Goofy jokes in YA?

The Second Moon

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I am planning a YA (I normally write MG) and I was wondering if goofy jokes are normal.

An example of a goofy joke would be when a witch that struggles with magic turns herself into a door wreath by accident. Goofy/Random stuff like that. The door-wreath joke would happen multiple times through the book series like a running gag.

I asked someone who writes YA what type of jokes were in YA and she said "I don't know...snarky? Try reading some." Well I have read recent YA and most of the jokes are snarky. Nothing goofy or random.

So can I add goofy/ random jokes like that in YA. (I'm self-publishing if that helps). I'll also have some snarky comments for my characters to say, but I would really like to add some goofy humor.

Thanks in advance.
 

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I have to admit that when I come across YA that is littered with silly stuff, I tend to mark it as "MG pretending to be YA" on my Goodreads shelf. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't sell or be appreciated by some folks. Younger YA (MC younger than 16) can probably get away with this more, but will be a harder sell. Some books on my shelf that may or may not include goofiness: Gail Carriger's Finishing School Series, (AW's) Adrienne Kress's The Friday Society, Tina Connolly's Seriously Wicked. I can't remember if they have the goofiness you're talking about, but more lighthearted YA can be found in The Best Kind of Magic & its sequels, and I can certainly imagine it being in there.

Also, there's quite a bit of snark in YA, that's true, but I think there's plenty of humor that's people joking around with each other, not necessarily with snark. But constant goofiness I would expect in MG, not YA.
 

The Second Moon

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I have to admit that when I come across YA that is littered with silly stuff, I tend to mark it as "MG pretending to be YA" on my Goodreads shelf. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't sell or be appreciated by some folks. Younger YA (MC younger than 16) can probably get away with this more, but will be a harder sell. Some books on my shelf that may or may not include goofiness: Gail Carriger's Finishing School Series, (AW's) Adrienne Kress's The Friday Society, Tina Connolly's Seriously Wicked. I can't remember if they have the goofiness you're talking about, but more lighthearted YA can be found in The Best Kind of Magic & its sequels, and I can certainly imagine it being in there.

Also, there's quite a bit of snark in YA, that's true, but I think there's plenty of humor that's people joking around with each other, not necessarily with snark. But constant goofiness I would expect in MG, not YA.

Thank you. I'll try and keep the goofiness to a minimum.
 

MaeZe

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Unless the whole book is one goofy joke: Spontaneous
Mara Carlyle’s senior year is going as normally as could be expected, until—wa-bam!—fellow senior Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period pre-calc.

Katelyn is the first, but she won’t be the last teenager to blow up without warning or explanation. As the seniors continue to pop like balloons and the national eye turns to Mara’s suburban New Jersey hometown, the FBI rolls in and the search for a reason is on.

I loved this book.
 

frimble3

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I would only suggest that if you're using 'witch turns into wreath' as a running joke, you consider how often you can write it differently. Especially over a series of books, there's a chance that people will forget that it's just a bit of business, and start to expect something from it. Or, you will do it too often, and just irritate people.
Because ' 'Poof, she's a wreath' is visually entertaining, but requires a lot of describing in a written medium.
I've seen it brilliantly done, a couple of time, in Looney Tunes cartoons, not so much in text.
 

MaryLennox

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I personally love this sort of stuff, but agree that it often makes it feel more MG. One book that comes to mind is The Last Dragon Slayer by Jasper Fforde: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00819G3TO/?tag=absowrit-20

I haven't read the rest of the series...but I remember this first one being kind of bizarre and unlike other YA, but the main character is 15.

This sort of witch turning into a wreath business also kind of reminds me of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (by Patricia C. Wrede), which I loved as a kid. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are definitely MG.
 

Debbie V

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Teens are still a bit goofy sometimes. Having a goofy character who tells goofy jokes might work fine. But it has to mean something. Is that character purposely goofy to deflect attention from himself o from something else? What is the story really about and how does the goofiness fit into it? Anything that boosts the word count without boosting the substance of the story is suspect to me no matter the age category.
 

Emissarius

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I am planning a YA (I normally write MG) and I was wondering if goofy jokes are normal.

An example of a goofy joke would be when a witch that struggles with magic turns herself into a door wreath by accident. Goofy/Random stuff like that. The door-wreath joke would happen multiple times through the book series like a running gag.

I asked someone who writes YA what type of jokes were in YA and she said "I don't know...snarky? Try reading some." Well I have read recent YA and most of the jokes are snarky. Nothing goofy or random.

So can I add goofy/ random jokes like that in YA. (I'm self-publishing if that helps). I'll also have some snarky comments for my characters to say, but I would really like to add some goofy humor.

Thanks in advance.

That type of goofiness (witch turns herself into a door) is present in my MG WIP. I wanted to age it up to YA but it didn't feel right for me. So I'm sticking with MG for the first couple of books in the series, then I'm gonna graduate it to YA when the MC is 15. But I'm sure there are readers up there who'd accept that sort of thing in their YA.
 

bmr1591

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I've found teens still enjoy humor, even random humor, but make it very tactful. If it's too blatantly done just for funny, they won't find it funny. It's like a dad joke at that point, which will skirt on the side of cringe quickly. But if a character has an issue where they struggle with magic and accidentally turn themselves into random objects, that could be really funny, especially if other characters find ways to use the unwilling object for their goals.
 

Kjbartolotta

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I could use more goofiness in YA (and humor in general), as much as I love the state of YA the last few years, I always want moar jokes. I think zany humor works best when it's a bit more low key and leverages what teens think​ they know against what's really out there.

Unless the whole book is one goofy joke: Spontaneous

I loved this book.

I loved it too. Goofy, but also dark as all get-out.
 

ChaseJxyz

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Have you looked into the memes kids these days are into? E is a good example since there's, like, 5 different memes layered on top of each other. Vine, though long gone from this world, still lives on in TikTok and the type of jokes zoomers are into. Everything is so metatextual it becomes dadaism. So The Younglings, including the YA crowd, like "random" humor, but it's a different kind of random from "Rawr means 'I love you' in dinosaur!!!!!!1 XD" that my generation had. Even recent media, such as the tv show Hannibal, is now being consumed by a different generation (since it's on Netflix now) and how they're interpreting it and creating fandom around it is vastly different than when it first came out on real tv/Hulu for adults like me.

So while you can do "goofy" jokes, you'll have to be careful of the tone and how exactly it works or is supposed to be interpreted. Anyone fluent in modern memes can smell a How Do You Do, Fellow Kids? a mile away, and I'd argue that's worse than making a joke that's too immature for your audience. A lot of these memes/jokes evolve quite rapidly, so you can date yourself really badly if you mirror reality too much.