Humor and Horror
If you've heard of me before, it was probably because of one of my comic fantasy novels. But if you're reading this blog post, it's probably because I'm promoting my dark fantasy novel, "The Sangrook Saga" (Releases on June 19, pre-order now!). And if you're reading this sentence, you're probably wondering how a comedy author ended up writing a horror-influenced dark fantasy novel. Comedy and horror are completely opposite things! What was I thinking? Stay in your lane, Steve!
Ahem.
I was nervous when I started this project, nervous that I couldn't pull it off, nervous that any horror elements would come off as trite and shallow, nervous that the story would fall flat on its face. But as I was writing, I came to a realization: Humor and horror have more in common than you might think. Some of the skills in one transfer over to the other. The main difference is that the punchline is replaced by a gut punch. Let me explain.
Humor is largely about a tension/release cycle. You start with a premise that makes the audience a little uncomfortable: Someone is acting oddly or inappropriately, rules aren't being followed, rules are stupid, someone is taking an odd path to a destination, etc. These things build tension. There's a sense of wrongness, of mental friction. But then the punchline comes, the audience realizes that there was no harm done, and they laugh. Let's use, as an example, the oldest recorded joke in the English language. It takes the form of a riddle:
What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before?
Ok, so I know what you're thinking. It's a dick, right? The oldest joke in the English language is a dick joke. How is this even a riddle? There's some discomfort here because I just told you the set-up to an ancient joke and the solution is obvious. Our ancestors are so juvenile and disappointing. But you're not ready to move on yet because you want to hear the answer, even if it's just for the satisfaction of confirming the obvious.
So here's the answer:
A key.
Did you laugh? If you didn't, I'll forgive you. This level of analysis is going to kill the joke, so go try it on a friend and see what happens. This joke is about building the tension that the person telling it is setting up an obvious dick joke and then taking it another direction. You've been surprised, the tension is released, and maybe you laugh. You're comfortable again.
There are some special cases and pitfalls and entire books have been written trying to define humor, but I’d rather focus on the similarities to this structure and horror. If humor is about a tension/release cycle that leaves the reader feeling at ease, then horror is about a tension/release cycle where you can finally stop wondering what’s about to go wrong, because it’s happened. Where humor makes you uncomfortable because things seem wrong, but are ultimately harmless, horror entices you to imagine multiple awful scenarios until the story finally picks one. A woman is walking home drunk from a bar and sees a menacing figure in the corner of her vision. She starts walking, and he follows her. The woman and the audience both feel a sense of discomfort, a sense of dread. That dread grows as she starts running and the man gives chase. It grows as she ducks into an alley, but reaches a dead end. It peaks when she spins to see him, and he’s smiling and holding a knife. She asks him what he wants, pleads for her safety, and weeps, but he doesn’t answer. He just smiles and brandishes his weapon. The scene ends. The reader doesn’t know what happened to her and their imagination runs wild. That tension remains. Sometime later in the story, we witness two detectives examining her corpse in that same alley. We finally know what happened to her, and we get some sense of closure, but that tension, that discomfort sticks with us. We’re reminded of all the ways our own lives can spin out of control.
So while humor uses that tension/release cycle to put people at ease and ultimately bring comfort, horror makes its goal to leave the reader shaken an uneasy, even after that tension/release cycle is over. It’s the same tool used two very different ways.
But what do I know? I’m just a joke man who tried to write something scary.
The Sangrook Saga
Klondaeg The Monster Hunter
Steve Thomas
Ahem.
I was nervous when I started this project, nervous that I couldn't pull it off, nervous that any horror elements would come off as trite and shallow, nervous that the story would fall flat on its face. But as I was writing, I came to a realization: Humor and horror have more in common than you might think. Some of the skills in one transfer over to the other. The main difference is that the punchline is replaced by a gut punch. Let me explain.
Humor is largely about a tension/release cycle. You start with a premise that makes the audience a little uncomfortable: Someone is acting oddly or inappropriately, rules aren't being followed, rules are stupid, someone is taking an odd path to a destination, etc. These things build tension. There's a sense of wrongness, of mental friction. But then the punchline comes, the audience realizes that there was no harm done, and they laugh. Let's use, as an example, the oldest recorded joke in the English language. It takes the form of a riddle:
What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before?
Ok, so I know what you're thinking. It's a dick, right? The oldest joke in the English language is a dick joke. How is this even a riddle? There's some discomfort here because I just told you the set-up to an ancient joke and the solution is obvious. Our ancestors are so juvenile and disappointing. But you're not ready to move on yet because you want to hear the answer, even if it's just for the satisfaction of confirming the obvious.
So here's the answer:
A key.
Did you laugh? If you didn't, I'll forgive you. This level of analysis is going to kill the joke, so go try it on a friend and see what happens. This joke is about building the tension that the person telling it is setting up an obvious dick joke and then taking it another direction. You've been surprised, the tension is released, and maybe you laugh. You're comfortable again.
There are some special cases and pitfalls and entire books have been written trying to define humor, but I’d rather focus on the similarities to this structure and horror. If humor is about a tension/release cycle that leaves the reader feeling at ease, then horror is about a tension/release cycle where you can finally stop wondering what’s about to go wrong, because it’s happened. Where humor makes you uncomfortable because things seem wrong, but are ultimately harmless, horror entices you to imagine multiple awful scenarios until the story finally picks one. A woman is walking home drunk from a bar and sees a menacing figure in the corner of her vision. She starts walking, and he follows her. The woman and the audience both feel a sense of discomfort, a sense of dread. That dread grows as she starts running and the man gives chase. It grows as she ducks into an alley, but reaches a dead end. It peaks when she spins to see him, and he’s smiling and holding a knife. She asks him what he wants, pleads for her safety, and weeps, but he doesn’t answer. He just smiles and brandishes his weapon. The scene ends. The reader doesn’t know what happened to her and their imagination runs wild. That tension remains. Sometime later in the story, we witness two detectives examining her corpse in that same alley. We finally know what happened to her, and we get some sense of closure, but that tension, that discomfort sticks with us. We’re reminded of all the ways our own lives can spin out of control.
So while humor uses that tension/release cycle to put people at ease and ultimately bring comfort, horror makes its goal to leave the reader shaken an uneasy, even after that tension/release cycle is over. It’s the same tool used two very different ways.
But what do I know? I’m just a joke man who tried to write something scary.
The Sangrook Saga
Klondaeg The Monster Hunter
Steve Thomas
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