How to Write Comedy as a Fiction Writer Afraid of Flopping

Many years ago, I went to visit a director friend of mine on set, and she introduced me to one of her stars, Emma Thompson. 

Important background information: I adore Emma Thompson. In my fantasies, she is my aunt and I am her favorite and she is the voice that encourages me to believe in myself and also she loans me her nicest sweater. 

Anyway, my friend presented me as “a comedy writer,” and Emma offered a wide smile, shook my hand, and said, “Can you make me funnier?”

I laughed and said, “No.”

And then nothing else. At all. Just stood there, smiling with my arms hanging all heavy and stupid at my sides. My brain was screaming at me to say something amazing, rendering itself unavailable for conjuring amazing thoughts.

And that was my entire exchange with Emma Thompson.

This is the great challenge of comedy. It’s easy to be hilarious when we’re playing Ransom Notes with friends on a Friday night, but once the spotlight is on and there’s an expectation of hilarity, the task gets much, much harder.

If you want to write comedy but you’re starting to feel bullied by that blinking cursor demanding that you make it laugh, I can kind of help. I can’t eliminate the pressure, but I can offer some insight into what works, what doesn’t, and where to find inspiration.

We’re going to go through all that stuff in this article, specifically in the context of fiction writing. That’s important, because being funny on the page is its own unique challenge. 

Understanding Comedy in Fiction Writing

When we talk about writing comedy in the context of fiction, we’re talking about two possible goals: writing a story that contains comedy or writing a story that is a comedy.

A story that contains comedy would include any narrative that isn’t meant to be funny but offers some moments of levity.

A story that is a comedy includes any narrative where the author’s primary goal is to tell a tale that makes people laugh.

Whichever one you write, it’s important you understand that your loyalty is to the story first and foremost, even when you’re making a joke. If you try to force funny lines that are only kind of relevant to the moment, your reader will see you trying to make them laugh.

And nothing kills a laugh like showing how hard you’re working for it.

So always root your comedy in one of these four elements:  

Narration

You get a lot of mileage out of a comedic narrative voice.

It helps to think of your narrator as someone specific, even if you’re using third-person narration. You don’t have to explain why this person knows so much about this story and its characters. You just have to know their personality and their attitude about what’s going on.

Are they delighting in this playful little tale? Observing with cynicism and relaying the details sarcastically? Do they have a unique perspective or love a clever turn of phrase?

Here are a couple examples of how narrative voice and tone can boost comedy writing:

"In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people angry and is widely considered a bad move." –Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

“She did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.” –Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Setting

Some literary worlds are teeming with absurdity, like the underground chaos of Dungeon Crawler Carl. But even if your story is set in a fairly normal universe, odds are, you can find strokes of humor in the structures and norms that define it.

Is there anything petty or irrational about the culture’s value system? Are there any social conflicts that are a profound waste of energy? Can you poke fun at the politics?

Bernadette absolutely roasts Seattle in Where’d You Go, Bernadette—everything from the people to the dogs to the architecture.

“It’s like a hypnotist put everyone from Seattle in a collective trance. You are getting sleepy, when you wake up you will want to live only in a Craftsman house, the year won’t matter to you, all that will matter is that the walls will be thick, the windows tiny, the rooms dark, the ceilings low, and it will be poorly situated on the lot.”

Conflict

Conflict is an extremely reliable source of comedy, because most jokes are essentially about the relatability of daily struggle. 

The central conflict might be funny in its undeniable absurdity, like in Mort, where Death’s apprentice accidentally renders a woman invisible to the world by failing to collect her soul. (Okay, maybe not entirely relatable, but who among us hasn’t made a huge mistake at work?)

Then there are the conflicts that simply open the door for comedy. Romantic comedy is famous for this, with beloved tropes like fake dating that make it clear where the awkwardness and jokes will come from. 

Character

Wit is never the reason a character is funny. Not the sole reason, anyway. It’s their personality and perspective that do the heavy lifting. 

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell says:

“To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

Kind of a funny line if you stumbled across it in a book of witticisms. A thousand more times delightful in context, where this is the serious criticism of a woman evaluating a man’s worthiness for marriage. 

So before you start worrying about writing hysterical dialogue, clarify what it is about your character that’s inherently funny.

Do they see the world in an unusual way? Do they say surprising things the audience would never dare to say out loud, but can honestly kind of relate to? Do they hold a certain perspective to an extreme degree?

Successful comedy writers allow humor to emerge organically from the story. Doing this not only makes your comedy writing better, but it also takes some of the pressure off of writing jokes.

Types of Comedy

There are many different styles of comedy, and it helps to know what type of humor you want to deliver so you can be consistent.

The list below doesn’t include every type—just some popular ones so you can begin to understand how different types of jokes deliver different types of laughs.

If there’s a specific work whose comedic style you’d like to emulate, do some research to learn what category it fits into.

Satire

Satire is all about using humor to expose and mock people’s vices or ignorance. This type of comedy is known for making people laugh, then leaving them to think about the challenging truths behind the jokes. 

Assuming they recognized the work was satire. Which they don’t always.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty is a satire that explores race and identity in the U.S. through the story of a man trying to reinstate segregation and slavery.

Parody

In a parody, the author pokes fun at an existing work or genre through exaggerated imitation. This form of comedy can be written with critical intent, but comedy writers often have a fondness for the source material they’re making fun of.

The Thursday Next series, about a detective who solves crimes in the literary realm, parodies literary tropes, famous fictional characters, and crime fiction.

Farce

Farce is a fast-paced form of comedy that focuses on absurd conflicts and slapstick antics. This is where you’ll find colossal miscommunication, mistaken identities, and exaggerated characters without much depth.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a farce about two young men who both lead double lives as men named Ernest and their attempts to woo two women who are convinced they can only love an Ernest. 

Dark Comedy

If you like humor that isn’t afraid to tackle heavy subject matter, you’re probably a dark comedy person. Dark comedy dives into the serious, disturbing, and taboo, finding humor in the tragic.

This style of comedy appears in many different genres, but grimdark thrives on it. Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series features a lot of morally compromised characters with great lines like this:

“Severed heads never go out of fashion. Used sparingly and with artistic sensibility, they can make a point a great deal more eloquently than those still attached.”

What Makes a Joke Work?

It’s true that comedy is subjective. But that doesn’t mean there’s no method to it.

If you want to learn how to write comedy, you have to understand why funny things are funny. What happens in a joke that triggers the laugh response?

Here’s what great comedy does:

Releases Tension

Hannah Gadsby illustrates this concept brilliantly in their show Nanette, and I highly recommend checking it out (just be aware of content warnings—it’s heavier than you’d expect).

The short version is that effective jokes tend to land in a moment of tension. Your reader is starting to stress because of the argument between your characters, and then suddenly something funny happens, and the big laugh that follows is equal parts amusement and relief. 

Surprises the Reader

There’s no comedy in fulfilled expectations. If you’ve got someone in your life who loves to repeat jokes, you know this.

Strong jokes are surprising, whether they offer an unusual perspective, subvert tropes, or simply say something in an unexpected way.

Clear Point of View

Start asking yourself what the perspective is behind the funniest lines, and you’ll start to see that there’s always a point of view, even if it isn’t expressed outright. In many cases, that point of view elicits laughter by doing one of two things:

1. Relating to the reader’s own experience in a deeply cathartic way
2. Surprising the reader with a unique perspective that’s actually understandable, even if they don’t relate to it

Here’s an absolute banger of a line from Pride and Prejudice to illustrate my point:

"Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart, and then he will be sorry for what he has done."

Weird thing to find comfort in, but it doesn’t not make sense.

Clear and Deliberate Tone

Tone indicates the narrator or character’s attitude toward the thing they’re discussing. You create a sense of tone through things like word choice and rhythm, and it’s one of your best tools for writing comedy that gets big laughs. 

It’s why this is not funny:

“Parents are funny because they think their child is great even if they’re really not.”

And this is:

"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful." –Matilda by Roald Dahl

The Rules of Comedy Writing

So those are the ingredients of great comedy. Now let’s lay down some handy rules.

Don’t Go With the First Joke

There is a decent chance that the first joke that came to mind was also the first joke that came to your reader’s mind.

Which means they’re expecting it, which, as we’ve discussed, destroys the comedy.

Now, there will be times when the first joke really was unique and inspired. That’s fine. You can keep that one. What matters is that you treat every joke you write like a first draft, workshopping and revising to make sure you’ve got the best version.

The Rule of Threes

Again, not a hard and fast rule, but it will serve you well. The rule of threes really comes down to rhythm, and that’s the bigger takeaway. How can you deliver a joke in the most rhythmically pleasing way?

For whatever reason, our brains love a good trio. In comedy, this often means two normal things and a surprising third thing. 

The hyenas in The Lion King are named Shenzi, Bonzai, and Ed. 

In Up, Dug follows Russell’s commands to sit, then shake, then responds to the “speak” command by speaking like a human. 

Then there’s this gem from 30 Rock:

“I found Tracy, I saved the show, I always think of a third thing when I’m listing stuff.” –Liz Lemon

The rule of threes works so well in comedy because it sets up the norm with items one and two, then delivers something unexpected with item three.

Be Specific

Specificity rules in comedy writing. Take this line from A Man Called Ove, for example (comedy-boosting specifics in bold):

“Because nowadays people are all thirty-one and wear too-tight trousers and no longer drink normal coffee. And don’t want to take responsibility. A shed-load of men with elaborate beards, changing jobs and changing wives and changing their car makes. Just like that. Whenever they feel like it.”

Way more entertaining than just saying, “Ove doesn’t understand young people these days.”

Some Reliable Comedy Writing Tips

Okay, enough analysis. Time to sit down and actually write jokes.

How does this work, exactly? How does one craft a hilarious line or scenario or line of dialogue?

We’ll start with joke structure.

Anatomy of a Joke

Pretty much every joke, whatever form it takes, has a setup and a punchline.

The setup is the context. The punchline is the unexpected twist.

This applies to funny dialogue and narration, like this:

"Hours passed, like a kidney stone." –Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

Kingfisher sets it up with the information that time is passing, then surprises you with the funny kidney stone metaphor.

But get this: even actions and situations can have a setup-punchline structure.

In the double date scene in the greatest movie ever made, When Harry Met Sally, the setup is that Harry and Sally are trying to set each other up with their best friends. The punchline is that their friends fall for each other.

Use Your Own Observations

Now, where do joke ideas come from?

Your own experiences, usually.

Start noticing the quirks you find amusing in friends, family, coworkers, and even strangers.

Maybe your great aunt has a huge crush on Nathan Fillion and finds an excuse to reference one of his shows in nearly every conversation. Maybe the guy who’s always ahead of you in line at the coffee window always practices his order under his breath. Maybe your cubicle neighbor has made mushroom coffee his entire personality.

Explore these traits. Can they be exaggerated? Can you apply them to fictional characters and build new personalities and backstories around those qualities—personalities and backstories that create opportunities for even more humor?

Also note any unique perspectives you stumble across, including the ones inside your own head.

What small, stupid thing irritates you? Do you have a unique philosophy on a major life experience like love or death? Do you or someone you know have an unpopular opinion that could be a defining perspective for a character?

Look for the joke in everyday frustrations. Find what’s unique and quirky about the environments and communities you live in. Write down your observations, and the comedy will come.

Subvert Tropes and Clichés

Remember what we said about surprise? This is a great way to catch your readers off guard.

Maybe that “only one bed situation” isn’t going to fly for your rom-com hero, and the heroine is loudly offended when he’d rather sleep in his car than share a room with her.

You can also do this with lines of narration and dialogue. For example: 

"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." –Jingo by Terry Pratchett

The brain expects the cliché and gets blindsided by something way better.

Explore New Angles

You might try a whole new take on metaphors, like this:

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." –The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Or you might let a character offer a funny perspective on a seemingly straightforward subject, like Leslie Knope’s declaration that “There's nothing we can't do if we work hard, never sleep, and shirk all other responsibilities in our lives."

Whether it’s in the words you choose or the ideas you convey, an unexpected take can be a rich source of comedy.

Common Pitfalls New Comedy Writers Should Avoid

Before you run off to craft your own clever prose, we should go over a few common rookie mistakes so you can be sure to avoid them.

Assuming Your Real-Life Funniness Immediately Translates to the Page

Funny friend and funny writer are not the same job. Writing comedy is a complex skill, and successful comedy writers have spent years honing their abilities.

By all means, apply your natural wit to the process. But if you’re serious about comedy writing, also commit to studying the craft.

Read and watch a ton of comedy. Study all styles and formats—books, movies, television, standup… everything. 

Look for online courses. Attend in-person workshops and test your writing with an audience of fellow comedy writers. 

Read your writing out loud and get feedback from readers who are likely to enjoy books like yours. Sometimes the jokes that sound great in our heads don’t come across the same way on the page. And sometimes people outside our heads don’t read our jokes the way we meant for them to.

Feedback is priceless for a comedy writer, so get lots of it. Then revise, revise, and revise one more time.

Punching down

Punching down happens when you make a joke at the expense of someone who is already vulnerable. You’re most at risk of doing it when you tackle heavier subject matter. 

If you were going to write a joke about race, you’d want racists or racist institutions to be the butt of the joke, not victims of racism.

I say this acknowledging that the topic of who and what is fair game in comedy is vast and nuanced and could be an entire article unto itself. The standards are also different when you’re a member of the vulnerable group in question. 

Just know that in most cases, punching down is more likely to come off as lazy than funny.  

Leaning on Stereotypes

Just like punching down, pulling out tired generalizations only earns you a few cheap laughs while preventing you from actually advancing your comedy chops.

Plus, stereotypes are essentially clichés. Everyone knows them, everyone’s heard the jokes, and they’re unlikely to be surprised and delighted to hear them again.

Prioritizing Jokes Over Stories

Finally, as a fiction writer—even a comedy fiction writer—you never want your jokes to become more important than the story.

The temptation will be there, especially when you begin the revision process and realize that your funniest scene does absolutely nothing to further the narrative.

You won’t want to cut it. You’ll tell yourself that the reader wants it there, even if it screws up the pacing, even if it makes the story more confusing. They won’t want to miss that laugh.

But here’s the thing: that brilliant scene is proof that you can give them a cohesive story and great comedy. You’ve already written something wildly funny, and after you remove it from your manuscript, you can use those very same skills to punch up a scene that does serve the narrative.

(“Punch up” is comedy talk for “make it funnier.” Lotta punching in comedy.)

Once you’ve added humor to your writing skill set, you’re basically the total package, writer-wise. You know how to create and release tension for your readers, inspire them to think differently, and spark a deeply human response: laughter.

It’s worth the work it takes to get good at this. So get crackin’.

A Little Support for Your Jokey Journey

Writing is always easier with the support of a community, and that goes triple for comedy writing, when you need trusted peers to tell you if your jokes aren’t landing.

That’s why you should check out the DabbleU Campus, our free online community. You can connect with other writers, join us for group writing sprints, watch author interviews, and more.

It also helps to have the support of a stellar writing tool, and you’ll want to turn to Dabble for that, too. You not only get a host of innovative features to make plotting, writing, and revising a breeze, you also get a writing program that works on any device, anywhere, online and off.

Learn more about the Dabble writing tool here, and click here for a 14-day trial, no credit card required.