By Brahmanto Anindito
No, no, no. I am just joking. Making someone laugh is not easy, indeed. Ask anyone. Basuki, an Indonesian comedian once said, joking is a serious business. I always believe that. Most people love to be amused, to laugh or smile at something funny. Only very few individuals refuse humor. That is why authors always put certain humor, even within the serious story. It is important to make a character or two acts hilarious and loose the story’s tense for a while.
The best way to do that is tell something droll following your plot, characters and his/her situation. But what if you’re not a natural born joker (I’m not either) who can write anecdote spontaneously? No worry.
There are ways to escape such situation. For instance, go hangout with someone funny as often as you can. Do memorize any dialogue and context that provokes your laughter. Then write it down with your own style.
Basically, the extent to which an individual laughs depends on a host of variables, including context, geographical location, culture, intelligence, and maturity. The children may laugh at Looney Tunes rather than The Simpsons, slapstick rather than social satire, and so forth.
There’s faster method to be funny. Browse the jokes portals and grab some ideas. Modify it a little bit, and voilà! So you don’t generate jokes, you just choose them.
Such portal in Indonesian, for example, Nguping Jakarta. Read the absurd dialogs of people that come and go at Jakarta. It’s based on true experience, I guess.
I recommend also Ketawa.com. Here you find humor from many regions (which mean different culture) in Indonesia: Minang, Papua, Batak, Banyumas, Manado, etc.
Jokes in English are a lot more various. Try LotsOfJokes.com. Including niche like short dirty jokes, best blonde jokes, sex jokes, and so on.
But the jokes in portals like those are possibly repeated ones. Some are new, yes, but some are jokes you’ve heard before. They are anecdotes which have been circulated in societies. The portals only organize them while trying to be the most complete humor’s database online.
So, be careful of being cliché. Something cliché would never be funny.
.
RANGKUMAN
Melucu itu tidak mudah, termasuk ketika kelucuan itu ditransfer menjadi bentuk tulis. Namun lantaran hampir tak ada orang yang menolak humor, unsur ini menjadi penting untuk diselipkan di sela-sela karya serius kita. Fungsinya untuk menghibur, mengendorkan tensi cerita, membuat tokoh kita lebih disukai, dsb. Pertanyaannya, bagaimana bisa menulis kelucuan sementara kita sendiri tidak lucu? Inilah maksud judul artikel di atas: Joking is Easy! Banyak-banyak saja bergaul dengan orang-orang yang lucu. Catat kelucuan-kelucuan yang membikin Anda terpingkal-pingkal, lalu adaptasikan pada cerita Anda. Cara yang sama (tapi lebih praktis) adalah mengubek-ubek portal humor seperti NgupingJakarta, Ketawa, LotsOfJokes, dll. Namun ingatlah untuk selalu memodifikasikannya sesuai alur, karakter dan setting cerita Anda. Karena anekdot di portal-portal humor kadang-kadang adalah banyolan sejuta umat. Anda tak ingin menulis humor yang klise dan “ah, udah pernah”, bukan?
gini2 gw pernah bikin novel humor loh, tapi ga dipublish karena ini joke tentang HI, yang notabene ga dimengerti semua orang :p
Saya suka menyisipkan rasa humor di tulisan saya, tapi kebanyakan satire.
Mungkin informasi lewat humor gampang diserap karena ketika orang tertawa, syaraf-syarafnya mengendur. Begitu, mungkin?
Hello Brahmanto,
I must agree with Basuki, joking is a serious business. Just because it’s difficult. What I think funny, it may not for you. What you think funny, it may not for them. Et cetera. But that doesn’t mean you have to be a genius to make someone laugh.
By the way, I’ve just finished my studies about humor in my university. You know what, the theories of humor are complicated and not funny at all.
🙂
Thanks, Calvin, Nia & Merou. Lho, bukannya humor yg mengerucut pd niche tertentu gitu malah menarik buat diterbitkan, Vin?
Iya kali ya, Nia. Kritik pedas pun terasa acceptable kalau disampaikan dg humor. Eh, tp tergantung orang yg dikritik jg sih. Ya, syaraf2 yg kendur kan terbukti menimbulkan sensasi rileks. Berkomunikasi dlm keadaan rileks jls lbh nyaman. Shg mungkin lbh efektif.
I always believe that, Merou. That’s why I didn’t put any theory in my article, hahaha. But someone must study the humor mechanism, how it work, in what circumstance, etc. Someone that isn’t me. ^_^
Hahaha. Baca judulnya aja udah bikin aku ketawa nih!
Cuma mau ngasih saran. Kalo mau joking, banyak2lah bergaul sama anak kecil. Ini pengalamanku sendiri. Anak kecil kan polos. Mereka melihat segala sesuatu apa adanya. Nah, menurutku the sense of humour, ya di situ. Dalam diri anak kecil. Aku aja suka ketawa kalo denger celetukan ponakan2ku. Jadi nggak stres. Hahaha…
Lho, judulnya kan biasa2 aja, nggak ngelawak. Dimana lucunya, Rie? Tp thx sarannya. Bergaul ama anak kecil emang kadang2 bikin kita ketawa. Krn biasanya ada kelucuan2 spontan yg tak terduga. Tp utk membawa anekdot itu ke karya fiksi, kayaknya hrs dilihat2 dulu genre dan adegannya, ya to?
banyak bergaul dengan @Pradna juga meningkatkan tensi joking anda…Pradna kan polos 😛
Betul, betul. Aku sih manggut2 aja waktu Pradna mengaku2 polos.
“*” I am very thankful to this topic because it really gives great information ,’*
Great items from you, man. I’ve be mindful your stuff prior to and you’re just too great. I really like what you have got here, really like what you are stating and the way in which you are saying it. You’re making it enjoyable and you still take care of to stay it smart. I can not wait to read far more from you. This is actually a great site.
decaptchers´s last blog post ..1