What is Humor?
Humor is a
great
aspect of the essay in that humor greatly enables others to think a
different
way. In today's society, comedy no longer necessarily
includes
the conventional happy ending, but its hallmark is still
IMBALANCE:
the normal order overturned, mix-ups, clumsiness, defiance of
authority,
and exaggerations of human error. Although comedy often is a
matter
of taste, depending on age, experience, or socio-economic conditioning,
comedy is ALWAYS a matter of technique, skill, and timing. It can
be one of the most difficult forms to master depending on the writer's
comic sensibilities.
We can find sly humor in presenting an obvious situation with over careful or overblown detail (an imbalance between the simplicity of the situation and the amount of detail given to it) or making a mountain out of a molehill, or even underplaying or not giving enough detail to an astounding situation.
Sometimes comedy is a mere matter
of
style or phrasing to describe something in a new light, to
defamiliarize
the familiar.
Types of Humor
1. Satire: finds normal things abnormal, proper
people odd, ridiculous, and sometimes evil and outrageous. It is
both fictional and true. It must be based on the REAL and
distorted or exaggerated into the non-real. It awakens us to the
wickedness and foolishness of life. It must have a purpose.
2. Parody: imitates or mocks
another serious work or type of literature. Like a caricature in
art, parody mimics a subject or style. Its purpose is to ridicule
through broad humor. It can also give insight into a work.
Some are even written in tribute to a work of literature.
3. Tall Tale: The tall tale
is so tall that the person who created it needed 73 ladders to reach
the top and finish it. The tall tale is a story that uses facts
logically, uses details, but combines fact and fiction to exaggerate
something.
4. Essay/Editorial: often
turns the ordinary into something humorous. There is a true
imbalance as sarcasm is often used.
5. A Series of Cartoons: You
may concider creating your own cartoon character (and illustrate it) to
use humor in this way.
Humorous Techniques
Repetition: You can repeat "the," "and,"
or "a" one hundred times, and it won't bring a laugh. But if you choose
the right word or phrase repeated half a dozen times, you may have your
readers in hysterics.
Analogy: An analogy that is absurd can do something else: it can add humor to your writing. Make sure your comparisons are valid, but also far fetched. . . between two unlike subjects.
Hyperbole: Deliberate exaggeration used as a figure of speech. If you have ever lied before, you are skilled at this already!
Litotes: The art of understatement. In its simplest form, it occurs when you call a fat boy skinny. In a more sophisticated form it occurs when you affirm something by expressing the fact in the negative.
Remember, these techniques will animate your writing, but use them sparingly, as though you had a few dozen of each to last you a lifetime.
Valuable Web sites that Deal with Humor
Humor
Tips
Do's
and Don'ts of Humor Writing
The Assignment
You are to write a piece using
humor.
You may use the various techniques presented on this page as well as
forms
of humor (satire, parody, tall tale, a series of cartoons, an essay,
fiction). It may be a humorous account from your past or it
may
look at something serious in a humorous light. Consider the
following
topics when brainstorming for your essay:
1. Take a news story and look at it from a different angle.
2. Take an incident from your childhood and see all its humor and reality through adult eyes.
3. Search for humor in a dark period of your life.
4. Take a swipe at something or someone that upsets you.
5. Comment on the absurdity
of
the ordinary, common daily life ideas or occurrences.