Writing Humor Clinic with Sherrytex

There has been a drop off in the number of souls fearless enough to post SYW pieces designed to bemuse, tickle or simply delight in the humor section.

As such, given the number of quality writers that visit AW every day, this clinic is being offered to provide all would be humorists with a vaccine against scaulding crits that offer the immortal evil words, "I didn't get it."

We all know Dying is easy, Comedy's hard.

So what are the steps to writing a good humor piece?

1) Decide your tone --are you more Southpark or Erma Bombeck? Are you going for satire or just a quick touch of lightness? Is the concept a fish out of water? Exhaggeration? Word Play? Incongruity? What absurdity have you chosen as the creator of this amusing vinette to illustrate? Is it absurd enough?

2) Decide your style--is this a humor piece in a story or is the story itself humerous? Is this a rant? A list? A parody of something we all know? There are some problem issues with each of these types of pieces.

Demon one: Comparison --you sound like...pick someone, anyone, if you sound like...someone other than you...this is a problem with your author's voice. Usually comes into play with stories --getting compared to Bill Cosby may sound great, except the rule is never follow a better commedian --this is true in writing as well, you will suffer by comparison if you sound too similar to what's already out there.

Demon two: Real life or memorex? Use reality as a spring board for inspiration, create a story starting with what happened on the way to the grocery store, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum, but allow the story to dictate where it goes. Don't be afraid to use the better punch line you thought of on the way home, you aren't under oath.

Demon three: Humor has a gentleness to it, it doesn't leave the audience feeling sorry for you. Harshness can push your audience away. You want to still have family and friends after the piece is published, comedy remember has a touch of redemption and forgiveness. Dark humor/satire is like sushi, expresso and opera, an aquired taste, usually reserved for those who know ahead of time that's what they're going to experience.

Demon four: Being serious about the craft...too serious. Writing humor requires that it actually be funny. If you are bored, I guaranteed the audience will be as well, this is done to lift, to lighten, don't be afraid to allow things in the story to get out of hand to the point of absurdity, think the bumpuses hound dogs running through the room. The bunny attacking the knights. Humor allows for the losening of convention, lighten up.

Demon five: Timing. Walking on lines, restating the punch line, repeating a joke without advancing it to the next level, these are the equivalent of explaining a joke, they kill the laughter one expects. The relationship between the writer and the audience is less stable than that of the stand up comedian and the audience. The readers don't have the benefit of a two drink minimum to limber them up, so they read your stuff completely sober. Read your stuff aloud and hear the rhythm that should be present in the voice.

Demon six: Phrasing. We're writers. Turning a phrase is what we are supposed to be doing. Stories come in threes. Stories gradually escalate and stories close with a summation that either kicks the humor to the next level, reinforces the lesson or restates the problem that has not been resolved. Last line is last impression, leave them laughing.

Sherrytex will now take your questions and freely acknowledge that she fails to consider these six on occasion and sometimes, just can't come up with the solution. Sometimes I think something stinks and everyone says it's funny. Other times, I think something is a riot and you can hear the crickets chirping.

Lesson #2 I'm not funny so....

1) The world is hilarious. Look around, absuridities abound. Record them in your brain and look for themes.

2) Humor usually like snickers bars, has a nougaty center --something of truth that your brain has been chewing on for some time, it has been driving you nuts and so to get to the center, you start with the chocolate to make whatever the core is, go down easy.
Translation of the metaphore: Humor is used to alieviate suffering in the human condition, so most humor starts from a point of pain --exhaustion, annoyance, problem, humiliation, physical pain (slapstick) and the laughter makes the pain managable. No one wants to eat a bar of pure nougat.

3) Listen to good comedians --follow their cadence, see how Jay Leno sets up the punchline and then delivers, like lobbing a tennis ball though there are nights when he double faults in my opinion. Good Comedians know that humility keeps the audience with you, so they apologize when a joke bombs. Conan is a master of this, and David Letterman, when a joke bombs is at his best. Unfortuantely, as writers, we don't have the advantage of being in the room to read the response of our readers so we have to gage it ahead of time. So we get to inflict reading our pieces aloud to family and friends. I use SYW as a stage to try out material I hope to submit. If I get crickets chirping, I don't submit it elsewhere.

4) Be fearless. Try writing humor.

HUMOR HOMEWORK
homework for tonight's class, a short piece --no minimum, bonus reps for creatitivity posted in SYW on baseball. There's no crying in baseball so there must be laughing. It can be on the cubs --perfect comedy vessel, baseball cards, steroids, the last standing bastion of sexism --baseball vs. softball, how much you love or hate baseball, anything, but that's the theme. Play ball and pray you don't strike out. Good luck --put Humor Clinic assignment in the thread in SYW humor so I know to go look.

With more Yoda like wisdom with a nougaty center on humor, I'll back be.

CACTUSWENDY said:

First let me say thank you for this information. For the last couple of weeks I have been wondering about the very things you have covered.

My question is how do you find the 'voice'? Since humor involves the hearing and visual senses how do you that write humor get the right 'tone' in your work? Delivery is such an important tool for humor.

I have a friend that has such a way of sharing some of her landlord experiences that it has me rolling on the floor with laughter. (Okay, maybe not on the floor, but close.) I would love to write about the stuff, but do not think I could ever capture, on paper, the way she allows it to come out. How do you guys do this? If I wrote it, it would come out flat.

Thanks ahead of time for any insight you may share.

Click to expand...

First off, voice.

Hello, my name is Marlin, I'm a, I'm a clown fish. We don't have to have watched any more of the movie to know he's nervous of life, he can't even identify himself with confidence.

start with a question.

Why do hot dogs come in packs of seven and buns come in packs of eight? (We're having lunch).

Why do french fries cooked at home get rejected? Even with ketchup?

Answer the question. Words paint pictures. Similies, metaphores, puns, all these things work in humor pieces. You get to play more with humor.

Or try to tell the story as if you were your friend. How does she tell it? That's a voice. Write like you think my friend. Write like you think. (This explains a lot about me I know, maybe too much).

"My friend Sally goes through roommates faster than she does cigarettes after trying to give them up cold turkey for three days.... The other day she..." You get to be omnipotent all telling narrator, giving her pythy commentary and your additional humerous asides. Write what you think. That's how you get a voice. Write what you really think.

Humor pieces allow people to say in public what they might privately think but not be able to say due to manners, delicacy, status, courage, or the fact that you didn't think of the snappy comeback until after the party.

Spaces. ..., () I'm not making passes or faces, these tools, "" and -- convey space, convey asides, convey pauses --they are no no's in most of the writing world. Here, they are your friends. (We like friends).

Passive voice is usually a no no, again, it depends upon your character --are you the fish out of water? Are you the innocent abroad? Are you the wisest person in the room? The only sober person at the party? The only Republican in the chat room? (You'ld better have a sense of humor if that's the case). Are you the rookie? Are you the veteran --pick the topic and establish your POV --this is your voice.

I notice this both in person and in humor writing especially when someone is trying too hard.[/QUOTE]

Bonus points for Nancy, go to the head of the class.

Saturday Night Live frequently suffers from the inability to edit. It is difficult to escape the mental lockjaw that takes place when a piece starts to fall.

Tips to avoid overkill...

Jokes should creshendo --roll then crash. You set up...you pause...you deliver.

Jokes should escalate --each wave is bigger than the one before.

Jokes should stop with the funniest one on topic and then receed back by changing topic or tactic.

With writing, this is actually pretty easy. You know which bit of your story is the most insane, it's your finale. The beginning should be benign...almost normal...getting a bowl of cereal. Deciding which box to get. Pulling down a box, and the box tips and pours cereal all over you. Grumble grumble, clean up box. (Everyone feels the pain, straight normal start) Sweep out closet. Still hungry. Go to get second box of cereal...pour...someone put a bag of frosted mini-wheats in the product 19 box, all that's left are the shreds at the end. Why would anyone keep this,...rant in head, throw away shreds...recycle boxes, (Not as strong but still on point) still no food....Go to closet again. Cereals remaining ...captain crunch, apple cherrios and the healthy fiber one mulestix you bought because it was on sale that hasn't improved with age and probably has a shelf life of twenty years. (rant takes us away a bit but also sets up the finale, keeps us in the real world) Also doubles as termite food. Reach for Captain Crunch. Moppet asks for it, cereal surrendered to moppet. (Gag has been established, not going to get food) Reach for apple cherrios...older son asks for... surrendered. (Becoming sysphyian) Other offspring descend like wolves and all cereal devowered, leaving bowls and mess. Grab the mulestix, pour in bowl...discover there is no milk.

strategies for stories:

Sysphian ---perpetual frustration (SPAM SPAM SPAM &MORE SPAM)

Swiftian --Exhaggerated to the point of meaninlessness with scale (It's only a bunny) Professor Umbridge's Decrees.

Pope --Taken seriously to the point of absurdity (Terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought)

Okay, I'll create a Homework thread in SYW Humor to allow for assignments to be posted. PM me your homework and I'll post them all under my name in the homework then people can discuss annonymously what has been posted and no one's funny bone will get seriously hurt. I promise to make the class play nice, or at least fair.

I had to edit out my humor credits due to space to compliment those who have been generous benefactors to my status in AW. Since you ask, I have a running column in my hometown newspaper, Beaumont Enterprise with sixteen columns to date since I started writing in October of 2006 because of AW, I also have two columns in Imperfectparent.com, and two in Absolutewrite.com humor section and one in the Washington Post that only ran a month ago.

I do however, have the benefit of having spent the past year criting and being critiqued on humor here and having learned a few things from those around me. I don't promise to be perfect or the absolute authority, only a friendly happy guide who shares a profound interest in producing quality humor pieces that can be published and that will make the world a bit happier for a bit of levity.

I have my own opinion about how comedy works and why and what its essential components include, and I can back my theory up with research if necessary but this is all strictly voluntary and for your own pleasure. If you think I'm a quack, speak up.

Okay, first drafts on baseball will be due by Saturday, we'll have this as a week by week clinic, with questions answered as presented. I'm subscribed to the thread so I'll know if you post a question.

Also, if you could pm the homework to me --it can be a list. It can be a poem, it can be a venting. The subject is baseball but don't fail to answer the muse if Thalia comes a calling about another subject. We will look at the offering for how to brighten them, how to tease every ounce of humor out of them.

Make your own suggestions please.

I will post the follow up by Monday noon --the schedule is for my benefit really, so I will consistently offer all of you who follow this new material.

Stumped? Go watch a little league game or a professional one. Read the box score. Wonder what life would be like if we kept stats like that for every profession, how many of us would be on steroids. Top ten reasons why the cubs haven't won in 89 years was done well by David Letterman back in the early 90's but it's time for a new list. Favorite line was from Dennis Miller, When the little bears from the windy place take the flag, the end is near.

Still not inspired?

Watch Deep Space Nine's episdoe of the crew battling Vulcans. Hilarious --imagine Klingon baseball, Klingon baseball cheers --We Will Destroy You! Listen to Abbot and Costello and Casey at the Bat. Watch Angels in the Outfield. Or the funniest worst of all time ever baseball movie, Field of Dreams. Oh. I still have nightmares about that one. ...think I'll write about them for my contribution.

You can even do why you hate baseball or don't play it or play whiffle ball, just make it funny and you can justify the assignment to me!

PM Me. That way works can stay annonymous --for those still feeling shy about stepping up to the mike. I'll post them all in the SYW homework thread and we'll look at the pieces to see how they could be tweaked, where they break down or how they fit the rubric about comedy that's been laid out.

If you don't care if everyone knows you wrote it, you can post it in the homework yourself. I'm an easy Teacher. Easy A I'm telling you.

The Joker has arrived, now, let's dance!

WHY BASEBALL FIRST?

Baseball is almost the perfect metaphore for comedy. It's highly individualized performances that affect the whole community. There is booing. There are highs. There are lows. For one team, it's always a happy ending. For the other, there's tragedy. Comedy like baseball has pitches, hits and balks --jokes that fall flat.

There is even the comedic equivalent of AAA and AA ball, in the comedy club circuit. Order of pitches, order of line up matters in baseball and comedy. Timing is critical to both. Reading the pitcher, reading the audience, allows you to hit a home run.

Finally, baseball, like comedy is a series of singular events strung together, that cannot be repeated in the same way. It won't be as funny the second time you hear it. You'll just remember and relive the pleasure you had the first time, like an echo, or hearing your favorite song through your son's earphones to his ipod because he has the volume turned up so loud. It won't quite satisfy, but you'll still enjoy it.

I gave till Saturday for the pieces, so I won't give new assignments until then. I will encourage you lurkers out there to come out and take some batting practice.