Writing humor is a skill that can be learned. This is good news for those who've never been designated the funny one in any group. But we all have a sense of humor; we love to laugh and make people laugh and, with the advice here, you’ll have the framework for writing a book that does just that.
What makes something funny? There’s some subjectivity involved since what’s hilarious to one person may not be amusing at all to another. Still, we can see what funny things have in common with each other and repeat those with a pretty high rate of success. Consider your target demographic and tailor your humor accordingly.
Below are some of the literary devices that can be used to create humor:
Surprise
The unexpected is funny! It can catch readers off guard and boost the humor factor of your story.
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when Tim the Enchanter warns the knights about the nasty, foul creature that guards the entrance to the cave of Caerbannog, we're as confused as the knights are to see a cute, white bunny.
We probably laughed a bit at the sight of the bunny…but then we were hit with a double surprise. Spoiler Alert: The bunny is, in fact, the murderous monster that Tim made him out to be.
Juxtaposition
In its simplest form, juxtaposition means to place two things next to each other in order to draw attention to the contrast between them. It’s used in all types of literature, music, and art.
- Very often it’s used to point out something funny about the two ideas, characters, or words that you put together.
- It often happens naturally in life, such as in the news stories pictured to the right—so it’s easy to bring into your writing.
- Or consider, “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.” Here, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams juxtaposes spaceships and bricks in a humorous way.
Absurdity
This involves irrational people or situations, nonsense words or worlds, and random tangents. When we find ourselves in absurd situations, we can either laugh or cry, and laughing just makes the whole thing easier to deal with.
- • Think of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when the Queen says, “ Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
- Or the truly absurd Ignatius from A Confederacy of Dunces claiming, “I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”
Other Comedy Tactics
Within these broader categories, we can identify specific rules or tactics that are used in writing comedy to implement surprise, juxtaposition, or absurdity, such as:
The Rule of Three
In general, this is a writing concept that says that characters, events, or objects grouped in three are more effective or satisfying. The rule of three can be used widely in your writing; it’s not limited to humorous books. But, for our purposes, trios of things are funnier, and you can leverage this to create an element of surprise.
- Three is the smallest amount of something that can make a pattern. You use your first two items to set expectations and with the third, you defy expectations, which usually gets you a laugh or two. For example, someone's favorite books might be Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Everything I Know about Women I Learned from My Tractor. (It's a real book!) You can also apply this rule to running gags. But keep in mind…after you’ve made a callback to a joke three times, it gets tiresome.
Callbacks
As referenced above, callbacks are another great tactic to use in writing humor. A callback references a joke or funny situation that happened earlier in the book. It’s kind of like an inside joke for those who’ve read your book.
- If your original joke was fun, then reminding your readers of it in a new context will likely also elicit a laugh. Just don’t repeat it too often.
- The Princess Bride employs this technique. The Grandson interrupts the Grandfather’s reading to question, “Is this a kissing book?”. Later, as the story is wrapping up, the Grandfather abruptly stops reading and closes the book. When the Grandson objects, the Grandfather quips, “Nah, it’s kissing again. You don’t want to hear that.”
Throwaway Lines
A throwaway line, or throwaway joke, is a line that's delivered in a straight or serious manner and isn't the build-up to, nor the punchline of, a joke. It’s what comes after that actually makes it funny.
- For instance, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, a bowl of petunias thinks, "Oh no, not again!" as it falls. The joke pays off in the third book of the series when it's revealed the petunias are actually a reincarnated creature, recognizing Arthur Dent as it plummets.
- Many times, though, the reference comes immediately after the throwaway line, just from a different character.
- Arrested Development is known for its hilarious throwaway jokes like the time Lindsey proclaims, "I've always been very passionate about nature. Perhaps you remember Neuterfest?" and Michael replies "I'll never forget your wedding."
Double Meanings
Double meanings are a fun way to get a laugh by using words or phrases that have two meanings. They can lead to misunderstandings, which are often quite funny—especially when they happen to someone else!
- In Homer's The Odyssey, Odysseus is captured by the cyclops Polyphemus, who asks Odysseus what his name is. Odysseus says his name is “no man” and Polyphemus takes him at his word. Later, when Odysseus is attacking, Polyphemus cries out, “No man is killing me by fraud; no man is killing me by force,” and the other cyclops ignore him as, apparently, nothing is happening to him.
Wordplay
Wordplay is part of a broad category that includes puns, paraprosdokians, malapropisms, and funny words, among others.
Puns: The Oxford Dictionary defines them as jokes exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.
- In Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt, his dying words are, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man.” Ever the jokester, Mercutio doesn’t alert the others to the seriousness of his wound, even though he knows he’ll be in the grave by tomorrow.
Paraprosdokian: A humorous figure of speech in which the second part of an expression takes a surprising turn, requiring the audience to reframe the first part.
- A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh states, “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
- Mark Twain quipped, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of time."
Malapropism: This occurs when a character mistakenly uses a word that sounds similar to the correct word. Examples from everyday life include someone saying "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes," or "looking for an escape goat" instead of "looking for a scapegoat." This is a great way to make humor seem natural in your writing when it’s appropriate for the character.
- In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain has Huck do it quite a few times:
- “I don’t deny it, I was most putrified with astonishment when you give me that smack.”
- "It warn’t no time to be sentimentering.”
For a deeper look at some of these concepts, and writing comedy in general, check out this TEDEd video:
Whether you consider yourself a funny person or not, you can write a funny book. Use the tips and examples here as a springboard for your own comedy creativity, and you may find surprising success in the world of humorous writing.
