Comments on: How to write funny https://www.publicationcoach.com/how-to-write-funny/ & Gray-Grant Communications Wed, 26 May 2021 17:05:49 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 By: Daphne Gray-Grant https://www.publicationcoach.com/how-to-write-funny/#comment-3635 Tue, 03 Jun 2014 01:01:00 +0000 http://pubcoach2018.wpengine.com/?p=8776#comment-3635 In reply to Bob.

You make an interesting point. Bob. The cultural dimensions of humour add a whole other level! My son, who is studying to be an opera singer (and who therefore studies other languages and cultures more than many other people) tells me that Russians have no understanding of sarcasm. It’s just not something they “get.” I find this bizarrely fascinating!

]]> By: Bob https://www.publicationcoach.com/how-to-write-funny/#comment-3632 Mon, 02 Jun 2014 17:51:00 +0000 http://pubcoach2018.wpengine.com/?p=8776#comment-3632 Tricky subject. Humor, ((wit, facetiiousness, jocularity, sarcasm etc), is so difficult to define. Wit (clever, rather than funny) appeals to me, but often draws a blank look on some of my friends. Some of the things they find funny, I find simplistic or nonsensical. The text may be intended to appeal to the intellect, draw a smile, or to incite laughter.
I remember an article analyzing for German soldiers the essence of English humor. Bairnsfather character Young Bill, looking at a wall with a big hole in it, asks “What made that ‘ole?” Old Bill answers “Mice”. The author of the article explains “It was not mice. It was a shell.”
I showed this to some friends, and one looked puzzled, and said “I don’t see what is funny about that. It WAS a shell, wasn’t it?”
This last question drew general laughter, so was funny.

]]>