I'm writing a screenplay. I was wondering how do you know if your work is funny? I can only tell when it is performed, especially visual humor.
How do you know if it's funny?
- Thread starter hunnypot
- Start date
- Status
Are we talking Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, or the Three Stooges? Is this a comedy?
Here's my gauge...first, do I laugh at it? I write funny things to blow off steam. I make fun of things because I am angry.
Second, will it destroy my reputation? Nothing destroys a comedian's reputation but, something funny should make you worry about keeping your day job. So, if there's drugs, sex, alcohol, blowing off work, trashing the boss...are you getting me? If my day job boss got wind of what I write in my spare time. It wouldn't be good...of course, she would have some pointers on how to fire me, fix her wardrobe, become a human being, come out of the closet and so much more. As, you see, comedy is sort of a jump off the edge. It is very satisfying on a personal basis and not so good for staying employed in the non-humorous realm.
Here's my gauge...first, do I laugh at it? I write funny things to blow off steam. I make fun of things because I am angry.
Second, will it destroy my reputation? Nothing destroys a comedian's reputation but, something funny should make you worry about keeping your day job. So, if there's drugs, sex, alcohol, blowing off work, trashing the boss...are you getting me? If my day job boss got wind of what I write in my spare time. It wouldn't be good...of course, she would have some pointers on how to fire me, fix her wardrobe, become a human being, come out of the closet and so much more. As, you see, comedy is sort of a jump off the edge. It is very satisfying on a personal basis and not so good for staying employed in the non-humorous realm.
mostlylegit
Registered
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2010
- Messages
- 38
- Reaction score
- 7
I would say first and foremost, does it make you laugh? If it doesn't then you'll struggle. When I get the idea for a satire piece, it has always come from a joke I told myself (yes I tell myself jokes) or from a funny comment I heard on a show or from a friend that made me laugh.
Chances are that if you laugh, there are a bunch of people like you that will laugh too.
Chances are that if you laugh, there are a bunch of people like you that will laugh too.
Stating obvious here perhaps.
Visual humor depends on the timing and talent of the performer. Did you write it with someone's style in mind?
Have you a funny friend who will perform it for you? Or if you have talent try it out on someone.
Visual humor depends on the timing and talent of the performer. Did you write it with someone's style in mind?
Have you a funny friend who will perform it for you? Or if you have talent try it out on someone.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when trying to be funny-
-Steer clear of anything that might be considered offensive(when in doubt, leave it out!)
-Keep it simple. If the situation in question is a bit of a stretch, fix it. Also, if you have to explain it, it's a no-go.
-Do you think it's funny? This is the most important! If you don't think it's funny, chances are that your readers won't either!
Hope this helps, and, best of luck to you.
-Steer clear of anything that might be considered offensive(when in doubt, leave it out!)
-Keep it simple. If the situation in question is a bit of a stretch, fix it. Also, if you have to explain it, it's a no-go.
-Do you think it's funny? This is the most important! If you don't think it's funny, chances are that your readers won't either!
Hope this helps, and, best of luck to you.
Humor or humour is much like art - it is all in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.
What makes you laugh might not make another, but comedy can be boiled down to one simple element, laughing at something you shouldn't because it is ridiculing it; from the simplest chicken/road joke to complicated observational comedy - it is always laughing at someone else's expense.
What makes you laugh might not make another, but comedy can be boiled down to one simple element, laughing at something you shouldn't because it is ridiculing it; from the simplest chicken/road joke to complicated observational comedy - it is always laughing at someone else's expense.
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 1,635
- Reaction score
- 292
I often find that by the time I'm finished writing/editing/gnashing teeth, nothing I've written is funny anymore. Distance is the key for me. After revising humor, I set it aside for awhile (time depends on how much my deadlines allow). After a cooling period, I reread.
The visual humor thing is a tough call. Humor is subjective at any time, and the visual element is going to depend largely on the actor. My recommendation:block it out as clearly as possible, then trust the performer to ham it up for laughs.
The visual humor thing is a tough call. Humor is subjective at any time, and the visual element is going to depend largely on the actor. My recommendation:block it out as clearly as possible, then trust the performer to ham it up for laughs.
I think it is important that the lines are simple and funny. It should be simple so that everyone can understand even though he doesn't know any profound background information. Well, many funny things are so easy to forget if you don't pay more attention in daily life.
This is the water treading exercise I went through during the development of a story from my upcoming "Testosterone Chronicles - Love Wars" collection.
My sweet wife, also known as "Yes Dear" has the unfortunate job of reading my stories in draft form. It works like this.
Yes Dear picks up the pages of a story draft and I watch her face as she reads. I count the number of smiles and the number of frowns to get a real-time readout on how she is reacting to the story. I try to ignore the scowls, sneers, gagging sounds and the occasional pounding-of-head-on-the-desktop thing she does and basically go with the smile/frown ratio.
She knows that I ascribe to the belief, one shared by men the world over, that if a little of something is good, then way to much of it is "better." Such is true of my life-long love of the metaphor.
"Death by metaphor," she said, laying down the final page. "You have taken the one literary instrument that sings its soft musical accompaniment to the silent cold black prose of life and made it a front row seat at a Def Leopard concert. You have taken this delicate tool, one use with restraint and subtlety by the legends of verse to enhance western literature, and swung it like a pole-ax to-the-forehead of your reader/victims. You have taken the one figure of speech that brings life and passion to the great love sonnets and used it like a Salem Witches dunking seat to drown your audience.
"So you liked it?" I interrupted her.
"Hey, I was on a roll there", Yes Dear protested as she came down off her high horse. "I could see that. That's why I interrupted you. What's the bottom line?" I asked
"I'll have to think about it," she said with uncharacteristic evasion.
"I know what's bugging you about the story," I said, suddenly seeing the light. "It's got those parts in it about my love life before I met you and that's why you are torqued."
Batting her big blue eyes at me she replied, "Sweetie, I already know the story of your love life before you met me. It was a short poem. One that begins with "There once was a girl from Nantucket..."
My sweet wife, also known as "Yes Dear" has the unfortunate job of reading my stories in draft form. It works like this.
Yes Dear picks up the pages of a story draft and I watch her face as she reads. I count the number of smiles and the number of frowns to get a real-time readout on how she is reacting to the story. I try to ignore the scowls, sneers, gagging sounds and the occasional pounding-of-head-on-the-desktop thing she does and basically go with the smile/frown ratio.
She knows that I ascribe to the belief, one shared by men the world over, that if a little of something is good, then way to much of it is "better." Such is true of my life-long love of the metaphor.
"Death by metaphor," she said, laying down the final page. "You have taken the one literary instrument that sings its soft musical accompaniment to the silent cold black prose of life and made it a front row seat at a Def Leopard concert. You have taken this delicate tool, one use with restraint and subtlety by the legends of verse to enhance western literature, and swung it like a pole-ax to-the-forehead of your reader/victims. You have taken the one figure of speech that brings life and passion to the great love sonnets and used it like a Salem Witches dunking seat to drown your audience.
"So you liked it?" I interrupted her.
"Hey, I was on a roll there", Yes Dear protested as she came down off her high horse. "I could see that. That's why I interrupted you. What's the bottom line?" I asked
"I'll have to think about it," she said with uncharacteristic evasion.
"I know what's bugging you about the story," I said, suddenly seeing the light. "It's got those parts in it about my love life before I met you and that's why you are torqued."
Batting her big blue eyes at me she replied, "Sweetie, I already know the story of your love life before you met me. It was a short poem. One that begins with "There once was a girl from Nantucket..."
Bugger that for a game of soldiers. Don't seek to offend just for the sake of it, but don't avoid offending just for the sake of it either.
As to the OP, I go with what these guys say. If I'm giggling away to myself as I write it, that's a definite good sign. If I laugh when I come back and read it later on, that's even better.
Not so sure about visual humour, as that doesn't work well in novels, but I believe there's usually a banana skin involved for optimal humour.
That's a flavor of comedy...but as I think through my favorite funny things, most of them aren't like that. The Princess Bride, While You Were Sleeping, Kung-Fu Panda? Nope. Schlock Mercenary. Terry Pratchett. My favorite comedic monologue is Bill Cosby's one about chocolate cake for breakfast -- old I know -- but still makes me laugh.
I don't know how to help with the visual bit, because I write books...but to tell if it's funny, I let other people read it, without telling them it's supposed to be funny. I guess my job's easier; the story is the final product, where you've got another layer with actors.
I don't know why, but everyone just starts laughing at my work, no matter what I try to do.
Even if I'm not writing comedy.
Oh well, stick to what you're good at I guess.
Even if I'm not writing comedy.
Oh well, stick to what you're good at I guess.
I always wonder if it's a good thing I'm laughing at my own story (sometimes so hard I'm almost crying) or not. LOL. Does it mean I have an overinflated love of my own genius, or am I REALLY that funny?
Really it's just the same as any other type of story. If you're writing a tearjerker and it doesn't make you well up, why should it have that effect on anyone else? If you're writing an adventure and you find it slow and boring, why wouldn't someone else? And if you're writing humour and you don't find it funny, why would anyone else?
... to be honest, I don't think I write with the aim of making readers laugh. I just allow my characters to be themselves and me to be me. I want readers to take me and them seriously, just as they would if they were attending an opera or something in a fancy theatre. The reality though is that they often don't, finding my cast and me comical instead. At times I'm pleased by that, at other times chagrined :-(
Political correctness
I think in humor you have to watch out for political correctness . . . particularly in the way you treat men versus women. It's perfectly fine to marginalize a man in your humor . . . Pie in the face, or even tie him up and string him from the ceiling like with Dabney Coleman in the movie Nine to Five. But with women one has to be much more respectful, more subtle. There are definitely two sets of rules operating here. I think part of this might be that far more books are read by women than by men. So a word to the wise.
I think in humor you have to watch out for political correctness . . . particularly in the way you treat men versus women. It's perfectly fine to marginalize a man in your humor . . . Pie in the face, or even tie him up and string him from the ceiling like with Dabney Coleman in the movie Nine to Five. But with women one has to be much more respectful, more subtle. There are definitely two sets of rules operating here. I think part of this might be that far more books are read by women than by men. So a word to the wise.
Being a comedian myself, I want to put in my two cents about "offensive material": nearly all humor is, by its very definition, offensive, because you're pointing out human weaknesses. Being too sensitive about offending people is the death blow to comedy. Yes, this is a very subjective thing, but I think you understand what I mean, or else your jokes will look like this:http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20110417&name=Family_Circus
Since you're writing visual comedy, that makes testing it to see if it's funny much trickier than just showing it to a friend. One idea is that there are a lot of amateur actor/improv groups out there who may act out parts of your ms just for fun. Invite a couple of critiquer/friends to come along. Yes, this is complicated, but it's an idea.
Since you're writing visual comedy, that makes testing it to see if it's funny much trickier than just showing it to a friend. One idea is that there are a lot of amateur actor/improv groups out there who may act out parts of your ms just for fun. Invite a couple of critiquer/friends to come along. Yes, this is complicated, but it's an idea.
I agree, my biggest influences are Henry Rollins, South Park, Family Guy, Pearls Before Swine, and Howard Stern. I'm actually trying to drive scammers away in my book, and you don't do that by being nice.
Being inoffensive is impossible. Whatever you do is going to offend someone.
Toilet humour or sex humour I won't bother reading, watching or listening to, I don't find that funny, but I know people that do.
I find philosophical humour, social commentary humour, etc hilarious, but I know people that don't enjoy it at all.
Write what you think is funny.
Toilet humour or sex humour I won't bother reading, watching or listening to, I don't find that funny, but I know people that do.
I find philosophical humour, social commentary humour, etc hilarious, but I know people that don't enjoy it at all.
Write what you think is funny.
MimiAngel621
Banned
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,011
- Reaction score
- 697
- Location
- Sacramento area, CA
- Website
- www.umbachconsulting.com
I run my stuff by my wife. If she laughs, it's funny. Sometimes the laugh ratio is a lot better than others, as whimsy does not evoke laughter from her. (I write a weekly column -- some humor included, if I am on my game.)
--Ken
Last edited:
- Status