May 14, 2017

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: Laughing Aliens and Dragons

Using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City in August 2016 (to which I was invited and had a friend pay my membership! [Thanks, Paul!] but was unable to go (until I retire from education)), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #2600. The link is provided below…

Truly, Madly, Funny: SF That Makes Us Smile: Although the humorous SF or fantasy story is often said to be a rarity, there are numerous authors who write funny tales all of kinds. Living post-Pratchett, where can you go for your humor requirements, and what makes us laugh?

Alex Shvartsman –  A person I “met” in the CODEX Online Writers Group I’m a member of and editor of (oddly!) UFO Magazine – Unidentified Funny Objects
David Gerrold (M) – Author of THE funniest Star Trek ever: “The Trouble with Tribbles”!
Connie Willis – Award-winning SF writer also has a keen and sharp wit – to say nothing of the dog…
Tina Connolly – Also a person I also “met” in the CODEX Online Writers Group I’m a member of and writer of several YA fantasies.
Cynthia Ward – speculative fiction writer and editor/owner of Market Maven…and co-author of an incredibly serious book with Nisi Shaw, WRITING THE OTHER.

By now, I hope you know that I enjoy laughing. I can also make other people laugh. F course, one of the most humorous science fiction writers left us with THE HITCHHIKERS’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. Another funny fantasy writer left us with THE DISCWORLD books. These two writers are world-renowned for their sense of humor in their writing.

I’ve read the entire Hitchhiker series at one go (several weeks, but without a break). I’ve only read one of the DISCWORLD books. Of current authors, I loved Scalzi’s REDSHIRTS, and Willis’ TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG. Unlisted is Spider Robinson’s CALLAHAN’S series (which I love) and Wrede’s DEALING WITH DRAGONS books; Robert Lynn Aspirin’s PHULE’S Company series; Harry Harrison’s STAINLESS STEEL RAT stories; Lois McMaster Bujold’s VORKOSIGAN saga and Jonathan Stroud’s amazing BARTIMAEUS books.

I know what science fiction and fantasy humor looks like and I like reading it.

But…I haven’t figured out how to WRITE funny.

This would have been a great panel to sit in on. The question I would have asked is if you can “write” funny and not “be” funny…and conversely, can you “be” funny but unable to “write” funny. I’m a funny person. I have been making people laugh for years. I’ve tried writing a few things with a sense of humor – I guess “The Penguin Whisperer” (CRICKET Magazine, January 2013) had a bit of humor in it, but I didn’t try to write it funny – it’s just that penguins can’t help but be funny…and the two kids’ interactions with them, while serious, also had a humorous aspect to them as well. An ANALOG story I wrote that was a takeoff on Clifford D. Simak’s WAYSTATION novel…though almost no one else got it, the editor did!

So then, what are the essential elements of humorous writing?

I own and have read three times Mel Herlitzer’s COMEDY WRITING SECRETS (http://time.com/44168/how-to-be-funny-the-six-essential-ingredients-to-humor/) in which he points out that there are six essentials: target, hostility, realism, exaggeration, emotion, and surprise.

A different article has this to say regarding the elements of humor: (https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-essential-elements-of-comedy) superiority, revelation, incongruous, observational, and imitation  

Another one: (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/writing-funny.html) simple sentences, about PEOPLE, visual, leave room for imagination, use funny words, animal analogies, exaggerate, near-logic, come back to the first funny thing you wrote.

Four: (http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-migration-writers-digest-conference/comedy-writing-secrets-excerpt) says imagination & creativity, call attention to yourself, this article quotes the world-famous humorist, Erma Bombeck, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”; consistency, and targeted material.

Last: (https://hubpages.com/education/a-few-essential-points-on-the-elements-of-comedy) machine malfunction when a person is working, the person malfunctions while the machine is working; timing, misleading cues, out-and-out trickery (this has to do with timing and letting someone THINK they know the answer then saying something else; make your reader WORK a bit for the humor.

So I’ve quoted five websites directing how to write humor. Are there any commonalities?

machine malfunction when a person is working
the person malfunctions while the machine is working
timing (2x)
misleading cues
out-and-out trickery
imagination (2x)
creativity
call attention to yourself
consistency
targeted (2x)
simple sentences
about PEOPLE
visual
use funny words
animal analogies
exaggerate (2x)
near-logic
come back to the first funny thing you wrote
superiority
revelation
incongruous
observational
imitation
hostility
realism
emotion
surprise

Hmmm…not a good list because there are like 20 things you’re supposed to do. Layer on top of that the fact that you’re using an unfamiliar background (science fiction and fantasy) and you can eliminate some of these:

timing (2x)
out-and-out trickery
creativity
consistency
simple sentences
PEOPLE
visual
exaggerate (2x)
observational
hostility
emotion
surprise

OK…so that’s a bit simpler to work with. I dropped some of the factors from the first lists because when you’re doing science fiction, it’s not about “me” per se. The first two things give me some incredibly interesting ideas…some of the others I eliminated because they were oxymoronic – SF/F is creative and can’t, by definition be “realistic”. Everything in an SF world would be strange, so finding something incongruous would be difficult at best, same goes for misleading cues (in an alien space station, what would be misleading? Everything.) Funny words and animals…confusing because with aliens and their languages…they might be mistaken for animals and their language may ALL sound funny (Example: the farting language, Flatula in TREASURE PLANET. Brilliant, but evidence for my point.)

I’m going to be writing a story to send to Julie Czerneda’s anthology about a place in her immensely popular CLAN CHRONICLES series. There is a murder in it, but the two main characters are going to have a humorous relationship and will do “funny” things. I’m going to take what I’ve learned here and apply it there.

I’ll eventually let you know the outcome!

AFTERNOTE: B&N posted a blog entry about this very subject -- with several NEW authors and novels today! https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/6-space-operas-explore-comedic-side-cosmos/


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