I do have a series. No need to subscribe if you don't want to. https://tapas.io/series/Immortal-Ivy/info2
Depends on what you find funny, I dig the webseries Oglaf, it´s 18+ humour,
I find it funny. Someone else maybe things it´s offensive.
I don´t know if it makes sense to recommed series because there are so many
subgenres of comedy.
I was supposed to work with a comedy writer but his writing style and what
he wanted to do is something in the direction of big bang theory and I don´t
find that funny at all. My brother was laughing a lot when we watched
Laurel & Hardy when we were kids, I couldn´t laugh about it all.
Just 2 examples how subjective humour is
I think it's possible to learn comedy and learn how to write good jokes. The Simpsons (personally, up to season 7 some people put it slightly past that) have some of the most memorable bits in comedy and are a great example of something you can learn from. I like to take note of things that make me laugh and ask myself why I find it funny instead of putting it in an Objective or Subjective lens. It's value is determined by consensus, and the only way to know how successful you are with that consensus is by telling jokes and just being a funnyman.
Hmmm do you know if you have a fan favorite side character? If you do, it might be super cool to make your comedic episode from their perspective. Similarly, this might sound super weird, but you could try to implement very popular jokes into your comic but change them to be relevant to the setting of your comic. I think it was a few weeks ago, I was reading a super dark fantasy comic and out of nowhere, they made a your mom joke and my very mature self was on the floor laughing. Albeit humor is subjective, your mom jokes are a classic. Hope this helps!
Like people are saying, humor is subjective so what some people find funny others might not. Personally I'm a fan of comedy that leads up to a punch line, and I love witty humor. But for others, some might like humor like memes that are nonsensical.
The best thing I would say though is for comedy in a story, just study what you find as funny, and as cliche as it sounds, study life. Find out what kind of humor you like and go that route! Have fun with it and pay attention to the kind of jokes you want to tell. Think about timing, what kind of person this character will be, etc. It'll all fall into place if you don't force it in my opinion
Hate to repeat what's already being said; but it always depends in the type of person who's reading.. And trying to "play it safe" will slowly but surely make your jokes corny or non existent...
From the beginning of UBERNATURA; the humor slides from goofy, to adult to actually messed up/dark humor and never really has a "type" of humor. This is maybe bad advice, but I suggest trying out different jokes you yourself find funny.. Dialogue, slapstick, gags, long running jokes, parodies, ect.. Keep trying out something until it sticks and you find a audience looking for that/share your type of humor. Comedy is such a very sensitive subject now days that you probably NEED to find people who match your humor to do something genuinely funny for others...
to be honest, while I put UBERNATURA here.. I'm unsure if any if it is funny as I hope, or does it all fall flat? Because of this I'm already planning on redoing many lines after a significant amount is done, just so it can shift to "stupid humor" and hopefully not veer into anything serious to anybody...
Humor is a subjective thing because many people find different things funny. Like for instance I find more dark humor more funny than someone else would like fart jokes. There’s different types of comedy, dry, slapstick, surreal, toilet, black humor, sarcasm, but also new forms of humor because of the age of the internet such as memes, absurdist or meta.
Humor can come in all kind of forms but just don’t TRY to be funny. If you try it almost stales it up. At least in my experience.
Edit: This felt like a deja-vu for me...... it turned out that gave advice like this on a waaaay older thread
To make comedy, the first key is to find your types of humor. The ones you like and entertain you.
There are many types of humor:
relatable humor,situational humor, surreal humor, puns, cringe comedy, antihumor, black comedy, sarcastic humor, parodies, physical comedy among others.....
Your humor may combine many of these kinds. And that will build your comedy style. Is important to note that you may have different stories with different kinds of humor. Ex: You may not use black comedy in a more lighthearted story.
Timing is key to make a joke funny: Is important to have a set up, to build up the joke and a punchline, which is the moment of truth in the joke.
Jokes play with the audience expectations, either by subverting them, or by subverting the subversion by playing the jokes straight. You could even subvert the subversion of the subversion, but that is going on another plane.
Exageration makes things funny too. Either an overreaction, or even and underreaction can make a joke.
Also, watching good comedies can help you too.
Hope this helps!
I wouldn't add a comedic character whose 'job' it is to be 'the funny one'. Oh zappers no, that will not end well If you just want to add humor to your story, it's also limiting if all the humour comes from one character, when some of the best humour that really catches your audience off guard tend to naturally arise from your existing characters and situations.
e.g. a number of jokes I plan on including in my comic bitwam will rely on callbacks to previous stuff that's happened (not necessarily running gags or brick jokes, since the original situation isn't always humourous (or intended to be a humourous setup), just referenced in a humourous way in a later scene). (My current jokes on the other hands mostly rely on real life references/memes, which isn't fitting for all stories XD)
I guess that's another reason why I'm not a pantser; when I already have some future scenes in mind, it gives time for my brain to come up with jokes relevant to that scene Basically when I've been thinking about and spending time with my characters in my head for long enough, funni jokes/scenes/quips etc just tend to pop up and I just write them down whenever they do (even if I haven't nailed down where to place them, if I end up including them at all :P)