Comedy in the Horror Genre

Comedy is a foil to hold against horror and make it more horrific.

What is scarier to you? A man chopping somebody up with an axe or a man laughing while he chops somebody up with an axe? Or worse, somebody laughing while they are getting chopped up with an axe?

Comedy is a tool. You can use comic relief to release tensions only to go back to those same tensions later on.

The HWA released an anthology of Comedic Horror a few years ago called Blood Lite. It wasn't bad, but it never made me laugh. In a story, there are different locations for comedy. The plot, the characters, or the dialogue from the MC. He can be a serious person with a sarcastic tongue.

Oh psychological for sure. I can tell you what is happening to a MC, but it would be far more fun to make you think it is going to happen or has happened. There is a good lesson to be learned in letting the reader's mind wander a bit. I especially love the idea of putting the reader in uncomfortable situations and having to deal with something I know they are going to hate. Recently I was working on an MS and let the reader decide how the character is being tortured by the antagonist. I only give you the results, but not the how. I could have gone through the description, but it is better to let the reader decide.

Like you, I like Poe. He did it the best. I would also point to 'Oliver Twist'. Not the first thing that comes to mind, but Charles Dickens did it well in 'Oliver Twist' in the character of Oliver's little friend (Dick) at the orphanage. He basically indicates he is being tortured and starved and lets you decide how bad it got for poor Dick. Granted, you know he likely starved to death, but you really don't get a good description of how. He also did a great job of building suspense as you see poor Oliver basically imprisoned by the others.

I know Oliver Twist is not really a horror book, but there are some severely messed-up parts to that book.

I find much horror humorous, mainly because it is absurd. When I stop laughing, it has become very horrific, and not much horror gets to that point. Only the not-all-that-absurd horror gets me to stop laughing at it. "The Masque of the Red Death" by Poe is one such story. "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by Lovecraft is another, and most of Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber is a third. The silly zombies, vampires, and such are humorous for the most part.

King Neptune said:

I find much horror humorous, mainly because it is absurd. When I stop laughing, it has become very horrific, and not much horror gets to that point. Only the not-all-that-absurd horror gets me to stop laughing at it. "The Masque of the Red Death" by Poe is one such story. "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by Lovecraft is another, and most of Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber is a third. The silly zombies, vampires, and such are humorous for the most part.

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King Neptune made me think of the death scene at the end of the movie 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. Every time I see it, it makes me laugh. Vampires are scary, humorous vampire deaths are just ... funny.

I love books that mix horror and humour, and think that the two concepts really compliment each other when it's done well. Christopher Brookmyre's Pandaemonium is a great example of this.

Humor can be used as a comic foil. That's when you use humor to change the emotional impact of a story for a while and then go back to whatever you were doing. It helps to avoid reader/audience fatigue.

I have humor in every story I write, regardless of genre. Icky bug is no exception.