I had this great link to a post about writing humor by author John Bladek, but it has disappeared, so I got to thinking about what makes me laugh when reading.
The unexpected. The incongruous. The oddity. Clever word play. A misunderstanding. A funny anecdote. A ridiculous situation. A witty remark. Exaggeration. Humorous character asides.
E.B. White said, “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.”
But yet if we are to write humor, we have to have some understanding. (Unless you’re one of the ones who is naturally funny.)
Stephen Leacock said, “Humor may be defined as the kindly contemplation of the incongruities of life, and the artistic expression thereof.”
One article talked about A. Peter McGraw’s and Caleb Warren’s theory of “benign violation.” “Humor results, they propose, when a person simultaneously recognizes both that an ethical, social or physical norm has been violated and that this violation is not very offensive, reprehensible or upsetting.” – What’s So Funny? The Science of Why We Laugh by Giovanni Sabato.
These statements are true. However, they don’t really help me create my own humor.
Honestly, I do better with examples. So let’s look at some words that make me laugh…
Picture book title: The Underwear Wolf
This title is obviously fun wordplay. We’ve all heard of werewolves, but not underwear wolves. The incongruity is funny, and the story matches up.
Picture book: Counting to Bananas
The text: “4 pigs.”
Banana says, “Wait a minute. Pigs aren’t fruit.”
The text: “True, but no other fruit rhymes with figs.”
Oddity of pigs being introduced in a list of fruit, and banana interrupting, is entertaining.
Middle grade novel: The Girl Who Kept the Castle
“Wizard West was dead for nearly a day before he noticed.”
This opening line with the unexpectedness of a dead person noticing makes me laugh.
Middle grade novel: Mighty Inside
“…Chuck breezed in, along with the medicinal smell of Listerine. The boy used mouthwash more times a day than he used the toilet.”
An exaggeration that’s funny and really creates an olfactory image of the character.
Middle grade novel: Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
“My personal favorites are the Noobs. The overachievers. Fresh picked from the teacher farm. With their bright eyes and their colorful posters recently purchased from a catalog and the way they clap like circus seals when you get the right answer.”
This anecdote of new teacher behavior is not only insightful, but visually funny.
Young adult novel: Eyes of the Forest
“Calculating the degree of attraction…basically depended on how far apart the two objects were, as well as their mass.” – a teacher lecturing
A student’s whisper, “If that’s true, then how come I’m not attracted to fat girls?”
It’s witty and cutting. Cutting words often make us laugh even if in retrospect we decide it’s not really comical.
Young adult novel: Etiquette & Espionage
“The bowl landed, in glorious perfection, atop the head of Mrs. Barnaclegoose, who was not the type of woman to appreciate the finer points of being crowned by a trifle.”
A ridiculous situation, which is visually funny, plus a ridiculous name, and the fact that trifle has multiple meanings, makes me smile.
And illustrations can definitely add humor, too…
Illustrated middle grade novel: Popcorn
The kid narrator refers to his mother’s phone as “maybe the oldest iPhone in circulation” and tops it off with a drawing. The phone has a hand crank, cobwebs, and is labeled “predates the civil war.”
The hyperbole can’t be in any way true, so it amuses.
I hope you find these examples of humor helpful. Now for some resources:
Humor in picture book writing
- The Fusion of Humor and Heartwarming in Picture Books: Wisdom from Shanna Silva
- Tickling Funny Bones: 14 Tips for Crafting Humor in Children’s Books by Sabrina Moyle
- Using Humor to Write Children’s Books that Are Relatable for Both Children and Adults by Jessica Marie
Humor in novel writing
- Finding the Funny: 8 Tips on Writing Humor by Joni B. Cole
- Finding the Sweet Spot for Funny: Writing Humor for Middle-Grade Readers by Jake Wheeler
- How to write smart comedy for middle grade readers by Kristen Pham
