Horror And Comedy: Two Great Tastes, But Do They Taste Great Together?

They go brilliantly together - all the greats mix humor with the scares to release and then rebuild tension.

King is a master at it.

And think of the movies -- The Evil Dead series, Drag Me to Hell, Shaun of the Dead, American Werewolf in London etc...

Perhaps Dean Koontz could answer that one for you ....

I've commented about it before.

williemeikle said:

They go brilliantly together - all the greats mix humor with the scares to release and then rebuild tension.

King is a master at it.

And think of the movies -- The Evil Dead series, Drag Me to Hell, Shaun of the Dead, American Werewolf in London etc...

Click to expand...

Could not agree more!

Comedy adds balance. jmho

Humour can add a lot to horror, balancing things and building/breaking tension as needed.

J A Konrath is a master of using humour in this way (check his Jack Daniels series - it's crime rather than horror, but the lesson is still there due to the blend of humour and suspense).

Jeff Strand is another truly excellent example. His works differ as to the balance of humour/horror... but if you haven't read him I'd fully recommend at least checking out his Andrew Mayhem series.

And by the way, I really like the description of your story. Will you let us know where/when it will be available? I'd love to read it.

I have a zombie short somewhere that is all comedy. Granted it is fully of people getting eaten and limbs falling off but it's all comedy. I love horror comedy.

You might want to check out John Dies at the End and the sequel, This Book Is Full of Spiders, for the answer.

Actually, 6 thousand words is still well within the short story range, but I digress.

Yes, humor and horror taste great together - like chocolate and peanut butter. Like steak and eggs. Like biscuits and gravy. Like bananas and ice cream. Like ice cream and root beer.

They go so well together that many authors will use a bit of humor to ease the tension of scene just enough to make their next scene even more gripping and suspenseful. While not every author does it successfully, many have done it quite well.

You need to expand your horizons a wee bit and read more horror I think. That's not an insult, it is my opinion and I, myself, am continually reading trying to expand my own horizons and knowledge. In fact, in order to write, a writer must read - expansively within and without their chosen genre.

And horror and humor doesn't just occur within horror - it occurs everywhere in every genre. Some of the best mixes of horror and humor I've read have been in noir detective fiction. Now, it's no secret that I'm a fan of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammet, mainly for their use of language, but the way they describe their scenes, especially when they're very intense, can be very humorous and very horrible at the same time. I highly recommend you check out some of the older "Masters" outside of horror (and within it). You want to look at Richard Matheson, Chandler and Hammet, of course, but also Lumley (not his virtually unreadable (imo) vampire series but his short stories and especially his Lovecraftian stuff (not The Transition of Titus Crow, The Clock Of Dreams nor any of the fantasy series extending from those, but The Burrowers Beneath is a good book (ruined by the sequels) and the stories of his that have appeared in Lovecraft Magazine are pretty good)), Fred Saberhagen (his vampire series), Ted Sturgeon (check out his horror short stories), and many, many more.

The key, I think, is expanding your horizons by reading more broadly and actively seeking new authors and works.

And, btw, it's "novella", not "novela". It basically goes short story, novelette, novella, novel, in that order.

Sorry again, Not trying to be a smart ass, but these are things you need to know.

I tend to think of horror and comedy as strange cousins. In the realm of fiction, they have a lot in common, and feature a lot of the same challenges when a storyteller is trying to use either of them effectively.

One challenge that faces both is that each is easier to use effectively when the audience doesn't expect it. It's easier, for instance, to make a funny remark during normal conversation and get a laugh than to actually craft jokes for a comedic performance where the audience is expecting to laugh; indeed is partly thinking "this guy better be funny." Horror has a similar feature; it's much easier to scare someone by startling them when their guard is down than it is to scare someone when they're looking out for it.

I think marrying horror and humor can offset the expectations of the audience. It's a tough juggling act that's not always successful. There are plenty of horror-comedies that never found the audience they sought because they ended up either being too scary to be funny, or too funny to be scary, or not enough of either. But if the storyteller can find the right balance, it in turn throws the audience off-balance, and suddenly the jokes are funnier and the horror is more terrifying than either would have been on their own.