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"Jokes are against the rules, except for very bad combersome jokes cracked by guards, mercenaries, other peoples, and servitors. (It is believed that the Management in fact thinks that these are very good jokes, and treasures them.) Everyone else must be deadly serious, although the small man, some wizards, and most bad kings are allowed to have a sense of humor -- see also Thieves' Guild."
--"Jokes," The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
Your standard, stereotypical fantasy novel does not have much humor in it. And, for a measure, this makes sense -- humor is created by twisting things that are familiar in new and inventive ways. Many times, a writer must assume that the reader knows little about the world in fantasy (with the exception of urban fantasy, but they usually don't have this problem. We're not talking about them here.), and therefore jokes and humor are difficult. However, metahumor, for example what many do is take the typical fantasy story, as described in The Tough Guide To Fantasyland, and poke fun at the model rather than keeping humor within the story. Often, though, too much of this will break the suspension of disbelief.
I think fantasy should be funnier. Anybody else getting to work on that? And how much metahumor will break the story?
--"Jokes," The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
Your standard, stereotypical fantasy novel does not have much humor in it. And, for a measure, this makes sense -- humor is created by twisting things that are familiar in new and inventive ways. Many times, a writer must assume that the reader knows little about the world in fantasy (with the exception of urban fantasy, but they usually don't have this problem. We're not talking about them here.), and therefore jokes and humor are difficult. However, metahumor, for example what many do is take the typical fantasy story, as described in The Tough Guide To Fantasyland, and poke fun at the model rather than keeping humor within the story. Often, though, too much of this will break the suspension of disbelief.
I think fantasy should be funnier. Anybody else getting to work on that? And how much metahumor will break the story?