Writing+for+laughs

One of the most difficult challenges a writer faces is writing to amuse an audience. Humour is important to everyone and we all find different things amusing but there are a few things to bear in mind when writing for laughs. Sometimes what makes some people laugh can actually be very sad. For instance, someone who falsely believes they are really good looking or important can cause us to laugh at them or feel really embarrassed for them. The difference is how they behave and what information the author gives us. Here is an excerpt from a story. The story so far has a group of people trying to resolve a major political problem between countries but getting nowhere. After a day of arguing, they are all at a diplomatic cocktail party but tensions are still high. The young woman, the daughter of one of the dignitaries is persuaded by her mother to sing for the group. // “When she began to sing, the chatter died away in the room. Her voice came like the mellow and soothing memory that took them back to younger days and simpler times. Everyone stood still as in a dream. She saw their stillness and watched their faces. She could see that she was pleasing them with her singing so she relaxed too. She opened up her voice and gave it full rein. The audience stood enraptured by the moment and for a short while, forgot their dispute” // Or // “When she began to sing, the chatter died away in the room. Her voice was like the braying and rasping of a donkey drowning in quicksand. Everyone stood still in astonished horror. She saw their stillness and watched their faces. Her ego had never allowed her to think that she was not brilliant at anything she put her mind to, so she opened up her voice and gave it full rein. The audience stood trapped by the moment and for the first time that day, agreed on a common point.” // It is the behaviour of the girl that makes the difference here. We do not wish to laugh in the first paragraph. She sings well and she is thinking about her audience. In the second paragraph we are faced with a problem. Do we laugh or feel sympathy? For instance, if the girl became aware she was being laughed at, she might become ashamed and hurt. This would make the reader feel sympathy for her, not humour at the situation. However, in this case the person is so completely egotistical (full of herself) that she can only see everyone’s attention as admiration not amusement. We can sense that she would regard criticism as jealousy. We know this because for a brief moment the author has given us a glimpse of her state of mind. This insight reassures us, as readers, that this character in the story will not be hurt by us laughing at him or her. In all likelihood the author has deliberately made this person appear ridiculous to help the story along. You have permission to laugh and cringe with the other members of the cocktail party. People laugh when someone or something is seriously out of place and don’t appear to realise it. This might be a child who blurts something out in an embarrassing way when the parents are trying to impress someone, or someone behaves in a quite unexpected way. // “You killed Cyber-ranger Tom. You are a bad man”. // // “Now, Jamie dear! Quiet now. … Shh. We’ll fix your toy later, just run along now”, his mother hissed, grabbing the scowling pre-schooler, while smiling up at Senor Hernandez, and tittering. “Children.. he he he. What will they say? Do go on,” she invited. // // “Madam, “ he began with his best broken English, “I must remind you again that children and animals are not permit to visit the swimming pool. It makes to upsetting the guests. They are not liking the children or the dogs and the other animals making the noise. They are not liking it for themselves in this way. It is making for too much splash at peoples too. Please to keeping the children and doggies away from pool or you will need to be leaving.” // // Mirabelle kept her face on the hotel manager as steady as she could, smiling and nodding to reassure him that the incident that morning had been quite out of character for both her son, and their two large golden retriever dogs, Molly and Buster. She tried to cover the misdemeanour saying that neither the child nor the dogs had ever shown signs of behaving this way before. In truth she knew that it was hard to keep children out of water and almost impossible to tell two healthy dogs bred for hunting and retrieving that they cannot dive into the pool to bring back the specially designed floating drinks table that was not in fact a dead duck, but Senor Hernandez was clearly not going to be interested in such an explanation. // // She almost lost control when her gullible animal loving husband, having finished his walk with the ill-trained retrievers, arrived back at the hotel room carrying a large wicker birdcage with a green and yellow parrot in it. He had come around the corner with his eyes bright and his mouth open to announce his exciting new purchase when he saw the back of the irate senor waving his arms around excitedly at his wife. Quick as a flash he had ducked into the toilet with Molly and Buster and the large wicker cage with the green and yellow parrot, closing the door behind him with great difficulty but also with care so as not to be heard. // // “But what about Cyber-ranger Tom? He’s all broken. The bad man should be ‘zintegrated. You should be ‘shame’ of yourself. Bad man!” blurted Jamie, still unreconciled to the loss of his favourite toy. Senor Hernandez glared at him. // // “Bugger-off, bugger-off” came an unfamiliar squark from behind the toilet door. // // Mirablle’s eyes widened but the sound from the toilet was soon followed by some loud coughing and the sound of flushing. Frank emerged as casually as he could while squeezing through the door. Two dog noses tried to follow him but lost the battle. Frank smiled and greeted Senor Hernandez loudly, thanked him for his visit and shepherded him out the door as fast as he could. // As you can see it sometimes takes quite a while to set up a funny situation. From now on though, the characters will be able to behave in funny ways without so much lead up.
 * // Writing for Laughs  //**