I Like Horror Because It's Funny · 11:21pm Oct 1st, 2014
The title of this blog is not a joke. What I enjoy about horror the most is it's incredible possibilities for humor. Consider, a big part of humor is incongruity, and there is usually something very incongruous at the heart of a horror story. The heroes of a horror story find themselves in a situation that is just plain impossible, and have to resolve what they know can't happen with what they can clearly see is actually happening. If you can't find the humorous possibilities in this you can't write comedy.
What's the difference between the twist ending of a horror story and the punchline of a joke? No, seriously, what's the difference? I don't know, though it seems to just be in the context. Looking at it like that, the classic Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Mankind" ends with one of the best punchlines ever written. The New Twilight Zone "A Small Talent For War" might be even better.
This time of year I start thinking about ghost stories, and I've just written one. It's a tribute to one of the funniest stories I have ever read, Steven King's "Battleground." "Battleground" is not a comedy, it is very much a work of horror. It is also hilarious.
My story is A Little Game Of War. I think I put enough of myself into the story to call it a tribute and not a rip off. If it is a rip off, it is done with love. Read the original (you must!) and compare King's 'slip of paper under the door' scene with the way I riff on the same scene. Love. Much better than the scene was treated in the made for TV version, where it was butchered.
My biggest regret about writing "A Little Game Of War"? I wish I'd made it funnier.
Now that I have my horror story of the year out of the way I can concentrate on what I really love about the Nightmare Night/Halloween season, namely how very cute the holiday is. More Quizzical stories coming soon..
Horror is when it happens to someone you like. When it happens to someone you like, it violates the just world fallacy that clings stubbornly to the dark corners of seemingly everyone's brain.
You can twiddle the horror/comedy needle back and forth by turning the dial this way or that on character likability. Many 'dark comedy' or 'horror comedy' bits achieve their label by landing on 'likable bastard/jerk'. It's not the only way to do that, but it does reveal one of the relationships between horror and comedy.
so if I'm a humorless kinda guy, I can write comedy? I'm good to go then!
2500051 *heavy sigh* I swear I proofread this. Damn grammarcyts creep in and change my text.
Probably little difference, tell the truth I never thought about it. Closest I ever came to was an idea about a serial killer that kills brides at their weddings while saying to the husbands as he escapes, 'YOU'LL THANK ME LATER!" The fun part is that one of the reason he's so successful is the police aren't sure if they want to catch him!
An interesting comparison, though I do think it's worth noting that horror doesn't actually require a punchline/end twist to function the way comedy does. Or maybe that makes horror without it the equivalent of slapstick?
2500019
As the old saying goes "Tragedy is when I stub my toe. Comedy is when you fall in an open sewer and die."
It's just that 'I' generalizes to 'people/characters I sympathize/empathize with'. The downfall of many a horror piece is that they failed to make their leads relatable. If you find the characters unlikeable you enjoy seeing them meet a bad end and what you've got isn't horror anymore but some kind of action revenge-porn at best.
Anybody who says you can't mix horror and comedy, has never seen Army of Darkness