him up. Also I'd never tried the Xanth series, and I had no idea they were punny. *adds to list*

Myrth: That sounds hilarious. :-D

I had this idea for a guy who is a mortal angel who happens to look exactly like a local kingpin. So he's on the run and he has no idea why, but he can kick the butts of just about everyone who goes after him. Seeing as all the angels in my series so far have been female, this idea tickles my funnybone.

[Ranger Varon]

*groans* What a pun.

Douglas Adams is one of my favorite authors, so one of my series is inspired by Hitchhiker's, and combines tropes from 50s space opera and 30s noir mysteries, hopefully to ridiculous and funny effect.

[firestorm78583]

My only problem with Douglas Adams was his take on God in the HHGG series. More recently I found out he was an atheist, which depressed me to no end, because I really did like the HHGG "trilogy" and his other body of work.

The most recent thing that I've heard Peter David do was write for the Incredible Hulk comic book, but that was at least a year ago. He does have some serious works. STNG - Imzadi was written by him.

[Kessie]

I could tell Adams was an atheist just by the way he wrote. His worldview depressed me so much I never read past the first book. Same with Terry Pratchett. But don't they say that only depressed people can write really good humor?

[Ranger Varon]

If they do, I've never heard them say that. But it's possible.
Most of my favorite classic sci-fi is all written by atheists.
I've only read a few books from Pratchett, and those were hilarious too. But, I do have a more cynical, bordering on depressed perspective, so I appreciate more wry, cynical, humor like that.