Need some jokes (moved from Novels)

[efreysson]

I'm trying to lighten the mood of my fantasy manuscript a bit and thought of having the characters drop the occasional joke here and there. Problem is, they're in a fictional, low-tech fantasy world, so I can't call on any modern objects, situations or people and am coming up short.

Could someone please give me examples of jokes that work in any era and environment? I don't mind raunchy ones. :)

[callalily61]

Puns.

[Richard Martin]

Knock knocks. Knock knocks were started by the first cavepeople.
They are represented in cave drawings.

Notnot.
Uh?
Guh.
Guh huh?
Guh ugh.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Neeson.
Neeson who?
Neeson jokes.

[FennelGiraffe]

I would suggest adding humorous incidents rather than telling jokes. Jokes usually depend on a whole lot of social context and/or double meanings. That can be difficult to set up properly in a story set in a different culture. (This is why jokes rarely translate well.) Nothing spoils a joke faster than too much explanation, but without the context it falls flat. You can't win either way.

[blacbird]

Ditto what Fennel just said. Go for humor, derived from characters and situations. Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and J.K. Rowling all use humor effectively in their work. Jokes will feel like what they are, externally imposed, artificial, and out-of-place.

caw

[Maryn]

This seems like a good set-up for not so much a joke as a running gag. Give a character a quirk, like an unreasonable fear or affection, and allow the others to marvel at it, tease him/her about it, laugh when it manifests itself, and so on.

Fears might include people who look different or are differently-abled, in ways which don't pose any threat; harmless creatures the equivalent of dogs or cats; insects or other wee beasties, the non-stinging/biting variety; heights; close spaces; etc.

Baseless affection might include people who look a certain way or wear a certain garb (the equivalent of a man in uniform being totally studly?); small people; small creatures; creatures others find gross or scary, including the scaled or slimy; etc.

This could be fun!

Maryn, glad to have the chance to think about it

[Duncan J Macdonald]

Puns.

Puns can be awkward in a fantasy world, because the pun has to be workable in the language that you are ostensibly translating from.

For example:

Person One: "There's something fishy about your actions!"
Person Two: "Nah. I did it for the halibut."

That pun doesn't work in German, no would a German attempt it.

[James D. Macdonald]

Q. What does it mean when an elf is drooling out of both sides of his mouth?
A. The forest floor is level.

Q. Do you know what you get if you cross a werewolf with a goat?
A. You need to get a new goat.

Q. What's the best way to talk to a giant?
A. Use big words.

[Chris Grey]

A skeleton walks into a bar and says, "Give me a beer, and a mop."

Q: How many knights does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Prithee, what's a lightbulb?

[Shweta]

Moved into sf/f because this isn't novel-specific :)

[Queen of Swords]

Could someone please give me examples of jokes that work in any era and environment? I don't mind raunchy ones. :)

The only one I could think of was a bit of graffiti in a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, so it's not even new.

"Goblin your food is bad for your elf."

[L M Ashton]

This seems like a good set-up for not so much a joke as a running gag. Give a character a quirk, like an unreasonable fear or affection, and allow the others to marvel at it, tease him/her about it, laugh when it manifests itself, and so on.
You know Monk, the television series, with Tony Shalhoub? Whatever you do, don't make it so over the top and all about the quirks that you sacrifice the story line, like they did in season, what, three, I think. Bloody awful. Previous seasons were soooooo funny, but when it became all about the quirks, it just sucked.

[Beach Bunny]

I'm trying to lighten the mood of my fantasy manuscript a bit and thought of having the characters drop the occasional joke here and there. Problem is, they're in a fictional, low-tech fantasy world, so I can't call on any modern objects, situations or people and am coming up short.

Could someone please give me examples of jokes that work in any era and environment? I don't mind raunchy ones. :)

In LOTR - The Movie (not the book), Gimli has a lot of funny things that he says. They are true to his movie character and help lighten up the film. Some examples:
"Here's to dwarves who go swimming with little hairy women!"
"We dwarves are natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances."
I think that if you do something like that instead of tossing in random jokes, that you'll achieve what you are looking for. :)

[Smiling Ted]

"So Ivar Ragnarsson is in this tavern in Jorvik with Halfdan and Guthrun, right? And Halfdan is drunk off his enden on metheglin, see? So Ivar dares Halfdan to let him cut Halfdan's head off with an axe, and then Halfdan can do the same to him. And Halfdan - get this - Halfdan says YES!

"So two axe strokes later, Halfdan's head is rolling around the tavern floor, and we're all LAUGHING....

"Good times. Good times."

[tehuti88]

Puns can be awkward in a fantasy world, because the pun has to be workable in the language that you are ostensibly translating from.

For example:

Person One: "There's something fishy about your actions!"
Person Two: "Nah. I did it for the halibut."

That pun doesn't work in German, no would a German attempt it.

Well, the way I see it, if everyone in the story is communicating in the same language, there should be sufficient suspension of reader disbelief in using puns that would work only in, say, the writer's native tongue. It's all translated through the narrator after all, if English (or whatever) isn't the tongue being used.

The characters in my story are of various American Indian tribes, traveling with a modern-day American MC who has a device that helps translate all their speech so they understand each other. Meaning, any puns made in any language would translate over into the others. At some point one of the goofier native characters, collecting acorns, says that a friend of his makes great stew from them, but he doesn't use real acorns. When the MC asks, "Fake acorns?" he replies, "Yeah! He calls them 'fakecorns'!"

Even more than puns though, I find that cultural misunderstandings and differences can provide great humor. (At one point, my MC is appalled that the rice is flavored with maple sugar, not understanding that this is normal here; at another point, she wonders why one character is so embarrassed when she throws a blanket over his shoulders to warm him up, and learns that she was in fact asking him to marry her--"I suppose if I tie my shoelaces a certain way it must mean I want ten kids?" she grouses later on.)

And funny things based directly on the world being written about in the fantasy. Many of the jokes and funny events in my story wouldn't make sense outside of the fantasy world they take place in. (Along both lines here, puns and cultural specifics, the spirits in the world I write about are called "manitous" and can inhabit almost anything. My MC at times combines the word "manitou" with the item or being that has a spirit--loons become "loonitous" and a canoe becomes a "canoeitou." The canoe, which is sentient and made of stone, also provides some humor when it compares its own life, countless millennia spent up in a mountain waiting to be carved out, to that of the 15-year-old human MC--a running gag is that she hates being called a little girl, so when the canoe calls her a "foolish little pebble," she's infuriated.)

See, none of this would be funny or make any sense whatsoever outside my particular story so I hope you catch my drift. :o The best comedy is based on the specific world you're writing; that's what makes it so funny, it wouldn't make us laugh otherwise.