How to Write Funny Humor

Humor and comedy are effective writing tools to get across a greater point or simply to entertain readers. The use of humor can bolster the quality of the writing and enhance the readability of the piece, but it can be difficult to pull off. There are some proven methods to incorporate humor into your writing and there are some tricks you can include to verify that when you're trying to be funny, you are actually being funny and not coming off as sad, distressing, or ridiculous.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Decipher whether humor fits into your piece or not. If you're writing a blog about the ineptitudes of airport security, it's okay to go ahead and be funny. If you're writing about the causes or justifications for airport security, it's best to stay on the serious track. The most unfunny clauses in the world address serious topics about which the world is not yet ready to laugh. But within the structure of serious events, there are ramifications or consequences that provide fodder for some serious humor.

2. Hyperbole is your friend. A dear, dear friend with whom you have struggled through life's various challenges. Hyperbole has always been there, through your darkest indiscretions and your most triumphant triumphs. Hyperbole is the greatest humor vehicle known to mankind, and can transform your dull How To into the most grandiose piece of literature ever to grace humanity with its biting honesty. In other words: exaggeration will help you find the funny.

3. Bite. Hard. If you hear a friend make a humorous analogy or tell a funny story use it. It's not like it's their copyrighted intellectual property or anything (if it is, eHow disavows all knowledge of this How To, its author, or the content herein and suggests you retain a patent attorney). Also, adopt a funny bit from a show or a stand-up routine and imbed it in your language. Everybody loves a good Simpsons quote. Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon.

4. Don't overkill the comedy. If every line is meant to make the reader fall out of their seat or pee their pants, you'll miss more often than you'll hit. Think of the masters; they always set up the joke. Set up the humor with some regular language. Then the humor will stick out and carry more weight.

5. Extreme language can help. Use your thesaurus. Ooze is a funnier word than emit. Excrete, when used properly, might even be funnier than ooze. The point is that the sound a word makes or the image it conjures for the reader can amp up humor. Curse if you must. But remember, a singular curse word is funnier than a whole slew of them. Imagine how f***ing effective a single curse would be if it were the only one in the whole piece.

6. Try it out to make sure it's funny. Recite the humorous part of the piece to a friend as if you're telling a story. If they find it humorous you're in. If they don't, find some new friends.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to be funny.
• Don't be unfunny.

[squidwoman]

on 12/26/2009 Nice article...I will use a lot of these tips! Thanks for taking the time!