Comic Relief

Comic relief is using humor in an otherwise serious work. Applied correctly, it can work wonders. If used improperly, it will make readers feel like groaning instead of laughing. Here are a few tips to make sure that your readers laugh.

1. Know when it’s appropriate. If you’re writing a really sad or dramatic scene, like a deathbed scene, humor will detract from the mood you’re trying to create.

2. It will be a lot better if you come up with your own jokes instead of relying on overdone ones. Also, potty humor is a no-no, unless it’s coming from a character who actually would use it, like an eight year-old. Even then, don’t have him call everyone a farthead or boogerbrain.

3. Make sure that you don’t have any characters that are JUST a source of comic relief. Even if the character is a bard or a stand-up comedian, not everything out of his yap should be a joke. In real life, people like that tend to get punched. A lot. Plus, it can sometimes be even funnier when a joke comes from the mouth of someone previously shown to be quiet and serious.

4. Do not, and I repeat, do not snap tension or suspense with a joke.

5. If your story is set in a fantasy or sci-fi world with a language that is decidedly not English, don’t use puns or jokes that are dependent on English pronunciation or spelling.

6. Don’t stretch out a joke with added dialogue more than is necessary. It’s bad. Really bad. Just terrible writing. Awful. It will get you panned by critics. People won’t like you.

7. Don’t have everyone laughing at a character’s joke. Maybe even show some negative consequences. Let’s say your character is a general at a feast held in honor of their latest military victory. The general makes a joke about the king’s mother being so overweight that she once jumped into the air and got stuck. Unless this king is very easygoing, I would expect that general to have some latrine-cleaning duty. Or maybe some being-executed duty.