Incorporating Humor Into Serious Writing

How many times have you become engrossed in a good book, only to find that the action, suspense, and hearbreaking scenes are just too intense for you to endure? In many ways, books are even more engaging than movies because they invite the reader to immerse themselves into the situations of the characters, and to allow imaginations to run wild. You can’’t visibly see the settings and events, but they are no less real to the reader.

In the case of a hearwrenching or consistently suspenseful plot, humor can be used to give the reader a break. Holding one emotion for an extended period of time can be exhausting, and a good laugh will break up the monotony. Humor used for this purpose is called comic relief, and if used effectively, will add even more personalization to your work.

There are a variety of ways in which you can use comic relief to your advantage, but if used incorrectly, it can be detrimental to your story. It is important not to spoil the overall mood of your plot; placing comic relief in an inappropriate scene will probably anger your readers. For example, if you are writing a love story set during World War II, and suddenly the man is drafted, you don’t want to place a joke in the middle of the lovers'’goodbye scene. Instead, wait until after the soldier has caught his train or bus, and then let something funny happen.

There are three main types of comic relief: situational, conversational, and ongoing. These three types of humor are employed to invoke different emotions in your reader, and should be placed carefully among your more serious scenes.

1. Situational

This means very much what the name implies: in the middle of or directly following a serious scene, something happens that is funny or ridiculous. It usually doesn’t have much to do with what a character does or says, but rather with the setting or an extraneous force.