Humor for the BIP

[Jenne]

I should try that approach for the one I'm already working on for the farmer's family...hm...

[Jenne]

Dammit.  So, I get to writing extemporaneously...and all the stories (I tried 3), end up TRAGEDIES.

Every fucking one of them.

No humor--they all end up about death and destruction.

Sigh.  Any ideas on this?  And don't tell me to give up, because I'm not going to.  This has become a personal mission--to blast through  my own bullshit and write this piece of shit parable that's stuck somewhere between my two ears.

[LMNO]

First, try to see the humor in tragedy.


Secondly, try to write a tragic story.

Third, all stories end in tragedy, eventually.  Know when to stop the story.

[Jenne]

I got so frustrated with the last two that when I saw where they were headed, I just scrapped them (i.e. stopped the direction they were going in and started over--I don't delete shit).

Sigh.

Ok, so I already know I need to look at the plotline and go, How can I make this silly/funny/humorous when it's turning out sad/pathetic/emo?

I even tried the "take an example from your own life" deal...turned out even more tragic.  I think I'm depressed or something.

[LMNO]

Unfortunately, you need to post your work, cuz I can't work wit hypotheticals at this point.

[Triple Zero]

just turn the tragedy into something funny?

german word: schadenfreude (or dutch word: leedvermaak)

exaggerate.

take the guy who got the toilet full of shit on his head. that's a tragedy, in a realistic story he'd probably got a broken neck and be paralysed up to his head. tragedy! but, because it's about SHIT it's FUNNY !

think about the old brothers Grimm fairytales, you put a witch in the oven, 3rd degree burns! tragedy! but no, this is a children's fairytale and the witch was EVIL (=morality) so it's FUNNY!

think about the barstool experiment, somebody gets beaten down with a barstool, that's pretty ugly, but since it's so over-the-top, it's FUNNY!

one important element of humour is exaggeration. by exaggerating the tragedy into the absurd, you make it funny. (if tarot is your thing, think about the picture on the ten of swords if that helps you). think about the anvil on wile E coyote's head. better yet, think about that first pilot episode of Road Runner, where you almost literally see wile E coyote starving to death, scraping the inside of an empty can to get the last non-existant bits out .. you almost feel sorry for him .. BUT IT'S FUNNY!

if this is not helping you much, maybe you can lift a tip of the veil about the sort of tragedy your parables are experiencing. and i'll help you figure it out. there's more tricks than exaggeration.

maybe an illustration will help:


I'M SAD                 LOL
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   :cry:                         :lulz:


see?

[Jenne]

true true

Ok...will exaggerate and post in the next couple of days, and maybe you guys can help me out then.

Thanks!

[Cramulus]

yeah like what would it be like if Mel Brooks directed Schindler's List

[Jenne]

Oh god...

Oy!  You shoulda taken DIS rotten tooth, not my gold one!
It's been killin' me for days!

Oy!  Those gas chambers get smellier every day!
/bad yiddish NYC accent

[Triple Zero]

the one where jesus poltergeists PAYBACK TIME hitler and goes all genocidal?

[Jenne]

the one where jesus poltergeists PAYBACK TIME hitler and goes all genocidal?

I think Baby Jesus al a Silly would be funnier for that...

[Triple Zero]

well yes, it was a tasteless joke anyhow

[LHX]

I'M SAD                 LOL
\                            \
                             

10/10

[Benaclypse]

IOW,

"We're all in prison!"
\                                           



"You're all in prison!"
\


"You are too, nutbar!"
\


"Allah will enslave you all into freedom!"
\


"The free world will solve that anarchy!"
\


"It's all freedom, man!"
\


"STFU, hippy!"
\

[Jenne]

Hee hee.

Nicely done!