How to Write Killer Prose (8)

The funny stuff

The secret to being funny as a fiction writer can be conveyed by an equation:

Character + Situation = Humour

It really is that simple.

But easy? No. Because both character and situation have to be established for their collision to make you laugh. There really is no short cut. It's a typical writer's paradox. The best jokes, one-liners or absurd events - the material that seems to fly spontaneously from the page - are almost always the result of careful planning. The set-up is everything. That's not to say that some of the funniest stuff doesn't occur spontaneously. But when it does, it almost always springs from earlier work on character and situation (which in practise you can't fully separate, as each generates the other).

An example. Your situation is a funeral, a sombre event. Your character is a friend of the deceased, but doesn't know the family. Nevertheless he's been asked to say a few words at the grave-side. Unaccustomed to public speaking, he's fortified himself with a few stiff drinks. As he launches his speech, by then quite drunk, it becomes clear to everyone except him that he's at the wrong funeral...

That scenario's just off the top of my head, and neither the character nor the situation is intrinsically hilarious. There's nothing about a funeral or a self-conscious man that is funny per se.  But when you bring the two together with skill, clever timing and a suffiency of preliminary spadework, the payoff is comedy. A great set piece.

So how do we actually do this? How do we make sure that the whole joke doesn't fall flat, as it very easily could do? What are the ingredients that need to be in place?

Let's zoom in.