Comedy is Serious Business

I’ve been trying to write a blog giving advice about how to write comedy for a while and you know what?

It’s a hard, serious business.
So I’ll try. I write comedy myself but heaven only knows if I can explain how I do it (or even why).

BEFORE WE START HOWEVER-- To liven up an otherwise dreary blog about me trying to analyze comedy to death, I'm having a drawing today.

I'm giving away one signed copy of

Of Mice. . .and Murder.

To get your name in the drawing you have to leave a comment and make sure I know your email address so I can contact you and get your mailing address.

I'll talk a bit more later but right now .Of Mice. . .and Murder is IMPOSSIBLE to get unless you're a subscriber to the Heartsong Mysteries book club.

So go sign up because it's the first book in a three book series. So more are coming soon.

Now, onto comedy.

Let’s see:
First I’m going to write about several different types of comedy.

Dialogue
Physical
Situational

Dialogue comedy just sort of happens to me. I don’t set out to say, “Okay, let’s be funny in this scene.” Instead, in the course of writing a book, it seems like it’s my natural instinct to just go for the sassy choice. If the woman can answer politely, demurely, straightforwardly or be mouthy…guess which one always comes to my mind?

I remember once, I was injured in an unfortunate brainstorming accident.

I told the situation and ended with, "It's a romantic comedy."

My brainstorming partner...who is NOT a Seeker...just gave me this weird, dead serious look and said, "There's nothing funny about that situation. You can't make jokes about that."

Well, hello Death from Brainstorming.

Any situation, no matter how grim, can have moments of humor, a lot of humor on movies is very, very dark. So guess what? I can have humorous moments in any books. In fact, I can't stop myself.

For me, a truly well done comedy scene incorporates all the types of comedy and it's very complex to write. There's a rhythm to comedy. Hits, beats maybe you'd call it. In fact, if you watch a sitcom CRITICALLY you'll you'll see that there's a real strong rhythm to that writing, usually a joke very three lines. The two lines previous are the set up for the joke.

Or an attempt at a joke. :)

I’m going to take part of a comedy scene out of Of Mice. . .and Murder and use it, one scene, to try and illustrate the three types. (there may be more types of comedy. I can’t think of them right now.)

A mouse dashed out from under the couch and raced on its teensy clattering claws straight toward them.
“Eek!”
She found herself in Nick’s strong arms as the mouse ran toward them. Carrie, looked frantically to keep her eye on the danger, and saw the evil little beast run up inside Nick’s pant leg.
Her next scream almost peeled the ancient cabbage rose wallpaper off Great-grandma’s living room walls.
Nick stomped his foot several times, acting as unconcerned as if his leg had gone to sleep. The mouse ran back out and vanished into the kitchen with Grizzly hot on his disgusting, long, dragging, pointy tail.

This is physical comedy. Except for “Eek” this is all Carrie and Nick moving around. Their actions are funny because of the situation I’ve set up through this whole book of Carrie being terrified of mice and Nick’s absolutely adoration of being seen by Carrie as a hero.

Carrie quit screaming, and looked at Nick. In horror, she said, “You’re going to have to live with that for the rest of your life!”
“You mean live with knowing a mouse ran up my leg?” Nick tilted his head considering. “Okay, no problem.”
“And so am I!”
“Honey, you’re strangling me.”

Now we’re on dialogue. To me, well done dialogue comedy is very under written. I mean, expect your reader to ‘get it’. It’s a fine line where you can say too little and the joke gets missed or say to much and the joke falls flat. You need to bring the reader along, trust them to remember what the book has set them up to know, and drop Nick’s calm, little, “Honey, you’re strangling me.” Line in there because Carrie is so out of control terrified.

Carrie loosened her hold. “Uh, is that what mice always do when they run up your pant leg?”
Nick shrugged. “I suppose, what else?”
“I figured they run all the way up and crawl inside my underwear and get stuck in the elastic and start biting and squeaking and. . .” Carrie buried her face in his chest.
“And yet, none of that happened.”

Carrie’s humor is hysterical over-the-top fear. Nick’s response, dry, calm, makes a nice back and forth between them.

Carrie thought Nick sounded a speck impatient. Couldn’t blame him. “It’s my lifelong dream to live on the fifth floor of an all glass building.”
“I’m an architect. There aren’t any of those. I know that for a fact. What if someone threw a rock? Five stories of dangerous broken glass raining down on everybody. Nope, bad idea.” Nick pressed a quick kiss onto the top of her head.
Carrie looked up.

I’m hoping here the reader is picturing glass raining down on their heads. They’re with me on the nonsense of Carrie’s obsession and whacky solution to her problem. And I suspect a lot of them are also afraid of mice so they know EXACTLY how Carrie feels. And, even though her actions are way over the top, she's got their sympathy.

“Before I leave, how about I make sure you’ve forgotten all about mice.” Nick smiled, leaned down and kissed her."

We can't forget the romance, now can we?

I'll take another scene and write part two of this serious subject next Friday. I might just go through my books and pick some of my favorite comic moments.

In the meantime, Of Mice. . .and Murder has been released, it is impossible to get so don't even try. If you want it you've got to join the Heartsong Mysteries book club.

But it is available in a collection called Nosy in Nebraska which releases next June. That'll have three cozy mysteries, all set in fictional Melnik, Nebraska, the Home of the World's Largest Field Mouse.

I will add here that I believe, even people terrified of mice will enjoy Of Mice. . .and Murder.

So do any of you write comedy? We talked yesterday about how children can bring comedy to a scene. What is your favorite kind? Anyone got the guts to share a favorite scene?

And don't forget to leave a comment and get your name in the drawing for Of Mice. . .and Murder

http://www.maryconnealy.com/