Someone just asked me for 100 words on how to write comedy. 100 words? From me? It is to chortle. I wrote 298. Then I began to wonder if I was right. (That doesn’t happen often, as you well know.) So I figured I’d ask you: Does what I said ring true? What would you disagree with, take farther, do more with? I know you’ll have opinions. You’re Argh. So my 298 words are below. What do you think?
Forcing comedic situations into romantic comedies kills the comedy: write characters with great sense of humor, coping with the insanity around them.
If you try to write comedy action in romcoms, you end up doing things to your characters to be funny, or making them do things that aren’t really part of who they are that are imposed on them to make them do funny things (keeping in mind that “funny” is in the psyche of the beholder). If the characters can see the humor in the things around them and comment on that, it helps characterizes them. Always start with character.
If you’re talking farce, that’s a different genre. In farce, the reader looks down on the characters, feels superior to them. In Airplane, to take a classic example, everybody is dumb as a rock. The actors take their roles seriously, but the viewer does not, so it’s not a character based genre and nobody gets upset when somebody hits himself in the head with a glass. Farce is also really hard to write; P.G. Wodehouse is a master: the paragraph where Baxter falls down the stairs may be my favorite farce writing ever; see Leave It To Psmith.
Romcom, in contrast, is all character because in comedy, the reader sees the characters as equals, like them, wants the characters they care about to do well (happy ending!), wants to laugh with them, not at them. Romcom doesn’t hurt or humiliate its characters, that’s anti-comedy (but not anti-farce). So give your characters great senses of humor, give them supporting characters that make them insane, something to cope with that demands a good sense of humor/balanced character, and antagonists of equal intelligence so the conversations aren’t dull. Remember, romance is about characters struggling to build a relationship, so it’s a natural for comedy: if you can’t laugh at romantic disasters, you cry.
Romcom is character first, last, and always. Funny comes from character.
45 Responses
That sounds like good writing advice, and you rule for citing Wodehouse in a piece on comedy!
I like the concept of giving the characters a sense of humour in dealing with difficulties. Reminds me of Heyer with The Talisman Ring. I also think she did sometimes set up a madcap situation that had inherent comedy as well as humour emanating from the characters, such as the ending of The Devil’s Cub with all the characters converging on an inn in France. Or the ending to the Grand Sophy for that matter. But those border on farce, really.
I feel like both Heyer and Wodehouse set up scenes as if they were seeing them as a play on the stage, and while they both conveyed most of their humour via dialogue, also threw in some ‘business’.
Yes, but all that business came from their characters.
An author I knew once asked me to check her ms. because she was trying to write comedy. She had a perfectly nice heroine who at one point decided to climb a stone wall to eavesdrop and slipped and fell off into the center of the people she was eavesdropping on. I said, “That’s not funny. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not part of her personality, it makes her look stupid and clumsy, and there’s no reason in the plot for her to fall.” And the author said, “Yes, but she fell off a wall into all those people!” I said, “Yeah, I feel bad about that. She didn’t deserve that.” Pretty sure that author thought I was an idiot.
Then look at those people coming together at the end of Devil’s Cub, every one of them there because they want something, acting in character not having “wacky situations” happen to them. Same with the end of Talisman Ring: those people are all acting to achieve something really important to them, and what happens to them isn’t wacky, it’s a consequence of their character.
Jenny, I was looking forward to adding an erudite bit to your definition, but I am even happier to observe that you have said everything that a writer needs to know.
Thanks!
You just explained what the problems is with one very popular author I can think of.
I think you should find a way to work in the word “snark”. Otherwise it’s great. If you need to edit it down to 100 you could take the first two sentences and the one in the last para that starts with “so”. But if they will use 300 words just add “snark”.
Problem. Autocorrect for the win. 🥇
You write romcom?
Well, I used to, and then I met this Green Beret and it all went to hell.
Humor, har.
100% agree.
For me, this is one of the dividing lines between straight romance and rom coms. Yes, both demand a HEA, but with straight romance, the focus is on the HEA and barriers to the couple getting to the HEA. Romcoms are more about the characters themselves (with a bigger role for side characters – all as you say) and also more about the journey, not the destination. I also think that it is one of the reasons why romcoms often work better with older and/or more cynical main characters? But that may just be me!
This all sounds reasonable to me.
If the word allowance was a little higher, I might add that great comedy shows characters being themselves despite pressure from circumstances to change into someone/something else. Their insistence on refusing to alter their life approach makes for hilarity.
Example: Mary Challoner in Heyer’s “Devil’s Cub.” When her cousin Josiah tells her he finds her much prettier than her flawlessly beautiful sister, she surveys his clothing and shakes her head. “But then, you chose puce.”
And again when, at Vidal’s invitation, she shoots him rather than allow him to seduce her. She is pragmatic and without vanity, and those characteristics drive her choices, no matter how outrageous the circumstance.
I think this is all definitely on point. If I were going to write it, I’d say something about “voice.” Like, if the protagonist, or one of the main protagonists if there are more than one, has a humorous voice, then the reader gets the humor through their eyes. This is how I do it, I think.
Great article and so true!! Any humor in my books comes directly from the characters. Trying to force comedy doesn’t work.
I don’t disagree with any of it. 🙂 If 100 words was a minimum and they’ll take 300, I might suggest stating at the beginning that this is about comedy / humor in romance writing, and then distinguishing between comedy (as specific to romcom writing) and farce.
Based on the few recent romcoms I’ve brought myself to read, a lot of writers truly do not know the difference between farce / slapstick and character-driven humor. The latter type can range from academic wit to gentle sarcasm to affectionate wordplay to snarky banter to R-rated sex, mayhem, or arguments. I have read a few very funny screaming fights. 🙂
But take all this with a fistful of salt, because while I occasionally write a thing and think “Okay, that’s funny,” (a telephone call between my MMC and his mother in ‘A Winning Hand’ comes to mind) I would not call myself a romcom writer.
Humor can be found in plenty of books that aren’t romcoms. Peter Mayle writes great humor. There are mysteries with humor. It’s just that it is required for something to be a romcom (the com being comedy) and just a bonus for any other book.
I would like to see how you would address snark as Debbie suggested. I love the snark you write into the stories and it tends to be where I laugh the most. Is it a separate kind of comedy?
I also agree with chacha1 that if it is necessary, as in the person requesting the 100 words hasn’t set up your text as being about romcom, then adding something to orient the readers would be good.
I attended a comedy show by Michael Jr in which he described a joke as something with a setup, where the comedian does their best to bring the audience along so they are all going the same direction, and then the punchline, where the comedian takes an unexpected turn or pivot. He describes in his TED talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twSvd5bQLDw&t=225
Snark is part of character. Some characters have a very gentle, kind humor; some are needlessly loud, almost assaulting with humor; and some just snark. I think humor is a coping mechanism, so the kind of humor depends on the character and what they’re coping with.
Well, that would explain my sense of humor. So much coping.
I was wondering where my snark came from as I had a rather sheltered childhood. Then I remembered that I grew up with brothers 10.5 and 13 years older than me. I couldn’t be faster or stronger than them, they were just as smart as I was and far better educated and since they were guys, my parents allowed them a lot of latitude that my sisters and I didn’t get. But if I could keep up with their snark, I was granted a great deal of respect, especially considering how much younger I was.
Another new avatar? Are they trying to give me an identity crisis?
Totally agree. And it applies to mystery too (although I assume you’re being asked to comment specifically in the romcom context), where most subgenres are very character-driven.
Excellent, Jenny. When I took my loads of books to the book exchange, I found a copy of Tell Me Lies, and bought it. I already have one, but it is getting worn out, and it’s buried under boxes. I’m rereading it, now, and the humor is so evident and keyed to the characters. I feel bad that I may have deprived someone else of reading it, but it’s just so hilarious, and I need that, now. Some lines make me laugh over and over again. “Good girl” Maddie Faraday is a font of irony and humor. This is true of many of your characters. It’s built in. Great writing!
Thank you!
I love comedy where the protagonist features as straight man and the action goes all around them.
What’s wonderful about reading what you and Bob write together is that you have different senses of what’s insanity?
When you meld the two POV‘s it makes a glorious book.
I also love snarky dialogue between two intelligent people. I fell in love with Noël Coward at an early age.
We should talk sometime about comedy writing and comedy acting, which you are obviously great at. There’s so much more to it, set-up and pacing and reversal.
First, let me state that I totally love your books. From SIZZLE to ROCKY START series, all of them. Most are examples of humorous writing. I don’t need to point at Wodehouse or Heyer.
Second, I am no judge of your 295 words. I nodded all the way through, but not in judgement, just enjoyment. As anyone who has read what I’ve published will testify, my writing scents of humor runs mainly to Feghoots*.
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All I know is that there are certain very famous and prolific writers of romance that I no longer read or re-read. Their characters have no sense of humor and they don’t include any pets.
I think maybe I’m also drawn to characters who can see the humor in their situation. I’m remembering the “good thing this isn’t a date or we’d have an awkward silence,” followed by “You had many awkward silences?” Something like that. I can’t find it, but I thought it was in Bet Me. That novel has some great funny moments, like Min perforating a report and drawing hearts on one without realizing it.
I was just thinking it is time for the annual read or listen to Bet Me. Currently listening to The Goblin Emporer while gardening.
I definitely agree with your assessment and thought it a lovely explanation. The one thing that made me pause a bit was the part about not humiliating your characters. While I don’t disagree because I dislike books that humiliate their main characters, I think quite a lot of books that are billed as (hetero) rom-coms go to great lengths to humiliate (usually specifically) their female leads. Sometimes the women take it well and derive humor from the situation, but mostly they’re mortified and require “saving” (by the male lead, of course), or it serves as a device to put their female leads at a big disadvantage in some way or set up the rest of the book. Would you argue that these aren’t comedies, or that they’re not done well, or do they fit into your characterization in a way I’m missing? Thanks!
I can’t speak for Jenny but to me those are not comic—at best they are Farce and at worst they make me cringe and are not funny at all.
In at least in the ones that I’ve read or bailed out of, nobody, except maybe the author, is actively humiliating the character, so I think it’s a potentially misleading usage. The character is doing things that prove to be embarrassing, usually by losing self-control. It’s often close to tv sitcom and perhaps to a mild form of farce. I dislike it myself, and it’s certainly not what Jenny writes.
Laughing because we’re uncomfortable is something a lot of people do – so you can get a laugh from humiliating your characters but its a cheap laugh. OTH some people just seem to like banana peel pratfalls, or find a character who is being humiliated relatable maybe? Because I think you’re right – there are a lot of very successful romcoms that humiliate their characters – I don’t like them but they make tons of money so someone must.
I agree with the 1st/slap stick an angle.
I have an author friend that writes romcoms and I’m one of her beta readers. One of her books, she had a FMC that was clumsy, and she kept tripping, bumping into people, dropping things so often that I had to bring it up. I said this gets old, it’s not funny. Since this is feedback, I don’t know whether she toned it down, or not. If I beta read, I never go back and read the finished book to see if s/he takes my suggestions. I purchase the book and it goes on my bookshelf.
For me a book needs to work even if you strip out all the humor – because everyone’s sense of humor is different, so the story and characters need to stand on their own – and then if I find it funny too, bonus!
I agree, Yuri!
I’d agree except that if humor is something that arises out of character, stripping it out would also turn the MCs into robots. You have just removed one of the biggest things that tells us who they are.
I’m not suggesting that an author actually strips the humor out, just that the story needs to work without it, in case a reader doesn’t share that sense of humor. A well-rounded character will always be appreciated. For instance people find Julie James very funny – I never saw it, didn’t laugh once, but I still like her books because the characters and plots are strong enough without it.
Off topic: I decided to look up what animal could be making the nearly human sounding screams that I’ve heard during a couple of recent nights, and the winner seems to be a red fox, something slightly more exotic than I had expected. A few years ago when walking in the evening I did run across what was either a fox or a coyote. There is woodland near here from which animals wander out at night, but the only ones that I see much are deer.
On our neighborhood Listserve a year or two ago someone posting from an area called Fox Hills berated the community for people misbehaving with late screams and shrieks when they were trying to sleep.
And got thoroughly chastised by many people saying “you chose to live with foxes”.
You’re right, Jenny. The movie, Fever Pitch, exemplifies romcom. 😂
Also off topic:
You know the intention about my two month house guest ? Do I get extra points for being polite when out of the blue (literally — I didn’t know she had come back from dinner) she sent me a huffy text saying she would spend the night at a hotel and is feeling hurt. I sent a polite text back saying she didn’t need to stay at a hotel she is welcome
To stay here.
I think she wants more attention. I don’t feel I need to entertain her on top of housing and feeding her for two months when I had never met her. Or tell her personal things about my relationship with DH which she asked. (She may also be jealous of my marriage I suspect.)
Thank you for explaining farce to me – never seen it that way before. I previously thought of farce in a theatrical sense, doors opening and closing people popping in and out, plus everyone pretending to be someone else. I do like that if it is done well. But now prefer your definition.
As others have said – like what you have said and especially Debbie. Add snark (it is what I love most about your humour).
Hi Jenny,
Sorry–admin question here. I’ve been trying to subscribe with my new email address, and neither the “subscribe” button nor the “join the mailing button” is working for me. One opens a new screen at the top of the page, and the other just bounces to the top of the page. Is this user error? And how can I fix it? My old email address will expire in a couple of weeks. I don’t want to miss anything!
That hasn’t been working for me either. Jenny said she would tell Molly who handles that for her but so far it’s not fixed.
Hmm, I may be misunderstanding your point, but I don’t think that farce is always about dumb characters, or feeling superior. Or is necessarily improved by it, though it may work fine that way. But I’m rather fond of a few farces where the characters aren’t dumb, and that seem fairly character-based to me (though maybe somewhat stereotypical).
I think (maybe) the thing about farce is that it’s unreasonable (but still character-dependent). It lacks the kind of checks and balances that normally keep things in some kind of range of not crazy (sometimes because things happen too fast, sometimes because it’s just too much), and so the characters become untethered from some of their usual limitations, but perhaps more bound by other traits and characteristics. It’s unbalanced, but if it’s not character-based, I’m not sure what the point is.
Maybe whether the character is able to cope in some way or not could be the dividing line between comedy and farce? Farce pushes it past the point of coping at all, really.
(On the other hand, maybe the not-character-based kind of farce is just not my thing.)
Example of Jenny humor that proves her point – in Tell Me Lies the character Maddie visits her grandmother every Sunday. She takes an ugly necklace because she knows whatever it is her grandmother will steal it. She also takes a box of turtle candy & her grandmother eats them & spits the nuts across the room. I LOVE THAT BOOK!
Example of Jenny / Bob humor that proves her point – in Agnes & the Hit Man – the entire scene where Shane gives Agnes a bridge & the conversation equates the bridge to an erection. It is so funny!