It's a good thing I am in day two of the workshop, "Put some Funny Into Your Writing." I tried my hand yesterday and did some crazy scribbling but whether this means I'm humorous, funny, or even droll remains to be seen. It is difficult to know how bad things are at this time--the recession seems to have overwhelmed me and many that I know. I might like to cry but instead will try to find some humor despite newspaper stories of unemployment, suicide, bankruptcy, foreclosure, destroyed credit, homelessness and to top them all, a woman who smothered her two babies because she couldn't deal with caring for them anymore. No one wants to dwell on these things and we shouldn't. Not a funny topic in the bunch.
It is said that two ways to add humor to a story is to exaggerate, or its opposite, to understate. Deadpan they sometimes call it. Exaggeration as a modus operandi I live with each day. My husband, let's call him Mr. X, really understands the art of exaggeration; everything he says, all stories he tells, all incidents related are in a perfect pitch of exaggerated tension, and I do mean tension. He exaggerates all the phobias, neurosis, wackiness and lifestyles of his friends, family members and sometimes himself. He'll say anything to make the scenario more dire. He is a cartoonist and exaggeration is his stock and trade after all. Still in all honesty, I don't usually find him humorous at these times. I do get his humorous attempts, but only rarely do I laugh at his exaggerations because they are always on the negative side and tend to make me nervous. I'd rather talk to someone who understands the power of positive thinking but positive is not as funny as negative. All comedians play up the negative aspects of life and Mr. X, while no comedian, does like to entertain and practice hilarity whenever he can. Truth be told, he revels in other's misery. Some people are like that.
None of this story is funny so far, you more than likely are thinking, and you have a perfect right to do so. I haven't written anything that could be classified as humorous. I've got a lot on my mind, none of which strikes me as humorous today. I'm having a dark night of the soul and it's a bright San Francisco afternoon. It couldn't be more blustery wonderful. Still, I'm in a darkish mode and find it ironic to be in a humor-writing workshop but irony is also a form of humor. I will have to read what I am writing to the class so you can see the trouble I'm in. I've flunked classes before; this won't be my first failure.
I admit I'm having trouble with exaggeration even though we all do it whenever we tell a story or an anecdote or spin some sort of yarn. You have to be inspired to exaggerate and I'm not in the mood, so let's go on to the other mode; understatement. I am prone toward understatement and Mr. X never gets it. He glazes over, finding exaggeration more compatible with his personality. I'm too understated to garner his attention. He assumes I'm just muttering banalities on the day's events when instead I'm brandishing witticisms right and left, I'm in the key of low and my laughter is a mellow smirking. It all goes by Mr. X, who needs a higher key to emit any laughter, possibly a pie in the face. I have no audience with him but do occasionally make others laugh.
It occurs to me that I should give some examples of Mr. X's exaggerations and an example or two of my understated wit. Okay, well, he waves his hands in the air as he tells of his friend who is on the brink of a) losing his house, b) getting arrested, c) getting hurt, d) getting divorced, e) losing his driver's license, f) going to jail, is in jail g) going to rehab, has been in rehab. You get the picture: all of this is about to happen to this one person, this week. A little truth, a lot of exaggeration all told with the appropriate wild gestures and vacillating eye contact.
My use of the understatement tool of humor-writing would say about the above person; a) "he'd better watch out," b) "what a character," c) "what a screwball," or d) "what a wife he must have to humor him," all said with a brittle laugh or rolling eyeballs--I might do either. This is a lot of understatement in describing a near madman.
I admit, so far, none of this is particularly funny and I'm sure you're disappointed if you're reading this; the other people in the class will have to carefully avoid yawning. If you're expecting funny, unfunny is never a good substitute.
But we've come to the end of this exercise, the moderator tells us to put our pencils down. A little lax, I'd say, though I tend to deprecate myself, another form of humor.
Larry David is not worried about the competition here I suspect but we did think about exaggeration and a little of understatement. "It's up to you to use it in your own particular genius", said our teacher, possibly attempting a sort of dry exaggeration. "Woody Allen does exaggeration, Bill Maher does understatement. Both are truly funny," he added subjectively.
This workshop continues tomorrow so there is still some hope for a slice of humor discovered in the nick of time within the confines of my dark night of the soul. Stay tuned as they say in the often humorous world of television...I recommend that you stay away from the news if you want to laugh any time today; its use of exaggeration is not funny at all.
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