Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, writing-related question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.
QUESTION: There’s always something that strikes our funny bone, and we all have different tastes. What type of writing makes you laugh out loud? Any particular writer?
Lisa J. Jackson: I find different things funny at different times. Most times I laugh out loud at puns, turns of phrase, or typos that give a phrase more than one meaning. I laughed while reading Janet Evanovich’s books several years ago. I believe I stopped reading at the 8th book, though, as I’d had enough. There’s only so much crazy and stupid that can go on before it gets boring. No other author leaps to mind for me. Is there such a category as ‘intellectually funny’? I never got the humor of South Park or Monty Python. I do enjoy the Airplane spoofs, though, I think it’s because of all the plays on words. Space Balls and most Pixar movies give me laughs because they play off words or phrases.
Deborah Lee Luskin: Humor is hard, but when done well, it’s good both for a laugh and an insight. Think Jane Austen. Think irony. Juxtaposition and contradiction are often the sources of good comedy: saying one thing and simultaneously meaning another. And then there’s the observation that comedy ends in marriage and tragedies in death – and maybe it should be the other way around.
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Susan Nye: Human beings make me laugh – our frailties, our foibles, our optimism, our pessimism, our courage and fabulous capacity to get up every morning and sprint, dance or slog through another day. Authors that make me laugh include Nora Ephron, Firoozeh Dumas, Garrison Keillor, Dave Barry, Tom Wolfe … and of course … Mark Twain.
Julie Hennrikus: While many writers make me chuckle, or smile, David Sedaris makes me laugh. Out loud. I was reading Me Talk Pretty One Day on vacation a few years back. I was reading it before bed, and had to sit up because I couldn’t breathe. He balances emotions, but the laughs are what I remember.
Wendy Thomas: The world makes me laugh. Honestly, there is just so much to smile about (especially when you have a few years and you don’t take things so seriously) but the one thing that can make me laugh until I’m out of breath (yeah, I know, I must have been a teenage boy in a previous lifetime) is farts. Please, give me the most dignified moment and if someone farts, I’ve lost it. Honestly, when you live in a house with 8 people, ALL of whom are lactose intolerant, farts become a way of life.We have contests, we try to see how far away one can hear us. One of my boys has even figured out how to fart on command. (lucky him)
And of course when I told my kids that there is actually a surgical procedure done that can lower the tone of your farts… well that just sets us off anew.
Humor is all about surprises. The ability of a writer to get the reader comfortably “riding” along and then slamming on the brakes or taking a u-turn is the measure of a comic writer. ~Susan
Mark twain and Charles dickens are some if the funniest writers around. And David Sedaris.
I’m a sucker fr really silly things, real slap stick humor that makes me laugh out loud but clever word tasers and double meanings make my heart smle and my insides giggle
The world… and how messed up it is. What can you do but laugh?
The laugh-out-loud humor I love is human activity gone awry. When someone does something contrary to good sense, but lives through it; it’s funny! I guess deep down, it’s slap stick that makes me laugh till I cry!
The first book that made me laugh, was definitely Catch-22. I had to read it Senior hear and, man, I laughed all the way through. It’s pretty whitty, so you have to be paying attention to really catch all of the satire, irony, puns, etc. I’m sure I’ve laughed at other books since, but that’s my kind of humor; the kind it takes a brain to catch!
LIke Deborah and Wendy, I laugh every time I revisit Jane Austen’s writings and every time I go out my door to soak up the best free show on earth–people! I also get a kick out of the very subtle and truth-telling humour with a new set of New Yorker cartoons every week!
I think many times we laugh to keep from crying. Read “The Longest Trip Home” or David Baldacci’s “The Christmas Train.” Yes, that’s the mystery writer.
I read something I thought was hilarious yesterday. It had me laughing and laughing from the line about “albino broccoli” to the end. Here it is: thestrugglershandbook.wordpress.com/…/ten-gastric-ways-of-making…
Wendy Thomas, you just made me laugh out loud!
I think it was in part surprise that after the previous rather serious comments you talked about farting and partly that we also find farting funny, even though some people disapprove 
Pets make me laugh! Cat mad runs through the house and my rottie’s face when she’s running fast toward me
A book that made me laugh out loud is An Angel in Waiting by Jane Bailey. Jane lives in the Cotswolds and this was only her second book. She would rather forget her first! Since then she has written two more books which I bought and enjoyed, but An Angel in Waiting is my favourite. Jane is a lovely lady I first met at a fringe event for Cheltenham Literary Festival. We read and discussed Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, another amazing book with laugh out loud bits! Next Jane came to talk to our Women’s Institute and gave us lots of writing tips. Her books are gentle and lovely.
This week the laughs came from my cousin’s young children – ages 6 and 9. Unfortunately, we had suffered through the death of a close and prominent family member, but tears were mixed with frequent laughing sessions because of two extremely vivacious, smart and funny kids. Also love animal videos…like the honey badger one that Jamie wrote about. I love off-color, sarcastic or quirky humor.
I HATE canned humor which is why I refuse to watch television sitcoms. Nothing is worse than being cued to laugh.
Why do they do that anyway?
You know, it’s hard for me to pinpoint what makes me laugh. It’s random and mixed. I know that the times when I laugh most is at work with my co-workers who are also my closest friends. It’s when we all share our life’s experiences that we find ourselves laughing the most. We come from so many different backgrounds and lifestyles. Two of my friends have children and myself and another have dogs, and yet another just has relatives/roomates. Life is full of laughs and we love sharing. When I think of an author who writes those books that are full of life and laughs, and my go to author when I want a feel good book, I go to Kristan Higgins. She includes all I love about my life and my friends lives and when I read her, I find myself laughing out loud and crying and overall just enjoying a good book.
Sarcasm. Wit. Dry Humor.
…what doesn’t make me cry?