What’s the difference between a short humor piece and a funny short story?
A Newsletter of Humorous Writing
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There are certain questions about humor writing that Luke and James get asked more often than others, and every now and then we like to tackle one of them for our subscribers. Today we're talking about the difference between short humor and funny short stories, and what possibilities exist in the forms. After that, we’ve got a couple of recommendations of things we’ve been into lately: One very funny novel that’s finally back in print and a second very funny novel about a yearly gathering of an unusual group of reenactors.
What’s the difference between a short humor piece and a funny short story?
Something James and Luke have talked about a lot over the years is funny short fiction vs. short humor: What’s the difference between the two modes? How do their goals and techniques differ? And what are the particular pleasures readers get from each type of writing?
It's also something James thinks a lot about in his capacity as managing editor over at Points in Case -- he ends up rejecting a number of submissions because they’re hewing too close to funny fiction.
It may be helpful to think about humorous prose as existing on a spectrum. On the one side, you've got pure short humor, by which we mean premise-based comedy writing of the type you’ll typically see on McSweeney’s, PIC, Slackjaw, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, you have short stories with jokes in them here and there.
Of course there's a lot of room in between for work that blurs the line between the two categories, from premise-based pieces that are longer and plottier, with more emotional beats, to funny experimental flash fiction, to short narratives built around funny situations or featuring funny characters. Generally speaking, however, pieces of writing are going to feel more like one thing or the other. So how can you tell if you're working on a short humor piece or a funny short story?
One of the biggest differences is, quite simply, the main goal of each type of writing. Short humor is primarily about laughs. You want to make sure you're giving the reader jokes on a regular basis. A short humor piece CAN do more than that, but it doesn't HAVE to. A piece of funny short fiction, by comparison, needs to do more than just deliver jokes in order to be successful. It also has to have a satisfying plot, build interesting characters, have compelling scenes and dialogue, and so on. If you're trying to do those sorts of things while ALSO being funny, you’re probably working on a funny short story.
This isn’t to say that all of those things aren’t possible in short humor, but in short humor they will generally be subservient to the premise and the jokes. Plot, character, world-building, scene-setting, etc., are all going to be in service of setting up, contextualizing, or paying off jokes. If plot is as important as laughs, you’re probably working on funny fiction.
The two modes also have very different approaches to character. In general, in short humor, characters don't change or learn anything (unless of course, they are changing or learning in service of jokes or heightening). In contrast, one of the great joys of a short story, funny or otherwise, is seeing a character at a dramatic, pivotal point in their life, being forced to make big choices that will irrevocably change them.
For example, in the classic short humor piece, It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers, we know from the very beginning that the narrator is a character who loves decorative gourds, and our enjoyment comes from seeing that behavior play out and heighten in surprising and clever ways. If Decorative Gourd Season were a short story, our enjoyment might come from being left in suspense for a while before it is revealed that the character loves decorative gourds, or from seeing the character change over the course of the narrative, so that it's only at the end that they finally realize how much they love decorative gourds. While it’s possible that those two choices COULD work in the context of short humor, it’s also likely that they would shorten the amount of time we’d get seeing the character in action, and/or increase the amount of time between jokes.
Which brings us to another key difference: Short fiction has more leeway to run longer and go into more detail than short humor, with its relatively constrained word count. There’s more room to build out characters, worlds, and situations. In a short story, a reader doesn't mind having a few paragraphs between jokes if those paragraphs are advancing the plot or illustrating more about a character, because those are aspects of a short story that a reader enjoys. In a short humor piece, the reader will have much less patience for long stretches without laughs.
For James, the difficulty with funny fiction as a writer, reader, and especially as an editor, is that it has to work as a story in addition to being funny. It has to captivate you AND make you laugh. Writing a short story is hard enough, and making it funny is even more challenging. If it's not handled well, often you can wind up with a piece of writing that doesn't succeed as either a short story or a short humor piece.
Does this distinction ultimately matter? At the end of the day you should always write the kind of stories and pieces that you want to write. However, it is important to think about these differences when it comes to where you’re pitching and submitting your work. Just because a piece of writing has jokes in it doesn’t mean a humor publication will want to publish it, and just because something has a character arc, plot, or evocative prose doesn’t mean a fiction publication will give it serious consideration.
In a future edition, we'll get into some specific examples of writing from across the funny prose spectrum to further illustrate some of the differences we've discussed above. In the meantime, if you've got a favorite piece of category-blurring funny work, whether it's a short humor piece with a great plot, or a short story with a truly hilarious character, send it our way!
Some Recommendations From Luke and James
James recommends the very funny novel, My Search For Warren Harding by Robert Plunket, which is now back in print thanks to New Directions. This weird, sort of heist, sort of sitcom book offers a dizzy, deranged, and satirical view of ‘80s LA. It’s genuinely funny, full of great jokes and set-ups — Danzy Senna’s introduction claims that Seinfeld was directly inspired by this novel and may have even lifted a joke or two, and I have to say, I’m very convinced. Trigger warnings abound for this one, but shouldn’t put you off: The protagonist is mean and casual with cruel and demeaning language, but the joke is always on him, though he can rarely see it.
Luke recommends another very funny novel, Chris Bachelder’s The Throwback Special. It’s incredibly difficult to sustain comedic energy across the length of a book AND deliver on all the things a reader expects from a novel, but Bachelder makes it look easy—and he also effortlessly juggles a sprawling cast of characters at the same time. The book is the story of twenty-two men who gather for one weekend every year to reenact a single football play. Don’t worry if you’re not interested in football (I’m not!): Bachelder makes the sports-centric sections a delight for the non-fan, filling them with plenty of great jokes and character moments.
See you next week!
@lukevburns & @jamesfolta
We started this newsletter with our dear friend Brian Agler, and we want it to always honor his memory and his love of all things humorous. You can find our newsletter tribute to Brian here.
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