You have to laugh

[John Dean]

I taught a class on humour the other night and thought it might be of interest if I shared some of my thoughts. There is a school of thought that says ‘if you aint funny, don’t try to write comedy’ and there is much to be said for that. Nevertheless, there are things you can do to increase your chances of making people laugh and humour can break up even the most serious of stories. Here are a few of my handy hints.
* Be observant and concentrate on situations. All good comedy comes out of situations and the writer needs to observe them and work out how best they can be re-told. Such humour works best if the reader can say ‘yes, something like that happened to me’.
* Be visual. Yes, good humour is about clever word-play but it can also be about visual gags. It’s no coincidence that the comic heroes of the black and white film era remain funny today. Simple gags told in numerous different ways.
* It’s a sad fact but folks will laugh at something that happens to other people. Which takes me onto the sad fact that humour is often cruel. Every joke, every comic novel, every sketch takes the mickey out of someone. Sad but true but that is what makes people laugh. And if it’s what makes people laugh…
* You need to be creative. Think of new ways to be funny, rather than simply re-hashing tired old jokes. Comedy relies on the re-telling of well-worn ideas and stories in new and vibrant ways.
* Exaggerate things. Some of the best humour comes from over-egging things. Take a situation and make it ridiculous. Let your mind freewheel, let it take a situation to its logical if absurd conclusion. If you want to see how it is done, read Tom Sharpe’s satirical anti-apartheid novel Riotous Assembly.
* Don’t overwrite. Don’t ram the joke down the reader’s throat. Write your funny line and move on, let them work out if it is funny. By which time you are onto the next gag. Good humour needs to be continually moving.
* Do not forget the rules of storytelling. It may be a comic piece but it still needs a good story, structure, real characters, genuine places etc. You are telling a story which just happens to be funny.
* Avoid cliched characters. Yes, go over the top if you wish but the reader still has to feel that your character is real. It’s why the likes of Reggie Perrin, created by David Nobbs, and Billy Lair, created by the incomparable Keith Waterhouse, worked so well.
* Be disciplined: if your much-loved line simply is not funny then you have to hit the delete button.
* Even though humorous writing is not a precise science, I always reckoned that if I did not have at least three laugh-lines on a page it was not working. Confusing the issue is that what you find funny might not appeal to someone else - and vice versa.
These tips relate to pure comedic pieces but worth bearing them in mind if you are a ‘serious’ writer. If you have depressed your reader with a tough scene, a flash of humour can relieve the tension a little. Your reader will love you all the more for it.