Put that Comedy Tag Down. · 1:37am Feb 21st, 2013
Comedy tags are for closers.
So I was pruning my favourites list since it had just popped the 250 unread chapters mark. I read about 20 chapters, put four whole stories on my 'read later' list and then chucked stories off wholesale until I was down to 62 unread chapters.
Fics mostly got cut for two reasons:
1) Fic started decently, got featured, meandered on for a billion chapters and never went anywhere. Can't even name these fics because by the time I decide to kick them off my list, they're so fucking forgettable they might as well be the Silence. This may be the topic of another blogpost.
2) Blatant fucking misuse of the comedy tag.
In fairness, comedy is not the only tag that gets misused. The tragedy tag also gets thrown around where it is not required, but I can forgive fanfic writers for lacking the classical education to tell between a story with a sad ending an an actual tragedy. That's fine. Pretty much all the films they have seen that can be classed as a tragedy — apart from Shakespeare remakes like Scarface — will be black comedies like In Bruges, Big Nothing and Dr Strangelove. And hey, I can't fault a fanfic writer for misusing the tragedy tag in its official sense just to tell their readers that their sad-tagged story has a downer ending. This is a thing I am cool with.
Readers know what a comedy is. Writers should fucking damn well know what comedy is. Your slice-of-life romance with a light-hearted tone is not a damn comedy. Titus Andronichus has darkly funny bits in, but Titus Andronichus is no fucking Much Ado About Nothing. That should be obvious from the lack of titular Elizabethan vagina puns alone.
If you slap that comedy tag on your work — if you promise your readers that the thing they are reading is a comedy, and that it will be funny to the best of your ability — then you are setting yourself in a binding contract with your story's tone. The shorter the story, the more consistent the tone should be. As Poe said, “A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.” You've got a bit more leeway with longer works. Pratchett's Night Watch, Rob Grant's Incompitence, Heller's Catch 22, all of those have scenes that are serious, tense, grimdark or otherwise not funny. Those scenes are the exception to the rule, and the lack of funnies in those scenes occur because adding funny would wreck the tone of those scenes. If you are writing a comedy, and the tone of the scene allows for the funny, that scene should have the funny.
Comedy is not all the same. Seanbaby's quirky and inventive use of metaphor is different to Pratchett's loving pastiche of fantasy is different to Stewart Lee's measured use of timing, irony and understatement is different to P.G. Wodehouse's farcical and self-deprecating treatment of the British upper-classes. Comedy has a very large toolbox, including bathos, toilet humor, punnnery, farce, hyperbole, irony, deadpan and a dozen other things I can't remember. Doesn't matter which specific ones you use. What matters is that you use them. If you're writing a comedy, and you have scenes where comedy could work but you haven't written the comedy in, you should cut those scenes. If I'm reading your comedy work and seeing entire chapters without humor, jokes or laughter, you're committing literary malpractice. You're promising comedy and delivering sub-par slice of life, because you understand neither.
My second clop story, The Mayor and the Griffon, has several bits of humor in it. It does not have a comedy tag, because despite one or two funny bits, comedy is not the overall tone of the piece. Isseus's delightful Cadance in A Minor deals with several very dark and very serious issues, but the tone of the piece is either farcical or grimly ironic so it does have a comedy tag. Whereever there CAN be humor, Isseus and his pre-readers (hello!) make sure there IS humor, and that's why CiAM stays on my favourites list and your shitty not-a-real-comedy does not.
This isn't a difficult concept or a bit of advanced writerly terminology. This isn't Gordon Ramsay summarily demoting one of his station cooks to commis because they left a thumbprint of grease on a plate. This is Gordon Ramsay telling some slack-jawed cretin on Kitchen Nightmares that their chicken is pink in the middle, and he won't eat it because he doesn't want to catch dysentry in fucking Darby.
Redraft your story until it has jokes in or take that fucking yellow tag off it.
Chuck.
All the rage.
All the time.
Not funny.
850819
What can I say, PDO burned me out and I'm a husk of my former self.
I can admit that I've misused tags before. I put a Sad and Tragedy tag before I read Wanderer D's blog(rant) about the difference between them. I apologized to him (like an idiot) and changed it to a Tragedy tag. I chose this because my story has kinda a struggle (although it's not very good right now) before the fall; my main intention wasn't to make people cry or to feel depressed, it was to have them root for a character before I told them "alas, it's not meant to be".
As for comedy tags, I don't read a lot of comedy (and I did misuse the Sad tag), so I can't say anything about it. I would say that a tag must be an indication of a TONE instead of events; a story can have a sad ending, but if the entire story is an adventure with the hero experiencing conquests and accomplishing Herculean tasks, it's not a sad story. A tag does not indicate ENDING or SCENES; it indicates a MINDSET one must expect.
...I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but I've a lot to learn. Anywho, this is a great post.
Wait, does black comedy still count? There are many grimdark fics out there I've seen that only deserve the comedy tag from the use of black comedy in the story. And really, what type of humor is considered comedy? Would one where the humor could only be considered funny to one individual and sick and twisted to others still count as comedy? Take the Joker for example.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f9/Manwholaughs.jpg/250px-Manwholaughs.jpg
This guy thinks murdering people is funny. And he does it in the weirdest, most hilarious ways possible. Of course his actions aren't considered humorous by others around him. In fact, most think it's down right vile and disgusting. But in a way, it's funny to him, and most likely him alone (and the readers too). So, does the story still deserve a comedy tag where the only jokes are black comedy?
So, my story, Finding Your Place, http://www.fimfiction.net/story/78171/finding-your-place is a slice of life, with some feels, but humor in between. Aside from those feelsy moments, the tone remains light. I have it marked as a SoL and Comedy. I wouldn't ask you to read it, because I don't want to impose, but from the way I described, should I ditch the comedy tag?
Duly noted. I'll be reviewing my stories and de-tagging where appropriate.
850846
Sure it does. Pretty much the only jokes in Big Nothing and Catch-22 are black comedy, when you think about it, but they're still comedies and nothing else. However, there are not large swathes of those works where the author thinks 'hey, that black comedy stuff I was writing? fuck it, i cba to add any here.'
850862
No. Don't you dare. You wrote The Glaring Gaffes of Gabby Gums which is fucking hilarious and in my top ten MLP fanfic comedies ever. Don't you dare sell yourself short by untagging that.
850856
Here's the simple test:
Every scene where you could make your readers laugh or at least grin, have you tried to make your readers do so? If not, don't remove the comedy tag, go back and try to make your readers laugh and grin!
Also, you're a far more experienced writer than me. If you analyze your own work as honestly as possible, you probably have a better idea than me whether it counts as a comedy now or needs improving.
850828
says the man who's a better writer than me...
It's really interesting to see this laid out so simply, thanks for explaining. TheMoreYouKnow.gif
850890
Oh, not that! Glaring Gaffes is intended as comedy first and foremost, and thus will be keeping its yellow tag. I meant my other stories that have humorous elements but are not principally comedic.
Still, thanks for the praise.
*sees another reference to Much Ado About Nothing, when think it's meant to be Much Ahoof About Nothing, if talking about pony fanfic on this site*
Sorry, just seems kinda annoying (even if it's only second time dealt with that myself, but second today as well), now that I got THAT out of the way... 
You have some good points. However, didn't address about what do you classify as a story being tagged as a Romantic Comedy (at least, on this site)? If it's romantic, but the way in pair is or gets together is on purpose, humorously intent to be funny with mistakes, bad scenarios, or whatever? As I plan on someday writing a Trixie/Celestia shipfic, and thinking maybe it would be a Romantic Comedy (like an example off top of my head, a movie called Hall Pass from 2011. At least, I think it would be considered Romantic Comedy), even if the plot I had in mind (not saying plot is similar to movie example, and got some advice from a certain user on this site on how to go about the pairing (if keep it as shipfic), if I follow their advice as such) wouldn't really classify it as such, in an alternate take from canon Trixie, now that Season 3's made Trixie have a comeback and said what she did between Boast Busters and then. Even if would be comedic for how Trixie attempts to win the Princess' heart. //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/lolface_Celestia.png //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Trixie_lolface_1.png
851008
I'm definitely talking about the Shakespeare play, not the Butterscotch Sundae story.
Romantic Comedy stories can work. I've written two and pre-read for another. They still require humor. You can't decide two chapters in that comedy takes too much effort and now you're just going to do slice-of-life shit with one joke thrown in per chapter maybe.
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3xqnb43Jp1qdqo84o1_500.jpg
But hey, I'm glad someone at least decided to talk about the rampant 'comedy' tag crap.
especially important if you're writing for Rarity!
851032
Alright, my bad then. For all I knew, some examples you were saying were meaning to be about pony fanfics, since never heard of most of those things before (I think).
Well, I'm not saying WILL do that (even if have just a basic plot mapped out atm, kinda), but will have lots of humorous moments I think. Basic/current outline is ignoring canon now, Trixie may've learned a new spell or some (such as how to be invisible for the spying, even though popular(?) fanon seems to imply her talent is mimicking or doing magic in her own way) to spy on Twilight for a while/time and found out she's Celestia's student, and attempts to become her student as well to make Celestia fall in love with her, and not Twilight (I guess) so can wave it in her face; even if advice I got says Celestia is too smart for that or that may be more her to manipulate Trixie into willingly becoming a better/good pony and make Trixie fall for HER, instead. Rather than do that and like, totally break Celestia's heart and later feel bad for it, etc (depending on if I'd have Cadence around or not, since she's the Princess of love). I'm just not sure that really qualifies it as a Romantic Comedy, but maybe if there are mishaps and such that would be considered funny (for the characters and/or readers), would require a possible Comedy tag, I think. I dunno, not trying to spoil or entice you, but give you an example of what I (currently) have in mind for that possible ship (if again, keep it as one and not more of a Slice of Life or something (with minor shipping?)).
//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Celestia.png
Yes, the idea has some... holes to work out, but it seems like interesting idea and original (to my knowledge) plotline.
gab dat 2 me mug m8 n well c wut cums about eh
851310
No, no, comedy tags are for closers, not comedy tags are for crackers.
851342
Most of the clopfics on this site aren't fappable, but you rarely read a clopfic that doesn't have any actual sex in it. That's the comedy problem. When motherfuckers don't even try.
851892
well ollroit m8 but if i c u gabbin on comwedy agane i swea im gonna burst ye mug aye ye kent
That being said, it seems a bit of a futile enterprise to protest against this sort of thing, especially with such verbosity. I highly doubt most of the people who do that sort of thing would take heed, surely believing their own work to be made to be funny: after all, tags really are quite subjective. A person once calumniated me furiously for including the Comedy tag on Getting Laid.
I mean, I find humour in the sheer amount of description in A Description of a Fountain in Canterlot's Gardens, and I'd with 'comedy' if I thought people would get it in the same way Solace used to have a comedy tag before I realised people were going to crucify me for it. I'd imagine sadness is so amusing for some authors they'd gladly decide a sad story to be an example of comedy.
(also, namedropping three of my own stories in a single comment that must be a record
)
851915
I disagree. It's true that there are different types of humor and that different people have different definitions of funny. That's not exactly what I'm railing against here, though that's probably my own sloppiness more than anything else.
Most of the stories I kicked off the list for mistagging had the odd bit of funny sprinkled in. So, the author has some idea of what humor is to them.
Then three chapters slip by and the text has done nothing but advance the slice of life/romance plot in 10k words. Like a motherfucker plain ol' forgot what comedy was. The only thing differentiating their story from a straight-up romance is a lack of serious drama.
That is laziness. That is a sloppy, horrible insult to the craft. And it really grinds my freaking gears.
Haha! This was a great read of a rant and the comedy for me was the use of continuity between this rant and a previous one! Also you are dead on the money with the subject at hand. There is no excuse for hammering on a Comedy plate when you don't see comedy as your over-arching tone. Romance of tragedy i can see someone maybe adding due to some differences in understanding, but everyone knows the difference between funny and not funny.
I certainly hope A Stranger in Ponyville didn't get kicked off your read list.
As for the post itself, thank you for the enlightenment. I guess that means I'll have to rethink some of my stories.
852865
Nope, ASiP is still on the faves. It also thoroughly deserves the comedy tag, for although there is a genre shift, the comedy portion is damn right a fucking comedy bit. A bloody good one too.
Thumbs up
All I could imagine was the police coming into a fanfiction author's house and going TAKE THAT TAG OFF OF THERE OR I SWEAR TO GOD WE'LL KILL YOU MAN.
861203
a world i can only dream of....
Sorry, late to the party.
When I'm looking at tags, and tagging my own stuff, the romance and comedy tags put together makes a whole new genre, the romantic comedy. When I use that, the jokes aren't always laugh out loud funny, I just mean to signal a When Harry Met Sally/Pretty Woman/Bridget Jones' Diary vibe- characters will be witty (as witty as I can make them,) conflicts will be based on stupid mistakes and misunderstandings, and there will be a happy ending. To me, the comedy on a romance/comedy combo is less comedy in the modern sense and more in the classical sense- expect lighthearted fun within.
On non-romance fics, I'm just as hard-assed as you. On my own fics I have several where people commented about laughing at good one-liners, but I wouldn't put a comedy tag on it because most of it was just slice-of-life.