Humorous Fantasy

[Kenneth Logan Jr.]

Has anybody try writing in this type of fantasy like Terry Pratchett has been doing for almost 30 years. I am currently trying to attempt this and I'm wondering what cliches of fantasy that I can make fun of.

 

[grahamguitarman]

All of them, when it comes to humour nothing is too sacred to be made fun of.

 

[Queshire]

While humor is great, I think it's important that you don't neglect the story for the humor.

 

[Kenneth Logan Jr.]

Oh believe me I am not, I had to write a synopsis even for a humorous story like this. I look at this as something like film director Edgar Wright would've done, create a believable story and characters while spoofing and homaging the genre at the same time. Obviously this is my first time in writing a humorous novel so I'm a bit on edge here.

 

[Devor]

The website tvtropes.com is full of common elements that you can try to mock. For instance, mock the trope called Mordor, named after the obvious example. The site just works better if I give a topic instead of the homepage.

 

[Telcontar]

For other ideas and a look at another style, check out the stories of Hank Quense (incredible short story author). Also has a very comedic and satirical style. I know that many of his stories are up on Smashwords.

 

[Kenneth Logan Jr.]

Thank you everyone and just let you know what the story is going to be like, I'll give you this hint:
Discworld meets Community

 

[Griffin]

Look up Rinkworks' "The Fantasy Novelist's Exam." Lists many cliches. If it doesn't help, you'll at least get a laugh out of it.

Question example: 63. Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?

 

[MAndreas]

I heard a cool thing the other day- movies more than books, but the idea is the same. Don't try to write funny- your characters are serious, they just have funny situations . (It was about writing Galaxy Quest)

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

Myth adventures, that was a good series.

 

[topazfire]

Look up Rinkworks' "The Fantasy Novelist's Exam." Lists many cliches. If it doesn't help, you'll at least get a laugh out of it.

Question example: 63. Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?

Best online quiz ever! I must have read it through three times the first time I found it! I think it is great to find the humour in all of the standard cliches - just make sure the humour is layered if possible (meta humour...)

 

[Caged Maiden]

I too am a fan of Robert Asprin. I laughed out loud the whole way through that series, and the ones from 1993 ish were the funniest. M.Y.T.H Inc. in Action, I think. OMG Hilarious! I could write a whole paragraph about how I laughed 'til I cried when the bodyguards joined the army.....

 

[Ophiucha]

My favourite fantasy comedy is Oglaf, which is (a) a webcomic, and (b) often NSFW. So I won't link you to that. But it pokes fun at tropes, individual stories, and the genre in general, so I'd recommend it for anyone who is age appropriate.

I love that you're drawing a bit of inspiration from Edgar Wright, though. One of my favourite things about Shaun of the Dead is that he doesn't neglect to make the movie decent as a straight zombie movie. I've seen far more zombie comedies (intentional or otherwise) than I'd care to admit, but Shaun of the Dead is one of the only ones who made the zombies look credible, bloody, and scary. There are scenes where you don't know who'll survive or how, and they make you care anyway. Really the best way for a comedy to be done, in my opinion.

 

[Kenneth Logan Jr.]

"I love that you're drawing a bit of inspiration from Edgar Wright, though. One of my favourite things about Shaun of the Dead is that he doesn't neglect to make the movie decent as a straight zombie movie. I've seen far more zombie comedies (intentional or otherwise) than I'd care to admit, but Shaun of the Dead is one of the only ones who made the zombies look credible, bloody, and scary. There are scenes where you don't know who'll survive or how, and they make you care anyway. Really the best way for a comedy to be done, in my opinion."
- Ophiucha

That's what I want to do, even though the book is going to be satire/spoof of the genre like the outstanding Discworld series but also have elements that work well in any fantasy story. Kind of like what Quentin Tarantino stated about Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein:
"I remember the first movie I saw on television when I was, like, "Oh wow, you can do this in a movie?" was Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. That was my favorite movie when I was five years old. The Abbott and Costello stuff was funny, but when they were out of the room and the monsters would come on, they'd kill people! And the big brain operation when they take out Costello's brain and put in Frankenstein's Monster's brain was scary. Then this nurse gets thrown through a window! She's dead! When's the last time you saw anybody in a comedy-horror film actually kill somebody? You don't see that. I took it in, seeing that movie."

That's the kind of feeling I want for this series I'm doing. The thing I notice when watching the Edgar Wright films and the show, Spaced is that the characters are stuck in a rut in their going nowhere lives and then the misadventures come in and its like the characters stepped in a movie that they really love and they have to survive and in order to do that they have to look inside themselves.
That's what my characters trying to do as well, they live in a city that is a mixture Anhk Morpork, Springfield, and Gotham City times two where some live extrordinary lifestyles but they are bored by it and so these group of misfits form a club that presented as a society for the gathering and dissemination of "sociological" knowledge and reforming the corrupt city.

Originally Posted by Griffin
Look up Rinkworks' "The Fantasy Novelist's Exam." Lists many cliches. If it doesn't help, you'll at least get a laugh out of it.

Oh yeah I did that quiz when I wanted to do a serious fantasy trilogy and I actually passed the quiz as being not that derivative, I'll redo that quiz now.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

There was a video game out for the consoles a few years ago, "Bard's Tale", which was not like the original series, this one poked fun at lots of things. Like the bard being 'the chosen one'...although, he kept running into more 'chosen one's' along the way...usually recently deceased. One part I loved is when they started to tell him what he would have to go get to start the journey to save the princess...of which he replies, "Why can't I just go save her now?"

While the game was more to pick on other rpg games, quite a bit of what they poked at would be true for fiction writing to some degrees.

 

[Faolan]

I think that even the most serious stories need some comic relief. A great example is Merry & Pippin's exploits in The Lord of the Rings.

 

[grahamguitarman]

My favourite fantasy comedy is Oglaf, which is (a) a webcomic, and (b) often NSFW. So I won't link you to that. But it pokes fun at tropes, individual stories, and the genre in general, so I'd recommend it for anyone who is age appropriate.

I love that you're drawing a bit of inspiration from Edgar Wright, though. One of my favourite things about Shaun of the Dead is that he doesn't neglect to make the movie decent as a straight zombie movie. I've seen far more zombie comedies (intentional or otherwise) than I'd care to admit, but Shaun of the Dead is one of the only ones who made the zombies look credible, bloody, and scary. There are scenes where you don't know who'll survive or how, and they make you care anyway. Really the best way for a comedy to be done, in my opinion.

Just went on that site - I think I went blind for a moment there!

 

[Saigonnus]

Sure he can... he wears armor that protects against all bludgeoning weapons... but looks like chain mail with lots of little holes so a dagger would easily hurt him... XD

 

[Faolan]

Sure he can... he wears armor that protects against all bludgeoning weapons... but looks like chain mail with lots of little holes so a dagger would easily hurt him... XD

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[The Unseemly]

I've tried to do this myself. There's, after 2 years, about 50 pages which I'd dare quietly poke to a publisher/editor. It's difficult. Humour is, and continues to be, difficult.

I've found that this is because you cannot simply tell a story - I found thinking up my story extraordinarily easy - but you have to tell a story in, for search of a better phrase, an interesting way. Almost any situation, if done appropriately, can be amusing. Worlds, fictional or not, are a serious places, and if we are to hear these words of wisdom "if you can't make fun of it, it's probably not worth taking seriously" then you can see how much there is to make fun of.

Of course, it's gratifying when I can show someone my work, and see them laugh. Even a little smile makes me tingle. And if you can tell something worthwhile, teach someone something through your humour, then this is mission impossible mission accomplished. But it's never easy.

Anyhow... good luck.