Writing Comedy /Politics

[James Marinero]

@Paul Whybrow started a thread last week about comedy in one's writing. This is slightly different. Are there any pure comedy writers here? Has anyone here tried writing pure comedy?

This came to mind earlier this week when I was listening to a news programme which was discussing the Irish Border/Brexit question. They played an extract of Spike Milligan reading 'Puckoon'. I was in stitches and must now dig my copy out and re-read it. The premise of the book is life in a fictional town which straddles the Irish Border. In the pub, drinks are 30% cheaper at one end of the bar...and so it goes on.

Milligan trod the path between genius and illness. I have copies of all his books.

Do you have to be a comedian to write comedy? I think of the team of Richard Curtis and Ben Elton who scripted Blackadder. Elton was/is a stand-up comedian but Curtis has never been called a comedian (as far as I know).

I've never tried writing comedy and I'm glad that no-one has ever described a book of mine as a joke...You cannot be serious (as John MacEnroe would say).

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Blooming hard to do well. I couldn't stick Spike Milligan now; I'm trying to think whose books make me laugh.
Yes, I've had a tiny go. Short stories. Micro fiction. Badly behaved fairy tale spoofs. Got a very kind letter from Doris Lessing RIP. Vanity published, not by me; I never lost a penny. A friend was very ill, I was asked to do some cartoon illustrations for a group enterprise and then decided to have a go at writing a few stories. Bugger all sales, as you'd expect, and not enough editing, and it still wasn't published in time for our poor friend...whose 14 year old son had started the ball rolling. He got a detention one day and was made to write a story as punishment (!) and wrote a very droll tale with a twist on the three little pigs.
It got a decent newspaper review though, regional paper, and some of the stories are dated now (Princess Diana, Thatcher), but others still stand up OK. If you like that kind of thing.

 

[Howard]

The last book of mine I finished (a Steampunk work) was fairly humorous and 2 out of my 5 most reason short stories were definitely gag-based. I found the process of writing in that style quite freeing and have been longing for something in the vein as Douglas Adams; or at least, something as good as how Adams was to me, thirty years ago.
To that end, my brain seems to have coughed up a new book idea that is definitely a comedy. Slapstick, goofy and with little regards for logic or standard plot progression. We shall see how it goes, I suppose.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I tried to write a humorous book once. It turned terribly dark on me and spiralled out of control--I found I couldn't hold the line between funny and tragic. Because, let's face it, a lot of what we find funny is a mere heartbeat away from sad.

 

[James Marinero]

I tried to write a humorous book once. It turned terribly dark on me and spiralled out of control--I found I couldn't hold the line between funny and tragic. Because, let's face it, a lot of what we find funny is a mere heartbeat away from sad.

Persevere - there might be something in that emotional mix.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Persevere - there might be something in that emotional mix.

Yes. I know. Maybe not with that particular story--I don't think that novel is salvageable--but I did learn a lot in writing it.