Writing Humor

Writing humor can be a real challenge. How do you know what is funny? Will others understand your particular type of humor? Which situations or things are universally funny? Where does the line go between funny and stupid?

Lately I've been thinking about writing a few humorous texts and stories. Some of the ideas have been floating around in my head for months, and it might be time to actually start doing something about it. (Note the "might" in there... I still have a lot of unfinished work that I should be doing instead.)

I've always admired comedians, and their ability to find the situations that make us go "oh yeah, I know that". I've often wished I had the same ability, but it seems my humor tends to be mostly of the internal kind; a few people get it, but most don't.

So, do any of you have any tips? What makes a story or text funny? What makes you laugh? What ruins humor for you?
Anything you have to share will be helpful.

I think humor that comes from "familiar" situations the most comfortable for me personally to write. I also have a tendency to slide into gallows humor, which isn't always comfortable, for me or people who read my stories.

I prefer subtle humor to slap-stick. Slap stick makes me want to beat my head against a wall in frustration. I can appreciate crack and over the top humor depending on my moods. Hell, I write crack when i need a pick me up.

I also have a hard time appreciating humor that is directed maliciously at somebody else. The whole "Laughing with somebody, and not at them" is a big thing for me....
Though if I have a character who is an ass, then I will break that rule. On occasion...

Hope that helps, even a bit!

I hate trying to do humor. Intentional humor like slapstick doesn't work. My own sense of humor is bizarre and I know it. I don't get most jokes, I don't understand half of what comedians are talking about (no 'oh, yeah' from me), and I can't think the way insane humor-writers do. I remember reading a YYH fic that had loads of slap stick humor and off-the-wall dialogue and I laughed through the entire thing. But what had me laughing the most is the fact that I could *never* have come up with stuff like that. My brain just doesn't work that way. A banana peel in a convenient spot and whoosh, he cracks his head. Yeah, it's funny to see, but instead of stepping on it, my characters would spot it, pick it up, and whack it across the face of the clown who put it there. So the readers would laugh at the way I *spoiled* the joke instead of delivering it. That's the only kind of humor I can do.

I also lean toward the macabre. The more serious and dark the situation, the more I'll laugh at unintentional (as far as the readers know) humor. One character is talking, the other is choking up on approaching tears, and the one who's talking is saying things ensured to make the reader laugh despite the fact that his own throat is closing up while reading this scene. It's an evil thing to do, especially casually - just talking - reasonably - he's not making a joke when he says it - and during a horribly dramatic scene... That's the kind of humor I like best. I try not to do it too often, but when I'm on a roll I'll have them laughing and choking up at the same time because that's what I was doing when I wrote it. Evil fun.

Humor can be tough to write but for the most part, it's really not that tough to write. For one, try and write about situations that people can relate to. I'd say avoid trying to be intelligent with humor. Cracking Newton jokes does not work! Talk about things that people know about and situations that people have found themselves in. It's good to add your characters thoughts and use some sarcasm, but I warn some of you about character thoughts, they can get very irrtating especially if your character is one of those types that overexergerates everything. I think the queen of humor is crownRaper cause she managed to make my sister and I literally cry when reading one of her stories.(our sense of humor is not the same at all). If you can't write about situations that people relate to then try a situation that someone can find themself in or imagine really well. DO NOT TRY TOO HARD. I've had a fall out with alot of humorous stories because the author just tries to hard to be funny and ends up just making you roll your eyes. For the most part, mose people have a general sense of humor where they might laugh at the good ol' "why did the chicken cross the road?", but then it tends to branch off. You can't hope to make everyone laugh, so don't even try and go that way, just do what you think is funny. Humor (and pretty much everything else) is like NIKE. Just do it!

I say, like the above: don't try too hard. Don't overthink it, just let it come. Of course it does depend on whether your writing a full-on comedy story or not. B/c my following advice/way of doing it probably wouldn't work for a full-fledge comedy story^^;

When I don't try, my humor just comes in my story. It just happens naturally. Most of the time, I use characters(like their lines or actions) rather than scenerios to make humor.

The only time when I actually tried, it was a random, no-plot, 'behind-the-scenes' one-shot for Kingdom Hearts...and it's sequel but other than that, humor isn't something I worry about too much.

I write fanfiction so I have the challenge to keep characters in-characters but even then, I was able to create humor throughout the story. Apparently, my readers love Vincent Valentine who has appeared in 2 fanfics. In both, my readers think he's hilarious b/c of this blunt remarks and non-caring attitude about almost everything.

Again, for me, I focus on characters b/c what makes my readers laugh are the reactions between the characters. And THAT is what creates a scenerio or funny scene.

Not sure if that helps at all but that's how mine works.

If you try too hard to be funny you'll always fail. Just let it flow, and don't overthink it. If you think it's neat chances are other people will think it's neat.