10.18.2009 - Terrence Marks:

I recently got a book, How to Write Funny. Why? I've been thinking about comedy lately. For instance, if you read the comics I've written you'll find no puns.

I'm rather proud of that, actually.

I was afraid there might be something important that I was missing, though. I felt a bit embarrassed buying it. I also felt embarrassed about feeling embarrassed; did I think I knew everything about writing comedy? Was I so good that nobody could teach me anything? Of course not. So I started reading.

It turns out my first instincts were right. The problems are many. There are many different types of humor writing. Writing a humorous article is different from writing a stand-up routine, which is different from writing a novel that contains humor, which is different from writing a funny TV script, which is different from writing the kind of book that ends up in a bookstore's humor section. All of those are different from writing a comic strip, of course, and I'm not sure which is the closest. This point is made by a number of people thoughout the book. The book appears to be about writing humorous magazine articles, judging by the to the credentials of the contributors. Most of the examples were from movies they gave were from movies and were mediocre when migrated to print. It proves their point, I suppose, but teaches nothing.

There is also a difference between writing about how to be funny, writing and trying to be funny, and recollecting things you wrote which were, you assure us, hilarious if they were to be reproduced in the proper context which cannot appear here. The first few essays appear to concentrate on the last of the three. The first mentions, in passing, a dull scholarly work on the nature of comedy that contains details on the types and techniques employed. I would have liked that. That was, in fact, what I was looking for.

One of the authors insisted that all humor comes from failure on the part of the characters, and the harder they failed, they funnier it would be. This is untrue. It makes for worse stories as well; if you'll notice my Discworld Book Ranking a few back, you'll notice that I enjoy stories starring Commander Vimes (who succeeds very often) more than stories starring Rincewind (who does not succeed very often).

Another gave a variety of examples in which I could discern no humor whatsoever. It was like being in middle school English again - given a book of poetry, assured that it was all top notch, and the merit of it not being obvious or explained. It broke my sense of humor. I spent the next few hours unable to see any comedy in anything. I wasn't really sure humor existed. At that point, I put the book down and didn't pick it up again.

I tried returning the book, but I didn't have the receipt. Then, I tried giving the book back to the bookstore, because I didn't want it but I can't bear to throw out a book. They slipped it back into my bag when I checked out. I tried giving the book away and I failed. And, contrary to what that other guy said, it wasn't funny.