Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Humor

During last week one day, I talked to a standup comic who said that the recipe for humor consisted of six areas: target, hostility, realism, exaggeration, emotion, surprise.

Since some people have been reviewing some of my so-called humorous pieces lately, I’m going to chew the fat on those six areas as I see them. The thing with my writing is I never start to write in any one genre. I start with a saying, an idea, a quote or a photo. Whatever happens happens: therefore, my writing--at least most of it--can be called free flow, and as free flows go, nothing comes out aglow. After I work on a piece and give it some sort of shape or form, I put it in a static item, choosing the genres while uploading it.


Now the six areas:

Target:

Since the conversation drifted from composing humor to other issues, the descriptions of those six areas remain unexplained to me. I’ll just write what I think target may be. A target may be a target audience. Each type of audience understands its own experience better. A comic would be disappointed if he delivered-- business people--underwear jokes targeted for six to ten year-olds. Neither would off-color jokes be appreciated by the retirees.

A target may also be the subject matter, like a comedian making fun of politicians or a housewife making fun of her daily housekeeping routine.

Hostility:

I am not sure how much I can express hostility to others in a funny way, but then, I am not a comic. I can, however, take me apart and laugh at me and my actions and hope others can see themselves in my deeds. Some comics like late night hosts on TV can and do use hostility to their greatest advantage; although, sometimes I find what they say highly objectionable.

Realism:

I think this may be using real life situations and it is easy enough to do. People laugh at real situations they may find themselves in because they can identify with the dilemmas these situations produce. A comic would not get many laughs if he expects the audience to understand different situations that may show up in Alpha Centauri or even in another culture that the audience is not familiar with.

Exaggeration:

Exaggeration has to be the most common denominator in most humor writing, but exaggeration has to stem from a realistic situation to be effective.

Emotion:

Emotion is the most powerful tool in any writing. The audience’s pity, anger, love, sympathy, empathy etc. can be used to its fullest if the writer is crafty enough.

Surprise:

This is what they call punch line, I think. I am not much good with surprise endings, because they are difficult to come up with. Even a good wit has to preplan a surprise ending and write it in such a way that the surprise does not evoke a negative shock in the reader. Maybe thinking of the surprise at the end from the beginning is the way to go. A total surprise, especially, needs to be handled deftly.

Chances are real humorists might interpret these six areas quite differently, but this is my interpretation, even if I am laughed at for it.