(Before I wrote the stories, I made a poem for Ichabod Brooks. He was Ichabod Jones back then. Also, he was in a science-fiction story where Earth was toxic, except for a few people who could return to the surface. Ichabod was one of these divers who would go down for relics when paid to do so. He’s come a long way. Feel free to check out the fantasy short stories of The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks.)
Ichabod Jones is a simple scruff
Living on the edge
Dangling his feet
Into the sickening fog
Peering up at the flying city
Humanity’s only home
Ichabod Jones remembers times
When man walked richest soil
Instead of echoing steel
Before the fog encompassed all
Forcing man into the sky
With nothing more than memories
Ichabod Jones breathes deep
Inhaling wisps of fog
Nothing more than a sour taste
Dancing on his gums
Instead of agonizing pain
To those that seek his services
Ichabod Jones is a diver
One of the lucky ones
Who can return to lands long lost
Charging all who wish to pay
For a scrap of forgotten time
Or a keepsake left behind
Ichabod Jones is a simple scruff
Content within his little life
Never wanting more than need
Or perhaps a flask of shine
Enjoying his adventures
Without wading in too deep
Slapstick or physical comedy is more of a visual medium, so it’s very difficult to have it in a book. So, some of these tips will need some ingenuity if you plan on going with this type of humor. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just have to depend on creative description of acts and reactions as well as the reader’s imagination. If they have an even slightly immature sense of humor, you have a shot.
One of the most important factors in slapstick is that there is pain, but rarely injury or blood. Even an arrow hitting some will just be stuck in them with no spurting. The person will usually stop for a bit, look down, and then have a delayed freak out over the pain. Once you include blood and true injury, the comedy is erased because the person isn’t going to walk it off that easily. I will say the only time you can get away with this is if you’ve established that the character can regenerate or is immortal. Hence why I was able to do more violent slapstick with my vampires in War of Nytefall.
Exaggeration can help in making it clear that this is being done for comedy and not to cause real damage. Just look at any Three Stooges skit and you’ll see how cartoonish the slapstick is. Hit in the head with a hammer? That should kill Curly, but it just hurts with no visual damage. The reaction to the slapstick should be over the top as well. A great example would be Chris Farley who would throw himself into physical comedy . . . literally. His voice would become loud, sharp, and impossible to ignore, which enhanced the effect.
Physical comedy doesn’t always need two people. A person simply has to go through a painful experience, which is exaggerated. They could fall off a house, get in a fight with an automatic door, or be stuck under a bus. Again, the whole concept revolves around ridiculousness even if a situation is totally believable.
Surprise can be an important factor here. Shock of seeing someone hit in the groin without warning or falling off a cliff even you didn’t see means your guard was down at the time. People are more likely to laugh when they aren’t guarded. Of course, there needs to be some hint that this is possible. Can’t have a cliff in the middle of a big city, but you could have an open manhole. Surprsie to the character also makes the exaggerated reaction more believable.
Slapstick from one character to another loses some of the humor when hatred is involved. Sudden anger is one thing because it means the character has lost their temper like Moe Howard. If there is true hatred behind the violence then the tone is much different. It means true damage is intended.
THE TONE OF YOUR STORY NEEDS TO MATCH PHYSICAL COMEDY FOR IT TO WORK! Seriously, it doesn’t really match with anything serious. Those kinds of tones put the readers in a different mindset, so they’ll be thrown off and maybe even horrified by the incident. It won’t appear comical. Just painful.
Groin shots . . . For some reason, they still get laughs.
Eradication is probably the hardest book to really go into details about. It isn’t that it’s complicated or confusing. The crazy plans of various villains in War of Nytefallare in every other volume. This one is actually fairly straightforward. So, we’ll see what I can do without using spoilers.
The vampire civil war has been on a two year truce, which has given Clyde and Mab time to enjoy their relationship. Now, the Dawn Fangs have a problem with a Duragian priest named Leo Kandrel. He is wielding a weapon called the Fist of Durag, which is a powerful sun magic weapon. It’s being used to destroy Dawn Fangs, so they are facing both exposure and extermination as Leo’s army grows. One of the worries is that the rumors of it being strong enough to kill Clyde is true, which means he could be defenseless against this enemy. Part of his time buried underground is revealed since the Fist of Durag was created in the same accident. The story also ends with the Dawn Fangs suffering two major losses.
A major plot point is that early on it’s revealed that Mab is pregnant. She tries to keep it a secret after Lost telepathically gleans it and Chastity just knows. With a big battle on the horizon, Mab doesn’t want Clyde to be distracted. Makes sense, but it also means she is routinely diving into combat to keep up appearances. Not a smart move since Dawn Fangs aren’t immune to miscarriages and other birth problems. This is another aspect that shows they can be very human even with their monstrous abilities. In fact, I felt that this gave the species a level of vulnerability that you don’t typically see in immortals.
Eradication did allow me to highlight more of the Dawn Fang team since I had most of Xavier’s people stay out of the situation. After all, the threat was primarily to Clyde, so why bother getting involved before one side takes out the other? Anyway, I got to use Bob and Luther more often as well as establishing Lost as a Vengeance Hound. This made up for Mab and Titus overshadowing the rest during the previous volume. Those two are still involved, but they were no longer sucking the energy from every scene. Definitely learned how to balance such a massive cast with this book.
As for the main villain, Leo Kandrel kept changing personalities on me. I never had the tightest grasp of him even when doing his character bio and seeing what tidbits would appear. Sometimes he would be confident and sure of himself, but then he would be on the verge of panicking. His wisdom and cunning weren’t consistent, which I realized depended on his stress levels. This is what led me to questioning if Leo Kandrel was in charge or the Fist of Durag was calling the shots. I liked how this made his fluidity part of his mystery and even had me guessing as I kept adding clues for both answers. He’s still the first villain to deliver a major blow to Clyde’s side though. So, the squirmy priest has that going for him.
What would I change in Eradication? This comes down to the one thing I was trying to push, but failed. I wanted Clyde to be more scared of the Fist of Durag than he was. It was an unknown weapon that might be the one thing that could truly kill him. I wanted Clyde to be afraid for his life, but I had made him both confident and cautious at this point. He wasn’t emotional enough for what I wanted to do and I didn’t try very hard. Makes sense since I established that he was careful with his emotions to make sure he doesn’t lose control and go full monster. My own character development arc undid my plan for this book, which is why I could only give him moments of doubt. Part of me wonders if I should have shed the whole issue and left him utterly confident.
Question time!
Should fiction, including fantasy, broach sensitive, personal topics?
Why do you think people get sucked into cults?
If you could say one object is your weakness, what would it be?
Growing up, I remember a lot of ‘violent’ shows and movies. The ones where you have characters getting hurt, but in a comedic way. This would be slapstick or physical comedy, which, obviously, involves a lot of physicality. Examples are Three Stooges, Marx Brothers (to some degree), Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and the list keeps going. A big part of comedy back then seemed to be someone getting hurt. I mean, stuff like this video were hilarious:
Nowadays, I don’t see a lot of slapstick comedy on TV or even in movies. To be fair, I haven’t been drawn to any comedies in years. Probably because I’m older, but I do see less slapstick these days. Even the Looney Tunes are more normal in more recent incarnations, so you don’t see them getting blown up and being fine the next seen. For real people, I haven’t seen anythin like the Stooges did. That’s why I wonder if it’s become an archaic and abandoned genre. Modern audiences might not like seeing people get hurt even for comedy and in extreme measures.
Then again, my son nearly falls off the bed whenever there is slapstick. We occasionally watch an old show called ‘Most Extreme Elimination Challenge’, which has people running through obstacle courses and some get totaled. They get up and walk away, but the sound effects and dramatic narration makes it funny. This was the first episode scene that had him laughing for 5 minutes:
Now, I’m guessing the art of slapstick revolves around the incident being so outlandish that it shocks the audience. You also don’t see any blood, bruising, broken bones, or anything that would signify injury when it’s a real person. For cartoons, they say somethign funny and are back either in the next scene or next episode. It’s made clear that the person being hurt isn’t going to end up in the hospital or dead. Once it hits that point, you have an action or drama scene on your hands.
You might notice that I have to use videoes for examples. That’s because I think slapstick is easier to do with a visual medium. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to have some of it in my stories. Having grown up on the stuff, I can’t stop myself from taking an opportunity to have a character get knocked off something by a branch or hit in the groin then try to waddle it off. It’s funny for me since I clearly see it in my head, but I’m never sure if it translates to the audience. Fairly hit or miss with it since comedy is subjective and even verbal jokes will get missed. Still, I think it’s worth trying to put it into my stories since it fits the tone.
Slapstick comedy also has a weird way of working better for present tense, which I’ll admit is a personal opinion. With past tense, it talks about it already having happened, so I feel like I’m being told about something that I had to be there for. Present tense is right there and I’m seeing it unfold along with all consequences. As an author, the present tense also makes me carry the residual pain and embarrasment throughout the entire chapter since it’s happening ‘live’. Of course, this depends entirely on my imagination, which differs from person to person.
I know I’m a fan of slapstick/physical comedy, but not everybody is. Like everything, it’s got fans and haters. So, what do other people think of the genre? Do you feel like it isn’t used very often these days?
As if I would pass up on making a post about this holiday. It’s summer, so go enjoy any type of ice cream you wish. No judging on flavor, toppings, or method this day.
Legends of Windemere 