Narrative Theory Series

Designing Games & Interactive Stories

Why do we laugh? It’s a fair question, and has inspired many theories. Some of the main rationales for humor are:

Incongruity (frame/script contrast): the Narrative must be compatible with two distinct scripts and these must be semantically opposite.

Aggression: we need narratives to sometimes transgress overly restrictive social boundaries and go beyond the norms.

Release: we need to let out emotions and various mental forces.

Jokes have been analyzed as having certain definable structures, such as: buildup, trigger and punchline (like narrative, jokes are divisible in three parts). The role of the punchline is to reverse our expectations from the buildup. For example:

Buildup: A panhandler came up to me today.

Trigger: and said he hadn’t had a bit in weeks,

Punch: so I bit him.

(source: “On the conversational performance of narrative jokes: Toward an account of timing” by Neal R. Norrick)

Humor can be very risky because some will laugh, some won’t laugh, some will not understand the joke, some will hate your sense of humor, and some will come from cultures with a different humor tradition.

Three of the main general types of humor are Parody, Satire and Farce. When you decide you want to try humor in your narrative, it helps to know the kind of humor you are aiming for, and what its intentions are (i.e. why are you using humor?).

Parody is a form of humor that imitates the style of a particular work, artist, or genre in an exaggerated or absurd way, often for the purpose of poking fun at or poking holes in the original work. Parody uses an earlier work as a skeleton on which it adds its own comedic flesh. Often parody brings out the flaws of the original work or trivializes it in some way.

Parody is often analyzable as having a textual overlay of the Hypertext and the Hypotext (note that this use of ‘hypertext’ is not the same as interactive literature using hyperlinks). Hyper means “over” (as in over the top, hyperdrive, over the speed of light etc.) and “hypo” means “under” (as in hypodermic needle, which goes under the skin). So with Parody, a Hypertext is laid over a Hypotext.

An easy to find example of parody on YouTube is “Star Wars Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base — SNL.”

Satire is a form of humor that uses irony, wit, and sarcasm to expose or criticize the flaws or shortcomings of individuals, institutions, or society as a whole. Satire often has a serious or moral purpose, and is intended to provoke change or improvement.

Irony (detachment) and sometimes exaggeration to make a social critique of some kind. Humor can be used but the end result or commentary is usually not actually funny, for example in the YouTube-able clip “Family Guy Satire Example.”

Satire can be quite rich in its various effects and affects, as it can possess the following kinds of qualities:

Aggression
Anger
Sarcasm
Indignance
Derision
Vituperation
Slander
Skepticism
An unbelieving attitude

Farce is a form of humor that is characterized by absurdity, exaggerated situations, and physical humor. Farce is often used to create a sense of chaos or confusion, and is typically played for laughs. Farce ranges from silly to ridiculous to outrageous in its effects, and is nicely demonstrated in the YouTube clip, “The Lumberjack Song — Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”

There are many kinds of humor, and here we have just touched on a few of them, albeit they are quite important types. Some more classifications of humor include (you’ll have to look these up as I won’t summarize them):

Anecdotal
Blue
Burlesque
Dark/Gallows/Morbid
Deadpan/Dry
Droll
Epigrammatic
High/highbrow
Hyperbolic
Ironic
(source: “20 Types and Forms of Humor,” dailywritingtips.com)

Generally you want to be clear in your approach to humor, especially as audiences are becoming increasingly sensitive along many cultural and identity lines and it is ever-easier to cause offense, such as with the sophomoric/juvenile humor of South Park.

Many comedians say that political correctness is causing culture to become boring and they complain that no one’s allowed to be funny anymore, without risk of being ‘canceled.’ I won’t wade too deep into these cultural wars : ) For the purposes of this book, be aware of humor’s risks and effects, and have an intention as to why you are using it!

Related Articles

Bibliography & Further Reading

• A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles Behind Good Game Design by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark
• A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
• Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach by Michael Sellers
• An Introduction to Game Studies by Frans Mayra
• Basics of Game Design by Michael Moore
• Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
• Board Game Design Advice: From the Best in the World vol 1 by Gabe Barrett
• Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: an Encyclopedia Of Mechanisms by Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev
• Character Development and Storytelling for Games by Lee Sheldon
• Chris Crawford on Game Design by Chris Crawford
• Clockwork Game Design by Keith Burgun
• Elements of Game Design by Robert Zubek
• Film Art by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
• Fundamentals of Game Design by Ernest Adams
• Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design by Ernest Adams
• Game Design Foundations by Brenda Romero
• Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton
• Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans
• Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames edited by Chris Bateman
• Games, Design and Play: A detailed approach to iterative game design by Colleen Macklin and John Sharp
• Interactive Narratives and Transmedia Storytelling, by Kelly McErlean
• Introduction to Game Systems Design by Dax Gazaway
• Kobold Guide to Board Game Design by Mike Selinker, David Howell, et al
• Kobold’s Guide to Worldbuilding edited by Janna Silverstein
• Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, 2nd Edition by Scott Rogers
• Narrating Space / Spatializing Narrative: Where Narrative Theory and Geography Meet by Marie-Laure Ryan, Kenneth Foote, et al.
• Narrative Theory: A Critical Introduction by Kent Puckett
• Narrative Theory: Core Concepts and Critical Debates by David Herman, James Phelan, et al.
• Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, Fourth Edition by Mieke Bal
• Practical Game Design by Adam Kramarzewski and Ennio De Nucci
• Procedural Storytelling in Game Design by Tanya X. Short and Tarn Adams
• Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing by Wendy Despain
• Rules of Play by Salen and Zimmerman
• Storyworlds Across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology (Frontiers of Narrative) by Marie-Laure Ryan, Jan-Noël Thon, et al
• Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers by Ethan Ham
• The Art of Game Design, 3rd Edition by Jesse Schell
• The Board Game Designer’s Guide: The Easy 4 Step Process to Create Amazing Games That People Can’t Stop Playing by Joe Slack
• The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott
• The Grasshopper, by Bernard Suits
• The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, by by Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson and Benjamin J. Robertson
• The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies by Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf
• The Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory by David Herman
• The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design by Flint Dille & John Zuur Platten
• Unboxed: Board Game Experience and Design by Gordon Calleja
• Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques by Evan Skolnick
• Writing for Video Game Genres: From FPS to RPG edited by Wendy Despain
• Writing for Video Games by Steve Ince
• 100 Principles of Game Design by DESPAIN

Acknowledgement

This online courseware was co-authored with OpenAI technology in order to produce a clear, succinct writing style that will be accessible to the widest range of readers from a variety of backgrounds.

Humor was originally published in Sound & Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.