How to Write Comic Relief in Stories (Writing Advice)

get ready because today we're going to talk about how to inject some comic relief into your stories by the way my name is Brandon McNulty I'm the author of bad parts also the author of Entry wounds and welcome to my writing Channel a lot of people have been asking me to do videos on humor so I thought today we'd look at comic relief and how to work it into your stories we'll discuss what comic relief is how to use it and I'll give you some examples to illustrate what I mean but let's start off by answering the question what is comic relief and very simply it's using humor to break the tension in a serious story and the comic part that's the funny part it's includes jokes witty dialogue funny characters funny situations funny actions and reactions and so on and so on now the relief part this should surprise the audience in some way you'll start by establishing tension in your story then you'll build up that tension and then finally you surprise us maybe we expect one thing and then the extreme opposite happens or we expect a character to perform a sincere action and instead they act clever or goofy or flippant or whatever it is now here's an example of using comic relief to break tension early on in Raiders of the Lost Ark there's an action sequence in which Indiana Jones and his sidekick Marion get attacked that attack establishes the tension and from there the tension builds they fight off bad guys Marion gets captured and indy has to run around looking for her he starts to worry and the tension mounts and mounts until this happens [Music] in this moment of comic relief works well for a bunch of reasons but it only has impact because of the tension leading up to it we have action danger suspense fear and then boom we get our comic relief then afterwards Indy continues his search and the audience experiences renewed suspense until the scene's climax all right now let's answer the question why should you use comic relief why do you want it in your stories and one reason you might want to use comic relief is because it creates a more Dynamic story remember humor is a powerful story element it can flesh out characters it can create memorable moments and it can balance out your story's tone or attitude another reason why you might want to use comic relief is because it's a great way to engage the audience humor can hook your audience and keep people interested and if you can make people laugh or even just smile they'll be more likely to pay attention since nobody wants to miss a joke another reason to use comic relief is because it keeps a serious story from getting stale and just to be clear there's nothing wrong with using a serious tone but the story can lose impact if everything is serious all the time if you include an effective comic relief character or some comic relief scenes you can keep things fresh and make the serious stuff hit harder and then one last reason you might want to use comic relief is because it adds style to your story humor can make a story unique and certain brands of humor can attract certain audiences now just remember though humor is highly subjective and what's funny to me might not be funny to you now let's go over some tips for using comic relief I've got a number of different tips here and I've got some examples to back them up and the first one is to choose the appropriate style of humor for your story this is very important your story's tone and genre will dictate what type of humor works best for example dark morbid humor works in the slasher film terrifier 2 but it wouldn't work in Guardians of the Galaxy and likewise the upbeat humor and Guardians wouldn't work in Schindler's List you need to be aware of your story's tone and your audience's expectations second tip the best humor naturally arises from character and when you're creating your characters consider giving them humorous traits or personalities maybe they deliver witty dialogue maybe they stumble into amusing situations maybe they act and react in hilarious ways whatever it is make sure their personalities feel natural and consistent within your story for example Game of Thrones is a dark gritty fantasy story that's set in a world where death and despair are commonplace many characters are appropriately serious but there are also characters like Tyrion Lannister who lighten things up with witty dialogue I can't stand the Wailing of women one word and I hit you again I'm telling mother you're a clever man but you're not half as clever as you think you are still makes me more clever than you how would you like to die Tyrion son of Tywin my own bed at the age of 80. with a belly full of wine and a girl's mouth around my [ __ ] now it's important to remember that tyrion's style of humor works because it fits both his character and the tone of the story he's an intelligent guy in those clever remarks stem naturally from his personality tip number three remember that not every character needs to be a comedian some writers are tempted to make every character funny but if you drown your story in humor the serious parts and the funny parts will suffer it's best to have at least one predominantly serious character and then beyond that you can give other characters different styles of humor for example in Star Wars Luke is sincere he keeps us grounded so we can enjoy Leia's sarcasm Hans wisecracks and the banter between 3PO and R2 in most Batman stories Batman himself is serious and brooding and he should be he's supposed to strike fear into the hearts of criminals now on the other hand his alter ego Bruce Wayne can afford to be more laid back and he might deliver some comic relief it's also worth noting that Batman's villains tend to provide comic relief and they offset his serious attitude tip number four use comic relief to manage tension remember if you drag out tension for too long it'll lose its effect a well-timed joke or comedic moment can help make the tension feel fresh again when it resumes just like in that Indiana Jones example I gave you another thing keep in mind here is that sometimes after an intense sequence you'll have a cool down period this is when characters react to what's happened and they try to come up with a new plan and since these scenes tend to be low stakes it's a great time to inject humor into the story now the John Wick movies are known for their thrilling action sequences and in the second movie there's this big fight between Jon and another Hitman named Cassian and this fight goes on and on and on eventually the two of them land inside the Continental hotel which is a safe haven where murder is forbidden and once the two men realize where they are they immediately straighten themselves out before getting drinks at the bar in this odd moment of levity provides much needed relief and helps the audience gear up for the next wave of action tip number five strategically balance drama and humor as I mentioned earlier humor is a strong narrative element that can improve almost any story but you need to consider what type of emotions you want to convey if you're telling a sincere story identify its most critical moments and keep those moments serious you don't want humor undercutting the emotions that you worked so hard to convey and you definitely don't want a situation like in Thor Ragnarok where a character cracks jokes while Thor's Homeworld is being destroyed right before his eyes it will become a Haven for All Peoples and aliens of the universe now those foundations are gone sorry and then tip number six never Force humor into a story if humor naturally arises from a character or situation then by all means use it but don't get cute when comic relief feels tacked on or it just isn't funny you're better off cutting it so I hope this helps question of the day what is your favorite bit of comic relief from a story let us know in the comments section below thank you for watching if you want to support the Channel please pick up a copy of either one of my books bad parts is great if you like small town horror it's about people trading away their sick and injured body parts in order to get healthy again and then entry wounds is great if you like Thrillers it's about a guy who picks up a Haunted Gun and he cannot put it down until he kills six people with it also be sure to check out my other videos like share and subscribe and as always remember to keep on writing

Channel: Writer Brandon McNulty

Views: 42,488

Keywords: Writing, Writing advice, Writing Tips, Fiction, Creative Writing, How to write a book, How to write a novel, novel, book, humor, comic relief, how to write comic relief, comic relief characters, how to write funny dialogue, how to write humor in a novel, how to write humor in a story, Game of Thrones, Tyrion, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Guardians of the Galaxy, funny, comedy, joke, jokes, batman, movie, movies, storytelling, story, bathos, marvel, mcu, laugh, audience, comic relief in movies, funnier

Id: c_k_KTpkIM4

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 22 2023