In Search of Humor: The Classic Running Gag

What I’m currently reading:

Why am I reading this book?

I’m not funny. Ask my kids, I lack any sense of humor. But kids love humor, gags, slapstick, jokes, puns, funny things happening in a story or a novel.

I’m near the end of my WIP novel and while I revise on the last chapters, I’m also going back to do minor revisions on the early chapters. Knowing my weakness, my inability to be spontaneously funny, one thing I’m adding in this revision is small touches of humor via the classic running gag.

Think about the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and the two comic-relief pirates, especially the one with the false eye. That false eye is a running joke. We laugh at it the first time we see it. But running gags need to make the gag funnier as the story progresses. So, when our heroes load cannons with any available metal, the pirate ends up with a fork stuck into the false eyeball. Funny! When the battle is raging on deck, the pirate’s eye is knocked out and he’s on hands and knees chasing the eyeball through the fighting figures. Incongruous, therefore, funny.

How do you find a running gag or joke for your story. For inspiration, I looked at this website about running gags in novels, movies and TV shows.

A couple examples:

• First, we’ll finish up with the humor in the Pirates:
  

  # Pirates Of The Caribbean: Women seem to have a tendency to slap Jack Sparrow… or pretty much anyone representing him.
  Captain Jack Sparrow

  • Why is the rum always gone?
  • He got away with sea turtles, mate. A pair of them strapped to the bottle.
  • Were they eunuchs?
  • Well, they did have a Nice Hat. A really big one.
  • They also tried to Parley with me.
  • But that doesn’t matter since the Pirate’s Code is more like a guideline than actual rules.

• From the Harry Potter novels, this humorous running gag:
  

  If Professor McGonagall walks onto a scene in Harry Potter, expect her to drop those books in shock or horror at some point.

• From House, M.D.TV show, various running gags:
  

  On House MD, almost every time they begin a diagnosis, someone invariably suggests lupus, House casually comments, “It’s not lupus.” This becomes a Running Gag of “it’s never lupus” that finally culminates in a Lampshade Hanging:
  Foreman: You hid your drug stash in a lupus handbook?!
  House: It’s never lupus.

  • This went on so long that House MD was recognized by a lupus advocacy group for raising awareness of the disease.
  • They went so far as to have a janitor (House had no assistants at the moment) suggest lupus. He only knows about the disease because his grandma has it.

My WIP novel has some serious moments and I knew that humor would help relieve the tense moments. I’ve woven in several humorous running gags and think it’s working to make this a stronger revision, a stronger draft of my novel.

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

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If you want to write a picture book with humor, you must understand the development of humor in kids. Thanks, Tammi, for asking for something on this topic. If you have requests for a certain topic about picture books, send me an email, or put something in the comments.

Writing Funny Picture Books

Here are typical stages of children’s growth in understanding humor.

1. 0-6 months: Laughter without Humor
   Few, if any picture books for this group include humor.
2. 6-15 months: Laughter at Attachment Figure
   You’d need personalized picture books to evoke humor here, because you need the specific person. This is when the adult reading the book can add humor, though, by playing with the story and reading it with expression and by changing the text, tone of voice, etc.
3. 2-4 years: Misnaming Objects or Actions
   Blue hat green hat Kids deliberately misname an object or action to see what the adult says. For a great example of this, look at Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. In this delightful book, the turkey consistently is wrong in how he puts on the item of clothing.
4. 3-5 years: Playing with Word Sounds.
   Ever wonder why so many editors emphasize word play for kids? Here’s why. Kids think it’s funny. The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill is funny, partly because of the great language. “Kits and Kajammer ‘em.”
5. 5-7 years: Pre-riddle Stage
   Kids understand the form of a riddle, but don’t understand vocabulary enough to understand what is funny and what isn’t. This is the age of almost incoherent knock-knock jokes:
   Knock-knock. Who’s there? Nobody’s home!
6. 6-8 years: Riddles For this stage, all the joke books apply. Kids love to read, hear, and tell jokes of all kinds. They read Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish. True humor has started to emerge.

If you want to write a humorous picture book, make sure you are targeting a specific age group and understand what is funny to them.

ACTION POINTS

Read a selection of picture books, looking for humor. Do you think your sense of humor matches a child’s sense of humor? Try to find something humorous in each of the categories listed above.

How to Write a Children’s Picture Book A Fiction Notes Ebook 110 pages packed with information. Everything in one, easy-to-read format. Instant access!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win