Oh man am I glad I found this today. I write humor but I don't know what my genre is. I wrote like 20 real-life, true humorous stories that I don't now WHAT to do with and no one can help me thus far. I have a title but are they essays? A book of what????? I'd like you guys to read one but don't know if putting my stuff out there is wise without copyrights etc. HELP!!!!!
If you have any aspirations of getting any of your work published, do not post it on the internet. As soon as you do, it is effectively, published. I would encourage you to seek out beta readers and allow them to peruse the piece via private correspondence.
It's not about copyrights but about, as outsider says, publication. When you post to a public forum, blog, etc, you've used up first publication rights. The copyright is still yours, but it won't do you much good because those first publication rights are usually what someone wants to buy.
Some of my best humorous dialogue comes from one of my villains, who would probably be considered clinically insane or mad. Another big one for me is dramatic irony.
The example here is from a movie, but I think it can be applied to most narrative forms. Close to the best, and longest laugh for me, was not from a comedy. The audience I saw it with (opening week), five minutes later and they were still laughing! We don’t need to dissect and analyze humor to apply it to our stories. In fact, jokes collapse when explained. But we don’t need to explain what's funny (we can't really). We just need to understand how to direct an audience’s expectations, and to remember one word: Surprise. (Major credit must be given to the storyteller who presented it you: Michael Kahn, ACE.)
I need to add: If the audience didn't laugh, the MOMENT STILL WORKS. The hero resolved the dilemma with a logical solution! (Man I love Raiders!)
And the best part of it all; they were supposed to have a fist fight, but Harrison Ford had the shits so suggested just shooting him instead.
Humor is always a nice addition to writing, when it's done on the right time and pace. You don't want to implement humor when it's supposed to be on a very virulent portion of the book.
Trust a carpenter to 'hit the nail on the head' (He's only a multimillion-dollar earning actor on the side).
Ford was supposed to use the whip to yank the sword out of his hands and couldn't do it. I heard the shot was impromptu (after several takes) and the crew loved it.
To me, humor in writing is limited to the personality of a character. I'm not good at expressing humor in physical situations (the slapstick type).
Shooting in Tunisia, there was dysentery going around. (John Rhys Davies tells a rather embarrassing story about it). Likely caused by something in the local water or food supply, Spielberg was unaffected (he brought his own canned food from home). So, Ford, feeling weak, told Steven he probably wasn't likely to last the day. "How long can you go?" "Maybe an hour..." then Harrison suggested using the gun instead. Spielberg loved it (he is a very quick problem solver) then turned and canvassed the crew. Everyone agreed, so that's what they did.
If there is enough stress/tension in the scene, less humor is necessary to cause a strong "laugh release" in the audience. It's why sex jokes and potty humor work so well. Embarrassing stories make a magnificent foundation for humor. Patrick McManus' outdoor humor is nothing *but* embarrassing/painful situations. They make me laugh so hard I can't keep reading!
Apropos of nothing in particular, the funniest book I ever read is this one by Sam Llewellyn (blurb from his website): It was written in the mid-1980s so is a bit dated by now, but it can still make me sick with laughter. The section on Irish Weather cries out to be performed. Why? Maybe because part of humor is the fun of being one of the insiders who "get it." And this book does that for me.
Did he say if he went down to the rub a dub dub and got brahms and liszt on jack o'dandy's before writing the book?
