I'm only just starting to consider what writing this post and writing comedy might actually say about me...
Recently, I have began to write comedy (only very briefly, alongside everything else). I'm writing comedy partly because I'm recovering from some health issues, and I have more time to explore my writing — but less energy to do so. Writing comedy is a good way of writing something that feels low-stakes, but — ironically — I get to have a laugh (and do feel slightly ashamed to say that, because it is me writing the comedy. But in order to write comedy, I suppose we have to write things that we find funny in some capacity — in the hope that other people do too).
Adding to that is the notion that comedy is — to a greater or lesser extent — often based around personal experiences. In order to draw upon my personal experiences, I have to connect with myself; think about how I've interpreted situations, how these interpretations may be interpreted externally, and by other people.
That is exactly where the humour is.
It is important to consider the fact that people find different things funny, and that we all have different experiences. So even though I'm very new to writing comedy, I still take into consideration the fact that other people find different things funny; how I can incorporate that in terms of my own humour — and how I would deliver such comedy.
Even the idea of writing comedy makes me cringe a little bit because I'm not used to writing to make people laugh. I'm used to having a certain amount of wit and being able to find the humor in some quite pressing situations, but never in a way that is accessible to (hopefully) a large group of people. I do, however, utilise my empathy and many life experiences.
It is worth noting that although I have said that comedy is a personal interpretation of experiences, it is important to consider the fact that humour needs to be accessible to a lot of people (humour brings people together), so it can't be too personal that nobody can relate to what is being said.
There is a sweet spot.
So far, writing comedy has been really interesting, because it's made me truly reflect in a non-biased way in terms of what I have experienced in life. I've had to really break these apart to see what is accessible to people — and what is not — and the different things that might need explaining more in order for the humour to be accessed. The best part is trying to find humour in most, if not all, of life situations. If we are not careful, we can get to a point where nothing feels funny and everything is quite depressing. So if I am writing comedy for a theoretical third party it in turn allows me to see the funny side of things — which is always nice.
Humour also puts the 'negative side' of things into perspective. Meaning you can see the more positive and negative side of things as two separate sides of the same coin, rather than something being more negative than positive. (Side note: I don't like using polarised words such as 'positive' and 'negative', because it implies that we need to be positive — and if you're not positive you are negative.
However, there can be a happy medium. We don't need to force positivity, but it can be useful to be reminded that not everything is a complete disaster. At the same time, in terms of so-called positivity, we do need to realise the gravity of the situation that we are experiencing or is behind us. Part of that is not dismissing thoughts and feelings as being pessimistic or overly negative. We do have to consider all aspects of life.
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