Horror and Humor

Those of you who read and/or write horror realize that a great deal of horror fiction is filled with humor. From Steven King to Clive Barker, characters have been placed in situations in which their stupidity comes across as humorous--even in a death scene such as Jimmy's death in King's *Dreamcatcher*. King's clown monster, Pennywise, has a sick sense of humor in *It*. In my own novel I give the Lovecraftean monster a sick sense of humor.

Yet this seems paradoxical--that in the midst of horror there lurks comedy. However, this is not as paradoxical as it seems. I used to volunteer as an EMT and have taught a class filled with police officers--members of these groups often use sick humor as a coping mechanism to deal with the horrific things they see.

In addition, a humorous monster can serve a purpose--it is difficult to write about an evil creature while still giving the creature a symptathetic quality. Yet such is necessary for the reader to identify at all with the monster. If the monster has a sense of humor, the reader may laugh at the monster's jokes and think, "At least this guy is funny. He's cool in one way, even if he is bad in others."

Humor also serves as a break from the frightening and sometimes stomach churning events that occur in horror fiction. A reader overwhelmed with intense scenes may welcome the insertion of humor.

Humor in horror also appeals to the tendency in many people to laugh at the misfortunes of others. Humorous horror can function as an extreme side of the old "slipping on a banana peel" scenes in slapstick comedy. Although it is generally not good to write a character "too stupid to live," sometimes a character can do something so stupid when a monster is around that the reader will laugh at the scene. Let's say a character attacked by a monster with long, sharp claws grabs a pillow and starts swatting rather than grabbing the baseball bat right behind him or her. The incongruity creates a humorous situation.

Finally, on a darker note (befitting a horror writer), some readers have a twisted sense of humor--they actually laugh at bad things happening to others, and the more violent, the better. I don't think I would invite readers like that into my home.