About Crutch Humor

Post 2036:

I can be critical of humor in storytelling, which is a little ironic considering it’s a big part of my style. No matter what genre I choose, humor is a big part of the vibe and style. Hopefully I’m okay at it. Knowing how writing works, I probably use it too much or too little and lean on it at the wrong times.

On those rare non-perfect occasions. It’s a tough game with no uniform set of instructions. Part of the fun.

If you’re funny, be funny. If you’re not, don’t force it. If character A is your humorous character but you don’t have the capacity to write him or her that way, character A needs to be a different kind of character. That’s how it goes. You don’t always have to play to your strengths, but it’s pretty weird playing to your weaknesses.

It’s tough no matter what. It took me three tries to get through Project Hail Mary, a really good movie, because I was turned off by the quirky humor. Quirky humor annoys me because it feels like I’m watching or reading something written by teenagers.

In this case I was wrong to be so quick to judgment. But there was almost too much quirk. Only through saintlike patience did I endure the crutch humor of the film so that I could enjoy what ultimately was an excellent story.

I think the main thing humor does is act as a relief valve. If things are tense, it can give us a nice break. But sometimes things need to be tense and dramatic. Humor undercuts in this case. That’s not good. In fact, that’s not even funny.

No crutches. Cheers and see you after.