• Member Since 17th Dec, 2011
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DannyJ


I'm just here to write.

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Jun
9th
2015

Considering the importance of comedy · 10:56pm Jun 9th, 2015

General question for readers of Human:

How central was the humour to you? At the time I was writing it, the story was intended primarily a comedy, but it was mostly built around a dramatic plot. As much as I tell myself that it was a comedy first, I keep thinking back to it, and I can't help but feel like if I wrote it today, I would've written it as a straight adventure story, just with characters who happened to be lunatics and black comedy interspersed between events. Not so much a comedy-tagged story as a story containing comedy, if that makes sense. Yet I highly doubt it would've been as popular had I done that, and it would definitely not have been Human.

Just in your general opinion, to indulge my musings, how important was that comedic element to your enjoyment of the story, and would you have ever read a more dramatic, straighter version, had I ever gone that route?

Report DannyJ · 631 views · Story: Human · #Hail Hydra
Comments ( 17 )

I think the humor is what set it apart from a lot of stories, both at the time and now. A lot of stories have humans with super powers but yours still stands out because of its humor.

To me it was the third most important part after the action and history. If you had done a more dramatic straighter version I could see myself having read and enjoyed it anyway. That's just me.

I read it because it was a crackfic.

Very and yes.

Human had an attraction for me as a story because it approached the HiE idea differently. It went the ridiculous route, sure, but I loved it for it. It had its own form of consistency in my mind, one that you just got very used to stretching because that was the point. On the other hand, the drama and adventure, as well as the significant dark undertone towards the later half was a magnificent compliment to the comedy, giving the story the meaning and depth that allowed me to see it as a little more than /just/ a comedy. The combination of the two made the story literally unpredictable from my perspective (for the most part), which was incredibly enticing giving that most stories are easy to figure out once you get any major distance into them (again, for the most part).

I would read a much more serious, dramatic version of the story because it was a genuinely interesting storyline, comedy aside. Told with a little less ridiculousness, it has the potential to be a grand adventure just like the original, should you choose to pursue it.

I'd be a bit better at typing this out/giving my opinion, but I have a splitting headache at the moment. Hopefully this still makes sense when I come out of it.

I think that even though the humor was definitely an important part of the story and why it was appealing, I think that the story was actually the number 1 attractor for me. I'm sure it had been more serious and played straight, I still would have loved it anyways.

I think it was especially funny because all of the events that happened could have been written with out a single chuckle-inducing instance. Then you have these totally absurd and funny characters who, when melded with these serious events, are seen as even more absurd and funny.

It's the dream team that works.

Now I probably would have read to the end without goofy characters and happenstances. But if it were like that, I wouldn't call it my favorite fic on the site because I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. However if it were all humor I might have enjoyed it for a bit, but then I would have lost the will to read on because of the lack of story.

I came to the story because of the original description made it sound hilarious. I stayed because I liked the writing, the plot, and Lord Second was just that good of a villain. Seriously he seems to be one of the most realistic characters on this site. I am not sure if I would have originally clicked on the story if it wasn't a comedy , and I certainly wouldn't have enjoyed it as much, despite not getting most of the humor, but I still would have enjoyed it way more than most of the other fics on this site.

Are you just asking this? Or are you seriously considering a re-imagining of Human?

The comedy is what kept me around

The humor made it different, but i sticked around out of curiosity oh where the story was going.

I didn't see it as comedy at first, I took it at face value lol. The world-building you did with the 4th Wall drew me in.

Well, to me the comedy was pretty important, if for nothing else then to offset all the dark stuff that was happening (not a big fan of dark themes in this fandom myself). Yet I still loved the story to bits.

If it was adventure with the characters being lunatics... well, that would definitely be a worthy read as well!

But honestly, I myself prefer the comedy first approach of this story.
But the story itself was still amazing, and no matter what we figured out, you always managed to surprise us by something different that seemed out of the blue but at the same time was perfectly in line with the story.
It was funny AND intriguing, and that's what made the story a cut above a vast majority of the stories here.
Hell, I'd say it was in a league of its own!

To be perfectly honest, I don't think I'd have ever given Human a chance if that comedy tag hadn't been there. Fact is, the plot line itself was so inherently ridiculous that I don't think it would've worked as a straight drama. That being said, the dramatic elements did work well when they needed to, but the comedic "context" of the rest of the story is what made the drama work, I think.

Human rewrite confirmed.

But seriously, the comedy spawned some of my favorite moments in the story. I have to say that the humor was important for me in reading the story, though that is not to say I did not like the drama and adventure within the story as well.

I still occasionally think about the untold moral of the story; "Life is a bunch of stupid shit that happens and we just have to deal with it." That line never fails to make me smile irl.

What can be said about this story that hasn't been said already? Oh wait, I can make it sound more simplistic. This story was funny. At it's core I think it was that more than anything else. Putting the drama into it just made the funny parts shine more. It wasn't horrible humor either. The jokes were spot on. I just kinda felt like you stopped putting in effort during the afterlife stuff. When you lost that fire, the humor seemed to lose it's edge and the whole story fell with it. It was still dramatic, but without that humor to keep the balance it felt flat.

The reason I liked the story was because of Second's attitude, the source of his power (the meta and all) and ,of course, the funny parts (I'M SO GONNA DO IT!).

The comedy was important, but the balls-to-the-wall crazy storyline was the big draw.

It's all about contrasting things. The humor in "human" worked because it was inside of a deep and dark storyline. The deep and dark storyline worked because it had humor sprinkled through it.

Life isn't a comedy, it isn't a tragedy. People will make the best, the worst, etc, of their lives, and often things are very funny. A story written purely to be absurd is going to get boring, a story written purely to be deep and dark is going to be as well. Neither are very realistic, neither have any humanity to them. (heh)

I remember liking human a lot, and I remember liking the comedy a lot. What I didn't like too much was just how "out of focus" the plot could feel sometimes, how "absurd" it was. It was still a great story, and I honestly think it would have been fine to be completed, and would have stayed one of the best fics on the site, but that was it's greatest weakness.

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