Comedy

Being funny in real life is easy, but writing about it? While I certainly find comedy a very fun (hehe) way to add some color to a post and to a character, I find difficulty in writing comedic scenes and/or maintaining a comedic aura all through out an RP.

My characters may drop a joke here and there but nothing consistent.

My characters all tend to have humour to them. I don't think I could really write a dead serious character for a long time without getting bored. The humour of my character's is a bit all over the place, depending on what fits their personality. My Gunpowder character for example, is incredibly childish, making his sense of humour of a similar nature.

I'm pretty terrible when it comes to humor, as much as I hate how that is. I usually write fairly serious characters, although I usually try to work a little bit of humor in there as well. I do think that characters with no humor are boring, I'm just bad at coming up with something funny for them to say.

In the past, there were no fun and games. Just angst, torment, and misery. Such is the bread and butter of a teenager's writing.

Nowadays, I am older and I've loosened up a bit. Too much seriousness can be exhausting, just as too much humor can be exhausting. There needs to be a good balance. I'm not really one to have my characters crack a joke or anything witty though because I'm not good at that sort of thing. But it's more like I'll make the surrounding text around my character semi-comical and quirky depending on how I feel. I'll describe their actions using weird words, have them think bizarre thoughts, and sometimes just have them be clumsy and accidentally say inappropriate things that make for the funnies. I also would like to use that seriousness as a source of the humor, having them say inappropriate things because of how seriously they are taking a casual situation. How funny that is depends on who you are, as I don't think my sense of humor appeals to everyone, but I still find it makes for a nice refresher in the otherwise serious characters I make.

I try to make my characters a little light hearted, but whether it's comedy or not depends on your sense of humor. I must've missed that brooding, angsty teenager phase, because I've always found that to be boring and depressing. I play these games to have fun, and I try to bring that same sense of fun to my characters.

Does it always work? No. The light hearted joker makes little sense in a dark and dreary world, unless they're trying to make it a little brighter. But there's an undercurrent of desperation and drama there, should you look past the comedy.

So I guess the answer is yes, I try to inject comedy into all of my characters, because all games need a little bright spot.

My personal brand of humor is a mix of things: cynicism, hyperbole, satire, and sometimes gimmicky wordplay. If it's more lighthearted, I'll keep to good-natured teasing of character flaws. With the former, I usually square that humor up with characters that have a more serious nature, but whether or not they are the ones dishing it out or if I give their character a foil, or if I do it through third-person narration, I guess it all depends.

You can have a humorous character that isn't a total "goofball." Goofballs are not interesting to me. Often times I come across goofball characters and they are like an amalgamation of everything forced and groan-inducing. Likewise, you can have a serious character who still has a functioning frontal lobe, and can have a sense of humor, however dry or insulting. It's a balance we should find.

I do not use humor to make my character more interesting. That intent sounds more like a gimmick than anything, since writing humor usually has the goal of having the reader laugh with or at the jokes, so making humor such a high priority could compromise into attempted pandering to an invisible audience. I consider humor to be a minor trait in a character and is expressed as naturally as I would express mine--because the only humor we as writers know how to execute best is our own.

I don't usually make my character a funny one purposely but after looking back at my SU when I've been accepted, I find that there is usually something about my character that can used as comic relief even if its a serious one. With this in mind, I usually take most of my posts pretty seriously but I do try to put a some lines that can be seen as a bit more lighthearted and bring a grin to one's face, to keep my characters interesting and bring to light their little quirks.

I'm not good at comedy and I don't consciously look to make my characters funny in any sense, maybe a bit of dry humor and sarcasm but that'd be it. Also it's not in my nature to lighten things up.

I'm not particularly good at writing comedy, so unless I'm writing a comedic character I just write what comes naturally and if someones laughs I guess that's cool.

gimmepie said:

I'm not particularly good at writing comedy, so unless I'm writing a comedic character I just write what comes naturally and if someones laughs I guess that's cool.

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I think I'm somewhat like this, haha. I mean, I can be hilarious irl (8 k
But when writing as a character? I actually don't think my characters are very humorous. Never reflected much on it, I just admired Dragon and others who could write really funny stuff, and gave up perhaps haha.

I feel a bit like, if I write in the SU that my character has a great sense of humor, it'll become difficult to live up to that promise. I'll have to force myself to be funny. Meanwhile, I think Barc might turn out to be a pretty humorous character (in Trumpets RP), but that's just what I've learned from playing with him a little bit. We'll see. No promises!