Obscura wrote:...The only shortcut I've found to being a funny writer is to be the child of a somewhat cruel, sardonic, and borderline sociopathic parent who enjoys mocking you throughout childhood and especially the tender stages of adolescence. But we're not all born that lucky.
I was...
-- And this was indeed what allowed me to perfect my sarcastic, and somewhat bitter, sense of humor.
However...!
-- When I asked a close friend how she wrote Crack (humor), this was the advice she gave to me:
Writing CrAcK
By
Kita the Spaz
--
Posted with permission.
~snerks~ Seriously, when you get prompts like the ones I do sometimes, crack is all you can make of them. What other kind of story would have "A monkey's uncle, banana peels and lilacs"? Certainly not a very serious one.
Okay, theory in practice is remarkably similar to the
Murphy's Law Cascade Effect, also known as
Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives.
Specifically:
-- Anything that
can go wrong,
Should go wrong -- and in the most annoying way.
To show you how this works, say for example, you are given these as a prompt:
- • Sober yet emotionally-driven Main Character
• Impressive yet fun-loving Love Interest
• Doodles
• Devoted yet insane Best Friend
• [place of employment] betting pool
Well it would be remarkably easy to set it up for a one liner, but the real trick is to think, "
What else can go wrong?"
So, you take it and think...
Main Character has been doodling little sketches of Love Interest; sweet, admiring and romantic images that, as a man and a professional, he would never admit to.
Here's where you bring the Best Friend in; as the slightly less-than-perfectly-sane friend she is.
-- This sort of character would resolve to help Main Character express their sentiments to the Love Interest, by stealing the drawings with the intent to show them to Love Interest. However, being that she is not subtle, and is in fact determined to be as noticeable as she can, she does not go about sneaking them into books and grocery bags, but instead plasters them up all over the neighborhood, the Boss's office, the [local snack] stand... Any and Every place visible and highly conspicuous.
Of course, our Main Character is mortified and goes around trying to tear them down before their Love Interest, who is out on a [job], can see these things.
Here you bring in the betting pool.
-- Main Character's fellow employees bet on everything from, How will Main Character kill Best Friend when he catches her, to what Love Interest's reaction is going to be. Of course, because they are invested in the outcome, several of them will most likely aid and abet Best Friend.
- By helping her make more copies to place (or replace) the drawings.
Or
- Coming up with more horribly sappy and mushy drawings of their own and posting those everywhere too.
Love Interest of course, will have already come back to town the night before, so he's been at home sleeping, and out of sight.
Here would be the perfect opportunity to bring in someone who is made for spreading Crack: the Love Interest's jovial Best Friend.
-- Love Interest's Best Friend would go to visit the Love Interest, spouting admiration (and possibly jealousy) over Love Interest being the object of such passionate devotion etc...
It's at this point that the WTF factor kicks in for the Love Interest. So, what does he do, but go looking about for these drawings. What does he find?
Main Character with his hands full of these lovely little doodles.
-- Main Character had been in the process of tearing them down, but that's NOT what it looks like. Instead, he looks awfully red-handed with his hands full of papers and his cheeks gone red.
This is Main Character's chance to explain. Does he?
Hell no! That would bring the story to a screeching, and rather anti-climatic halt. So instead...
-- Main Character bolts.
Here you insert a chase scene, with Main Character doing everything in his power to escape what he thinks is an infuriated Love Interest on his tail. Pranks, doubling back, even a distraction of several busty girls shoved in the Love Interest's way.
It culminates in a confrontation in front of the [place of employment] and Main Character bracing for a fight he knows he will lose...
And here we have the punch-line.
-- "Mah... Why not just ask me for a date? Was all this really necessary?"
Crack, in a neat little package.