Humor In Writing

**First, don't forget to vote HERE for the best Midwinter Blogfest post! I'm one of the finalists, along with Rachel Morgan and Brenda Drake! Congrats to both of them!**

Few books make me laugh, but when they do, another kind of word-magic comes into play. Humor in books adds a different kind of release into the world and the characters--by seeing what the characters laugh at, it's also another way of getting a perspective on their personality.

There are three main ways a writer can put humor into a story:

1. By using characters that are funny in some way, either by appearance, speech, or action.

2. By not having funny characters, but creating it so the plot/events/etc. are amusing in relation to the story.

3. By using the language, outside of the plot and the characters.

Some examples of this:

1. Characters: Jace from The Mortal Instruments, and Billy from Sammy Keyes. Most of your probably haven't heard of the latter, but both characters are an example of character-based humor. Jace is sarcastic, fakes being ridiculously self-centered, and quick to make snarky remarks--he says some funny things as a consequence. Billy is the school clown, always goofing off and doing dares and acting crazy; a person you just can't help but laugh at.

2. Plot/events/etc.: The Hitchhiker's Trilogy. Douglas Adams does a fabulous job of putting the characters through some crazy, wild, and almost impossible situations; what's even more absurd is the fact that theoretically it could happen. It might not be hard SF, but it's possible enough to be SF and not Fantasy.

Image via Wikipedia

3. Language: Eoin Colfer. Colfer is one of my favorite writers. His writing style is sarcastic and there are often sentences outside of dialogue (which would mean characters) that relate to something that someone said or did that are like punchlines--they suddenly pop up, and have a certain dry and sarcastic element to them.

Cover of Eoin Colfer

Of course, not all people like the same kind of humor. What some people find funny others do not, which is why some books people call "funny" aren't as attractive to others. My kind of humor is Eoin Colfer-style; the Artemis Fowl Series cracked me up at least once in all of them. The jokes aren't funny funny, as in completely innocent jokes, since they deal with things like weapons and breaking into banks, taking hostages and talking with the Russian Mafiya. But I find that kind of humor laugh-worthy.

Some kinds of humor can be over-the-top, when the person's working too hard to seem funny. Then it's just overdrive, and can be too much without enough serious prose/dialogue to balance the humor.


Did you ever feel that a book's humor fell flat for you, or that the author went overboard? Do you think that humor is a plus, or that it's necessary for a book? Do you use it in your own writing, if you write, and if so, do you prefer it if it's the characters, events, or the language, when you're writing or reading? Do you read many books that have humor in them?


-----The Golden Eagle

Book Review: The Hitchhiker's Quartet

Title: The Hitchhiker's Quartet

Author: Douglas Adams

Publisher: Harmony Books (out of print)

Genre: Science Fiction (and a whole lot of craziness)

Page Count: 611

Rating: 5 out of 5

Cover Rating: 3.5 out of 5. It's wacky. It's rather strange. Its got singing, triangle-playing, violin-stringing planets on the front, so of course it's a bit unusual, but it fits the book, actually. The book may not have planets that do such things, but it's certainly full of people doing strange things.

Inside flap:

There are four summaries in the beginning--I'm afraid that they're a tad spoiler-y, so I'm just going to get along with the review. (I'm reviewing all four books at once: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy, Life, the Universe, and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.)

'Kay?

My expectations: I expected the series to be funny, a little weird, and probably a relatively good read.

I got a book that was very funny, very weird, and a very good read. It's nice when expectations are exceeded. :D

About the book: They may as well say "Randomness Central!" on the front of this book, because believe me, this is the epitome of random. But even with all that randomness, it sticks to science and while not all of it is completely comprehensible, and the situations turn out as totally ridiculous and improbable, it is one hilarious ride.

And it's long. Really long. I'm glad it's long though, since I wanted more of that craziness! Adams here did a good job at making things so unlikely and un-guessable that if you try to anticipate what's going to happen next you're going to have as much luck getting the Paranoid Android non-Paranoid.

• Plot:

Wacky. I felt occasionally like going "Hold it! Brake! Freeze for just a second!" because getting your bearings is tough. And it was also funny--like, what are the chances that one man's house is going to be destroyed for a bypass, when it turns out only a few hours later the entire Earth is going to be turned into a hyperspatial bypass? 

Unfortunately, (and this is one of the few drawbacks to the book) I felt that something was . . . missing toward the end. It was still random, and weird, and crazy, and funny, but I felt that it just wasn't right. Something was a little off. Not to say that he ended the Quartet badly, it was actually a good ending, it just didn't quite fit. Maybe it's just me.

• Characters:

Arthur Dent was understandably disoriented through most of it. I wasn't totally fond of him, but he was certainly a good character to tag along with. Sometimes he got on my nerves a little, since he seemed so, well, dull and occasionally whiny, but his predicaments were very amusing.

Ford Prefect (a take on the Ford Perfect) is the guy adding things to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He says Earth is "Mostly harmless" and that's it. (LOL.) I liked him about as much as I did Arthur Dent but maybe a little less toward the end. His attitude was occasionally annoying, but it was a part of the story, after all.

Zaphod Beeblebrox (what kind of a name is Beeblebrox?!) is weird. Two heads, after all, and they don't seem to make him any smarter. Funny, though, different from both Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect.

Trillian . . . well, I didn't really like her at all. Got on my nerves mostly, since she always seemed on the edge of being a total airhead.

Marvin the Paranoid Android I loved. I know, out of all of the humans I have to love the robot, but still, he was depressingly funny. More like, he was depressing in a amusing way. All the comments and doom and gloom attitudes were a dry addition.

I don't really know what to make of Fenchurch. She's smart, though, and perceptive enough. Maybe not as crazy as the others, although everyone else thinks she's crazy.

• Setting/Other Factors:

I really liked the way excerpts from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were put in. They were hilarious to read about what authors of the book thought about the parts of the Universe that they met up with.

Other: Drinking, s-word, asterisks, and one occasion of the f-word. Also, toward the end there is a scene where these two people are sort of, eh, flying through the air let's say. But--thankfully--Adams here actually precedes the scene with a lot of preamble about why books always seem to stop before the two characters actually do anything. So you're warned.

Do I recommend this book? Yes! Do I ever. (Remember to bring a towel.) If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you do! Don't let it sit around in your TBR pile.

-----The Golden Eagle