A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble in the road.
Henry Ward Beecher
I love to read funny books and blogs they can be serious too but with little elements of everyday humor they are more like life. Marion Keyes is one author who comes to mind. In the clean sweep assessment one of the questions was do you laugh hard every day. I do most days.
Writing funny however isn't that easy and I have turned down taking free workshops on "how to write funny". Maybe I have a different sense of humor but the people who teach these workshops usually don't fit my definition of funny. Can you be taught to write funny? I don't think so, you either got it or you don't. And I think humor is family and locale based if you come from a funny family you most likely have a good sense of humor.In my experience,self deprecating humor is funny on the East coast on the West coast and in Colorado I've gotten blank stares. My friend who moved out to Oregon with me (a very funny guy) came home from work one day and said "they don't think I'm funny" his shtick which worked for him for years got little more than a grin...he was used to side-splitting guffaws.
What do you find funny in writing? Have you tried to write funny? What do you think is the most important element in writing funny? Now get back to work!
Laugh Often,
The Writing Nag