In all my time of writing and critiquing on Wattpad, there's only one piece of advice that I've been voluntarily asked for. The only thing people ever ask me is how to be funny, how to inject a bit of humour into their works. Trouble is, it's a question that is very easy to ask but is exceptionally hard to answer, so I've never really been able to give a satisfactory response. Like anything, comedy takes a lot of hard work, and practice is essential. It's not really a case of being told the secret to getting laughs and then suddenly you're a comedy genius, and a big part of that is down to a lack of understanding what makes something fundamentally funny.

It's universally accepted that humour is very subjective. There are so many types of jokes and so many subgenres of humour that it's near enough impossible to pin down exactly what makes something fundamentally funny, and yet there seems to be a general consensus that funny is funny. After thinking about it for a long time and doing some extensive research watching some the greatest comedies of all time, I have managed to construct a list of tips to try and help if you desperately need some humour to spice your works up.

Tell more jokes

As obvious as it sounds, this is without a doubt the best piece of advice I can give. It's blindingly simple, but I reckon the majority of the time people are too scared to actually tell a joke. After all, surely a bad, unfunny joke will do far more harm than a funny joke will do good? Well, not necessarily.

My one credential in comedy is a book I wrote called Zam the Hybrid. It won an award for humour in the PWA, and everyone who talks to me about it praises the comedy throughout the book. Now, this isn't me bigging myself up, this is actually a fascinating example. You see, I've had the fortune to read through the book with other members of the community, and I've been able to see first-hand how effective my own humour was. The result of this experiment? I would estimate that around 60% of the jokes in the book got actual laughs.

That's really poor when you think about it. Surely a good comedy should have a much higher success rate than that? I would certainly want a better rate than that, but realistically, that's pretty good. Compare it to a book with only three jokes in it and it is undoubtedly funnier, despite many of the jokes falling somewhat flat. People always tend to remember the good jokes, rather than the bad jokes. So, as obvious as it is, tell more jokes! If you tell more jokes, you are more likely to get laughs. Don't be scared! Accept the fact that you're going to fail some of the time, but realise you're going to succeed some of the time as well.

Find what works for you

I seriously recommend finding as many comedies as you can and seeing what makes you laugh the most. When you find the type of comedy that you like the most, you can attempt to incorporate that into your works. Then, find out what people's reactions to your jokes are. Which jokes fall flat? Which ones make people laugh out loud? When you get a sense of what's working and what's not, you can try and analyse your own comedy. Can you figure out why some jokes work and why some don't? Can you make adjustments in the future to tell more of the good jokes and less of the bad jokes? It's not easy, and it takes a lot of time and practice, but learning from your mistakes is always a good place to start.

Be unexpected!

I think that the one thing that all jokes have in common is that they're unexpected. For whatever reason, things that are unexpected are funny. They just are (unless they're not, but we'll get into that a bit later). Your bread and butter joke will be a dead simple setup followed by a punchline. Easy in theory, but difficult in practice. The idea behind this formula, which the vast majority of jokes follow, revolves around expectation. You're delivering the setup, creating an expectation, and then subverting the expectation with the punchline. If the punchline is too obvious, people expect it and the joke falls flat.

It's all in the timing

Timing is absolutely crucial in comedy. What you realise when you watch a lot of comedies is that the characters/comedians always pause before delivering a punchline. This pause is sometimes very short, sometimes extremely long, but usually somewhere in the middle. The reasoning behind this is all to do with expectation. You need the audience to have enough time to take in the setup and form their expectation in order for you to subvert that expectation with the punchline. You also need to not leave too much time, or else the audience might begin to think about something else, or maybe even realise what the punchline is. This is an extremely difficult balance to find, but it's so, so important to making a joke successful. You've got to practice this, and practice it constantly. There's no other way to achieve good comedic timing.

The issue with writing is that it's even harder to have good timing, since different readers will read at different paces. You also can't really write in a dramatic pause for comedic effect; you're got to fill the void another way. I think the easiest way to do this is with dialogue tags. You can deliver your setup, then make your dialogue tag however long it needs to be for the joke to be correctly timed. Sometimes a joke works best if it's really snappy, so you might not need dialogue tags at all, you just need to get the exchange of dialogue in as quickly as possible. Another thing you can try is fiddling around with punctuation to create pauses, or maybe use literary techniques like alliteration to speed things up.

Set the tone

If tv shows and movies have the benefit of easy visual jokes, books certainly have the advantage in setting the tone. Books have these wonderful things called narrators, and they can give the book a humorous tone, which makes the actual jokes so much funnier. One thing I noticed from research is that the best comedies only hit those big, uncontrollable laughs a few times, but they hit them consistently, the big moments never falling flat. The same can't be said for the little jokes littered throughout, but they're equally important. A small joke might not get a huge laugh, but it does put a smile on the audience's face, and when someone is smiling, they are far more likely to laugh. It's just physically easier to laugh when you're watching/reading something with a humorous tone. So it's always important to remember that even if a joke isn't getting a laugh, it's still important in setting the tone.

You might think that incorporating too much humour into your works could potentially ruin a tone you've worked so hard to achieve. What if you've spent a lot of time building your angsty, emotional world where the only smiles are those of the dead and you're scared that telling jokes will ruin your book? It would certainly be a mistake to tell an abundance of jokes in this example, but humour has other benefits. If you tell very few, but very good jokes in a sad story, the occasional laughs can actually emphasise the bleak sadness of the world and can actually help to create an even sadder tone. Just don't overdo it.

I mentioned earlier that things that are unexpected are funny. This isn't always true, as it depends on tone. Mysteries and thrillers are exciting and suspenseful because of the many twists and turns that they take; they're unpredictable and incredibly exciting as a result. The unexpected happens a lot in these types of books/shows, but it has a completely different effect because the tone is completely different to that of a comedy. Thrillers are also extremely tense affairs, so when something unexpected happens, it's totally shocking, and not funny in the slightest. So, set the tone. It helps. A lot.

Don't hang about!

Without a doubt the biggest mistake I see on Wattpad when attempting comedy is when jokes outstay their welcome. I see people tell a decent joke, one that could certainly bring laughs, but then they leave it there and talk about it for a few paragraphs, sometimes even taking the time to explain the joke. This just kills jokes, it really does. Not only does it bog books down, but also if the reader doesn't find the joke funny in the first place, it will become genuinely painful to read as they have to sit there and continue reading pointless garbage and all the happiness gets sucked out of the world and then they have to cry themselves to sleep.

When you tell a joke, tell it and then move on. Don't just leave it hanging in front of the readers' eyes for multiple paragraphs, don't explain it, just move on to something new. A bad joke doesn't necessarily leave a bad impression on the reader, but a joke that hangs around for a bit without going anyway is absolutely detrimental. The exception to this rule is when you want to escalate.

You know when you're talking with your friends and someone tells a joke and it's pretty funny, then someone else builds on it and it's even funnier, and someone else builds on it and it's even funnier, and it keeps going until you're all crying with laughter by the end of it? Chances are, the last joke that someone told wasn't even that funny. The side-splitting laughter it achieves is down to every joke told beforehand, all of you are already laughing, so you're far easier to be persuaded into laughing harder than before. The key to this is to not tell the same joke over and over again, but to build on it, to tell a different but related joke. Do not stay in the same place. This is honestly pretty tricky to do; I'd recommend just telling a joke and then moving on until you're more experienced and confident.

Look for words with double meanings

A really simple way to spot an opportunity for a joke is to be on the lookout for words with double meanings or different words that are spelled/sound similar. All you have to do to make this into a joke is to apply the formula I talked about earlier. Deliver your setup, someone using the word in one way, then come in with the punchline, have someone take the word another way, making them look like a fool, so we laugh at them because humans are kinda mean. There are plenty of other ways of incorporating wordplay into jokes, and it's always a pretty consistent way of getting a good laugh.

The rule of three

The rule of three is a basic rule that's very easy to fall back on. In writing, things always work best in threes. I'm not entirely sure why. I don't think anyone really knows for certain, but in comedy it's fairly straightforward. It's all about patterns. You establish a pattern and then subvert the expectation set by the pattern. There's not much else to say on this; it's just a reliable way to get laughs.

Trust your audience

I think people are always scared to tell a joke because they're worried that people won't get the joke. And, yeah, that's gonna happen. Tough shit. What you don't want to do to cover this fear is to explain your jokes. Explaining a joke does not make it funny. It has entirely the opposite effect. What you need to do instead is understand that all jokes work off some kind of base assumption. You have to assume that the audience has some kind of prior knowledge that will allow them to understand the joke. If they don't have that prior knowledge and don't understand the joke, it doesn't even matter because you can just move on like nothing's happened. If you try to explain the joke, the people who found it initially funny will become bored, and the people who didn't will still not find it funny. So, just assume that your audience has the knowledge and assume that they will get the joke.

Don't be afraid to offend

Ok, here's where it gets interesting. A lot of people are scared to tell jokes. They're scared that they won't be funny, and they're also scared of crossing the line and offending someone. As a result, they play it safe. Playing it safe is not really something that works in comedy. You've got to be bold, you've got to take risks. The idea that you might cross "the line" and offend someone cannot be an idea that's in your head because the moment you're scared of offending is the moment you stop being funny. The line is a dangerous concept, and here's the most shocking thing of all: the line doesn't exist.

Well, it technically does exist, but not the way you'd imagine. When you think about crossing the line, you probably picture it as a perfectly straight line, well defined and immovable. Tell a joke that's on one side of the line and you're good, but stray too far and put a toe over the line and prepare to get lynched by angry mums on Twitter because you are a horrible, offensive person who should be locked up for crimes against humanity. This line does not exist. There is no set standard for how offensive you can be without offending. There can't be, because everything offends someone out there. People got offended when Gregg's made a vegan sausage roll; you can bet they're going to be offended when you tell a joke.

The line is a much more wibbly wobbly concept. I prefer to think of it like this: you can say whatever you want as long as it is funnier than it is offensive. If you're telling a joke that will offend literally every person on Earth, you need to also make everyone on Earth laugh. But really, all you need to do is make it clear that you're telling a joke. If something is a joke and it's funny, it doesn't matter how offensive it could potentially be, it won't be offensive if people actually laugh. There are comedians out there who only tell offensive jokes. Jimmy Carr is a comedian famous for his "career-ending jokes". Jokes so offensive, so outlandish you can hardly believe someone would tell them. But tell them he does. He can do this because he's a comedian, telling jokes in a comedic environment, so people know that he doesn't really mean what he says, he's just trying to get laughs.

Another good rule of thumb is to not "punch down". Punching down is when you tell a joke at the expense of someone, or a group, who is less privileged than you. For example, if I, as a straight white man, made a joke that mocked a gay black man, that may well be funny to people in the same boat as me, but will come across as very offensive and insulting to those targeted by the joke. That's not to say I can't make a joke about race or sexuality, it's just best to not make those less privileged than yourself the victims of jokes. The easiest way to avoid this is to tell self-deprecating jokes. If you make yourself the victim, you can't offend anyone else.

People are also scared to tell "inappropriate" jokes. I've heard people ask about whether or not a joke is appropriate to tell, bearing in mind that part of the audience includes children. Answering those questions is simple: there is no such thing as an inappropriate joke. Who cares if you tell a sex joke and a kid sees it? Kids are stupid. Anyone who understands an inappropriate joke is old enough to be told it, and anyone who doesn't understand it won't understand why it's "inappropriate" in the first place. If you don't believe me, try watching a family film/show or even better, watch a pantomime. Panto's are cleverly written to entertain both the kids and the parents watching, and they accomplish the latter using really dirty jokes. The kids don't even realise. Because kids are fucking stupid. If you just tell a dirty joke and move on like nothing ever happened, the kids will be none the wiser. Just don't pointlessly draw attention to it.

At the end of the day, you gotta practice

So, those are all the tips I have, or at least that I can think of. If you have any questions or want specific examples, feel free to ask. I'm not sure exactly how useful this article was because at the end of the day, it's down to you. You've got to practice. If you try telling more and more jokes in day to day life, when you're talking with friends or family, your brain will start to see things a different way. You'll be able to see the opportunities for jokes, and you'll have the confidence to grab those opportunities. You're going to suck at first, and you won't be funny at all. But you have to stick at it and, believe me, you will improve.