Wherein Tumbleweed teaches you how to be funny. (PART ONE!) · 3:11am May 31st, 2018
SO.
It's been a long day-- nothing insurmountable, and nothing a fancy beer and some exploding things in Star Fox can't fix. But with that done, I find myself sitting in front of my computer, with the vague desire to write ... uh, something. But I'm still a bit brain-fried from my day job (plus, I've already gotten a little bit of original writing for the day) so, uh ... ponies, right?
Or, perhaps more pretentious, writing about writing about ponies. Ponies being funny.
(Pictured: Not a Pony)
See, one of my original ideas for attending Everfree Northwest was to run a panel ... which, sadly, fell through-- but here I have a bunch of notes and even pictures and stuff, so ... well, might as well put it to good use, right?
Anyway, let's start with a joke. In fact, let's start with what was scientifically proven to be one of the funniest jokes in the world.
So Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are out on a case, camping out somewhere in the English countryside. As they lay down (in separate sleeping bags, you pervy shippers) and look up at the sky, Holmes asks: "Watson, just from looking up at the sky, what can you tell me?"
"Well Holmes," Dr. Watson says through his mustache, "To judge by the positioning of the stars, we're a few degrees south of the fifty-second latitude--"
"What else?"
"The night is clear, which means the temperature will fall by a considerable amount-- hope you brought your wool socks, eh?"
"What else?"
"Er ... I believe those little flitting shapes above us are bats?"
"What else?"
"Why ... I don't know, Holmes. What am I missing?"
"Watson, someone has stolen our tent."
If this were a proper con panel, I would've just told that joke instead of writing it out-- but this might work even better, since this whole blog post is about writing funny stories, as opposed to telling funny jokes. Still, the foundations are the same: timing, dialogue, repetition, punchline. They're all tools one can use to get a laugh. But before we get into the HOW of being funny, let's back up a bit and talk about the KINDS of funny-- again, I'm a pretentious ass.
Like an old Nintendo game, comedy has levels. And also like an old Nintendo game, these levels get harder as they go on. (There also may be a lot of banana peels laying around, but that's neither here or there). So here, have a quick visual I devoted whole minutes to in MSpaint.
So if you've ever heard of something playing "A little bit broad," it's because the jokes are towards the 'base' of the comedy pyramid-- or ... well, maybe it's more that they appeal to a broad audience, but ... well, whatever. The general rule of thumb is that the closer you are to the 'base' of the comedy triangle here, the more 'universal' the laughs are. Which isn't to say that the stuff at the top is better, so much as it's harder to do. (Which in turn makes it all the more appealing when it's done right). But here, have a quick breakdown:
Scatological: Fart jokes, pretty much. Or other bodily functions. A favorite of Chaucer. There's a fine line, here, as it's easy to lapse into stuff that's just outright too gross.
Slapstick: Physical comedy. Pie fights, pratfalls, spit takes, and all the other things that make life worth living. Somewhat harder to get across in text, naturally-- but still loads of fun. This is where you have your Buster Keatons, your Jackie Chans, your Rowan Atkinsons, et al. There's a lot of this in the actual pony show, 'cause, well, it's a cartoon.
Situational: And this is where we start getting into prime fanfic stuff. Ultimately, it comes down to a particular situation being amusing for ... well, reasons we'll get into later. While Friendship is Magic is by no means a "sitcom," there's still a bit of this in there. Basically, it's a matter of setting up characters in some weird situation, and letting the mayhem play out from there. Stuff like "Twilight has an extra ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala that everypony in town wants," or "Archie has accidentally scheduled a date with Betty and a date with Veronica on the same night," or whatever.
Wit: This can be the hardest type of comedy to get right-- it's a certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" that can be hard to translate. It's puns, it's references, it's wordplay, it's snappy dialogue ... it's a lot of fun, to be honest. But again, it's a lot harder to get folks to laugh at, say, a Golden Harvest reference, than it is to have them laugh at Trixie falling down the stairs.
It's also worth noting that Satire kinda falls under Wit-- at least it does in my own arbitrary classification. Basically, the best satire raises points about whatever it's satirizing, which requires a familiarity with said subject, and ... well, yeah. You get the idea.
There's probably a bunch of stuff I've missed-- but TOO BAD! This is my blog, and it's not like many people are reading this far anyway.
In any case, I find myself rambling (if in an academic sense, which is the best sort of rambling). But, in the interest of brevity, I think I'm gonna wrap this blog post up. We've covered KINDS of comedy, but next time (in the next day or two), I'm gonna start going into the actual nuts and bolts of it-- rules of comedy to follow, not to mention various wonderful tropes that you can use to set up a joke. So stay tuned!
I'm actually really interested in this one. I've written, in my opinion, a lot of humor, but very little I would call actual comedy. I've been exploring it a bit lately though, and oddly enough as much as comedy seems like it should be spontaneous and off the cuff, actually researching the psychology of it was pretty helpful for me.
I like your slightly lopsided comedy pyramid.
Color me interested
I'd like to be a wit someday. I'm only half-way there.
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Bom-Tish!
Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that poop jokes are the foundation of comedy, and no one can take that away from me. :V