I was going for a funny ending, but it might be too anti-climatic.

The Second Moon · Sep 16, 2020

In a comedic SF story in a linked collection of mine, a human is abducted and has to do a test to keep the Earth from being blowing up. It is built up to be this hard test (and which no one is allowed to describe) but ends up being super easy. All she has to do is color a picture of the Earth. Blue for water and green for land.

The test is easy not because the aliens think humans are dumb, but because the Emperor of the aliens likes humans and doesn't want Earth to be blown up, so he makes the test easy.

However, a bad guy presses the button to make the Earth blow up, prompting the adventure in which the rest of the short story collection takes place during. So, in way the human passing the test is not the end, but the end to the problem in the first short story.

Anyways, is the test still too anti-climatic? I was shooting for funny, but I'm not sure.

Thanks!

starrystorm · Sep 16, 2020

Peronsally if it was a comedy, I'd think it was funny, but still expect something bad to happen next. Like I would still be on edge that that's not the end of the story.

Brightdreamer · Sep 16, 2020

Part of me almost thinks it would be funnier if it wasn't just coloring the Earth (which is kind of anticlimactic), but a question or riddle that's very commonly known on Earth but which might stump an alien, like "why did the chicken cross the road?".

JJ Litke · Sep 16, 2020

I’m with Brightdreamer here. Coloring a picture doesn’t fit very well. There isn’t a set right answer with that, so answering a riddle or a question seems like it would work better. Especially if, like Brightdreamer suggested, it’s a question that the aliens are stumped by, like they think it has some deeper meaning and don’t get that it’s a joke. That seems funnier to me than someone rigging the test to make it easy.

The Earth blows up early in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so it’s possible for that to work in a comedy. It’s not a simple thing to make work, but it’s possible.

The Second Moon · Sep 17, 2020

Ohh! A stupid-simple riddle sounds good. I really like Brightdreamer's idea of "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

frimble3 · Sep 19, 2020

Why do bees hum? Because they don't know the words.
If you want something more 'technical' (because sf):
Why does electricity hum? Because it doesn't know the words.
Particularly funny if your character has been desperately worried about the question - can't stop thinking of the things they don't know, areas they're weak in, what they've always been told they should pay more attention to. Building up a sense of inferiority, to have it popped by what they think of as a dumb joke.

Especially if this is just a prelude to the main story.

Meemossis · Sep 20, 2020

Personally, I like the colouring idea. I can imagine some aliens passing the MC some chunky crayons and her having to sit cross-legged on the floor as an alien race looks on and comments on her use of shading.

I was going for a funny ending, but it might be too anti-climatic.

The Second Moon

starrystorm

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist

JJ Litke

People are not wearing enough hats

The Second Moon

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Meemossis