These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write, read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.
So, all I can do here is talk about the humorous SF I have read and attempted to write. I wrote this on February 18, 2018 – nearly six years ago. I was (if you check to the right of the column here) still nine stories from my total thus far. Of the ones published, only one could be considered an attempt at humor – that was “Doctor To the Undead” was somewhat humorous, but also had a serious point. Read it if you haven’t and let me know if I balanced the funny with the un-(funny, that is). https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2021/08/doctor-to-undead-by-guy-stewart.html
This was supposed to be funny, too! It was called “Bogfather”: (https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2017/12/today-on-showcase.html) Intended to be a play on words using a drifting bog island in northern Minnesota as a setting…it was supposed to reflect the lives of typical lake cabin owners here. As there have been no rave reviews (or even any comments, for that matter, though people HAVE stopped at it 410 times. Those can’t ALL be accidents!). I have to assume that the humor was lost on anyone but me (and maybe Bruce Bethke…).
But what IS humor – putting speculative fiction aside for a moment – and is it definable and something that can be intentionally created? One definition: “the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement”. To me, this means that how you evaluate an experience forces you to either make a barking sound or feel something (probably pleasant).
Ah! Here’s a REALLY helpful theory of what humor is, it’s even “endorsed by Peter McGraw [an associate professor of Marketing and Psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder], attempts to explain humour's existence. The theory says ‘humour only occurs when something seems wrong, unsettling, or threatening, but simultaneously seems okay, acceptable or safe’.” (Wikipedia)
I’ve written on humor in speculative fiction before. In the article (http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/search?q=Humor), I noted, “I have a COMEDY WRITING SECRETS book; I read THE HUMOR CODE)…I’m a funny guy. I’ve read collections of science fiction humor, too like ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact’s THE FUNNY SIDE (an old collection) and the Kelvin Throop III stories. Of course, I’ve read all of Spider Robinson’s CALLAHAN’S CROSS TIME SALOON books.” Also, here: http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2017/05/possibly-irritating-essay-laughing.html; and here http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/03/slice-of-pie-james-thurber-o-henry-mash.html; and here http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/search?q=Humor
I love to laugh, and my humor of choice is slapstick. I LOVE a good pratfall! My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Despicable Me 3 – which is just one sight gag after another. I spent most of the movie laughing out loud. I should just say that she doesn’t REALLY get it. Her sense of humor is much more subtle than mine is. She enjoys the cerebral humor of M*A*S*H (which I do as well) and the movies made from the Jane Austen books. She likes the gentle humor of Barbara Streisand rather than the slapstick of Ellen DeGeneres.
I made my first sale to ANALOG with a humorous piece called “Absolute Limits” in which I hyper-exaggerated the search for a FTL drive and the tendency of Americans to take speed limits set by law enforcement to be suggestions. “Bogfather”, linked above is funny, as is one I’m shopping around called, “Titan Mission Drops Bomb” (which never hooked anyone, sadly; though I confess that that one is a bit of scatological humor that even I’m uncomfortable with!)
It also happens to be the only story I’ve ever submitted to Daily Science Fiction (recently defunct) that made it into the “Hold for further consideration” category, so maybe I’m finally getting close. So far, though, (updated), I don’t seem to be. I have a humorous piece at NATURE FUTURE that was both intentionally written to be humorous AND had an interesting science fiction idea in it as well.
I’m continuing to study humor as well as flash fiction. I think the two make a decent pair: HUMOR – Techniques To Tickle the Funny Bone (Donna Cavanaugh); THE DEER ON A BICYCLE (Patrick McManus); THE ART OF BREVITY (Grant Faulkner, “Why yes, is IS related to THAT Faulkner!”). I’ve waiting in the wings a collection of humorous SF stories collected in THIS IS MY FUNNIEST, (Isaac Asimov, Connie Willis, Josepha Sherman, and David Brin, and many others). And lastly; HAPPY TO BE HERE (Garrison Keillor, local superstar and comedian).
So, as I quest, I’ll keep y’all updated. And if you’d like, read the stories and articles I linked above! Maybe my stuff will be funny – maybe you’ll learn something about writing humor!
Inspiration: Humorous SF Fiction Lists: https://theportalist.com/13-science-fiction-books-that-will-tickle-your-funny-bone, https://www.tor.com/2016/07/14/in-praise-of-humor-in-fantasy-and-science-fiction/, https://best-sci-fi-books.com/19-funniest-science-fiction-books/, http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/humor, http://greatsfandf.com/humorous-books.php
And this is a REAL list!: https://io9.gizmodo.com/5950437/the-best-science-fiction-and-fantasy-novels-to-cheer-you-up-when-youre-feeling-blue, https://alexshvartsman.com/ufo-unidentified-funny-objects/, https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4967.Best_Humorous_Fantasy_and_Science_Fiction_
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