That's not a joke . . . Ba-rump-bump!

 Writer-Blogger Voice 

There’s been a subject niggling at my mind for some time now—humor.

In my ongoing search for “voice”— I know I have one, but I’m not all together clear on what it is so I decided this would be the day to research all the different kinds of humor and maybe figure out how that element plays into voice.  

It’s kind of like trying to take a watch apart and put it back together again so you have no left over parts and it still works. Some people are good at this and some of us—not so much.

I know I like banter* and I can be flippant, especially when I am irked.

            

*For an example of banter in action--go on over to Laird Sapir’s blog post, For Science – A Twilight Review where Mike Shulenberg guests. Check out the comments section where they banter back and forth—pretty funny, if you like that sort of thing, and well, I do. 

I think there’s an element of droll in my humor. Apparently others are struggling with this humor thing as well, because during my research, I came upon the blog, The Ominous Comma (don’t you love that title?) and his struggle with being called droll. 

But I soon moved on to consider facetiousness. Oh yeah, I can be facetious (not meant to be taken seriously or literally, as a facetious remark). That one gets me into trouble in serious situations.  

And, I know I can’t tell jokes. I always blow the punch line no matter how hard I try. I suppose I could be successful with a joke on my blog, since I'd have time to rework it so it doesn’t fall flat, but I’ll just accept that I’m just not a good joke teller.

I’m not the jester type, nor a clown either, so I can eliminate the buffoonery of putting on a red nose for laughs.

Then I happened upon deadpan or dry humor. Hmmm. 

     -Joking in a matter-of-fact, dry or indirect way. Hmmm. 

      -Marked by or accomplished with a careful pretense of seriousness or calm detachment; impassive or expressionless. 

I’m feeling this. Over at Donn’s Fragments, he defines dry humor and mentions that one type of British humor is a dry humor. I have British blood in my veins--I must be getting close.

But then, I found another blog on dry humor and they attribute this quote to Mark Twain regarding dry humor: 

        "The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it."

That's not so good if you want people to laugh. Some people don’t get it. I get it, though. I love it. Take Comedy of Errers by Marianee Hansen. She has dry humor and she is very good at it. I always laugh out loud at her posts.

But, if you need another example of up-front, dry humor-one that you can see, check out this video that qualifies. 

So, did I figure out what type of humor plays into my voice—I’m non-committal. I’m still working on it. There are more definitions of humor to go in the next installment. . . 

I'm continuing this series on voice which is preceded by: The Absolutely Most Important Thing a Writer Must Have and Voice And Your Inner Child. 

You can also check in with Kristen Lamb who will be offering serious advice on voice in her upcoming blogs. Great minds think alike.  See, I started to write that and then a voice told me someone would think I'm bragging, or maybe being sarcastic, but in my head it's more a droll humor in a dry sort of way. Still working on it. . . 

Any thoughts on humor--or maybe a good joke?





An Aside:
I've been tagged by fellow blogger and friend Tami Clayton for a writer's game with fellow bloggers, called The lucky 7 MEME.


The rules to which I must adhere are as follows:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP (or page 7 if you haven't gotten to 77, yet)
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.

My 7 lines: 

When the man at the car closest to me nodded, they got back into their cars and drove down off the mesa on the far side without a word. After that, the whole smuggling scene changed and I no longer viewed my situation as just an exciting way to earn money for college. Some instinct deep within me kicked in--another part that had been silent until now awoke, so that I would never leave myself vulnerable like that again.

Tessa closed her eyes a moment, visualizing this scene. A fleeting image of a samurai warrior intruded. Where had that image come from? It had nothing to do with Jack's novel.

So, now my other fellow authors, you're IT! 

                (check out their great blogs):

Susi Nonnemacher    

Shay Fabbro  

David Stoddard  

AlvaradoFrazier  

Marianne Hansen Rencher  

Carrie Daws 

Judy the Morgan