Why Is That Funny?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So–what’s funny to you? It’s a fascinating question, because it’s not the same for all of us, right? (For instance. Do you think the Three Stooges are funny? I don’t think so, not one bit. But I know I’m in the minority. Or am I?) 

 But author Charlotte Stuart has not only thought about humor in mystery, she’s studied it. And organized it!

Let’s let her explain.

Murder Lite: The Muse Within

By Charlotte Stuart

If you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid that doesn’t fit any of your containers.

Humor is universal, but we don’t all laugh at the same things. My inner muse thinks the above statement is hilarious, but I have more than one friend who would simply say, “Huh?” For instance, I love stand-up comedy, but I don’t love all stand-up comedians. When Nancy Pearl advises book clubs to avoid starting discussions with “I liked/didn’t like” a particular book, I think this is what she has in mind. It isn’t just about the writing; readers bring some innate attributes and preferences with them to their reading experience. Particularly when it comes to humor.

I was an organizational consultant for a number of years and became certified in a variety of assessment processes. Two stand out when analyzing an individual’s sense of humor: Ned Hermann’s dominant brain quadrant preference and Meyers Briggs personality indicator. Based on these two assessments, you can make a pretty good guess as to what will tickle someone’s funny bone. But, that isn’t helpful unless you’ve also categorized types of humor by author. That’s what I’ve done in the following matrix, using a few representative authors to illustrate.

One Genre—Five Categories

KOOKY	COMIC	AMUSING	EDGY	DARK
·  Carl Hiaasen ·  Lisa Lutz ·  Laurence Shames	·  Most cozies and capers ·  Donald Westlake	·  Robert Crais (Evis Cole) ·  John Sandford (Virgil Flowers)	·  Janet Evanovich ·  Joe Ide (Isaiah Quintabe) ·  Sue Grafton	·  Joseph Wambaugh ·  Caimh McDonnell (Dublin Trilogy)

Each category can be sliced and diced in a number of different ways, including the relationship between book titles and categories, but the basic definitions are as follows:

Kooky: Humor is key. Characterized by outrageous situations and very quirky characters.

Comic: Benign, non-offensive humor that is usually character driven.

Amusing: Less overtly humorous with light-hearted themes.

Edgy: Intermittent humor that is complex and nuanced. Often includes irony and cynical wordplay between characters.

Dark: Humor may not be obvious. Makes light of taboo topics. Tragicomedy.

This does not take into account that some people don’t like any humor in their mysteries unless it’s lightly dipped in dark ink. And, in fact, the humorous mystery market is quite small. That said, I didn’t start out to write humorous mysteries, but my inner muse is at times uncontrollable. And although I’m not a pet owner, cats and dogs seem to find a way into my stories. Perhaps as surrogate pets. So, even though my Discount Detective Mysteries feature a PI and violate many other cozy mystery rules as well, they are usually labeled as cozies. So far I haven’t been kicked out of the cozy club, but I have been taken to task for my treatment of goldfish. (Small bowls contribute to short life spans for goldfish—honestly, I didn’t know.)

Bottom line? I enjoy a good cozy and a cuppa, but I think of my own mysteries as more “mug of coffee” reads. Hence, I’ve spent many hours trying to redefine my type of humor to establish a brand: Cozy 2.0, Murder Lite, Mirthful Mayhem, or just plain old Humorous Mystery.

Next year I have a book coming out that is almost humorless. When I was writing it, I had to block my humor muse, wipe the smile off my face, let my lips sag at the corners and think dark thoughts. I’m proud of the final product, but it’s certainly a lot more fun to write for laughs.

HANK: SO fascinating. (And funny!) How about you, Reds and readers? Do you like humor in mysteries? I have laughed out loud at Anthony Horowitz, for instance. Elle Cosimano, another genius. And my own Prime Time mysteries are kinda funny. (I hope.)  Certainly  Jenn’s, and Rhys’s Georgie, and Lucy’s Haley. But they are all different. Let’s talk about humor in mystery….what’s YOUR opinion? And your favorites?

***********

Charlotte Stuart began her writing career with a PhD thesis that had the distinction of being stolen from the university library. Her current passion is for writing humorous mysteries with silent laugh tracks that encourage readers to smile, snicker and occasionally laugh out loud. They have been recognized with a number of awards including a Global eBook gold, two NYC Big Book Distinguished Favorites, a Pinnacle Book Achievement Award and a Firebird Book Award for humor. Charlotte lives and writes on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. https://www.charlottestuart.com

 

Moonlight Can Be Deadly is the fourth in the Discount Detective Mystery series. It is available March 14, 2023.  https://www.amazon.com/Moonlight-Deadly-Discount-Detective-Mystery/dp/1940442478?ref_=ast_sto_dp

 

MOONLIGHT CAN BE DEADLY

A full moon re-enactment of an ancient human sacrifice ritual turns deadly.

A young woman volunteers to play the role of a maiden to be sacrificed under a full moon while costumed participants chant and dance to celebrate the ritual. After the ceremony, the maiden vanishes and a man’s body is found on the rock altar, impaled by an antique dagger.

 

Single mom and Penny-wise investigator, Cameron Chandler is hired to find the missing woman. What begins as a straightforward assignment becomes a quagmire of motives and betrayals. As the full moon wanes, Cameron must choose between doing things by the book or saving herself from a murderer.

 

"It's the Best Thing You've Ever Written," a guest blog by E.J. Copperman

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I don't really need to introduce friend-of-the-Reds and everyone's fave, E.J. Copperman, do I? His mysteries have been making us laugh and think and root for his often benighted New Jersey residents (living and un-) for years.  He's no novice. He has a track record. He has many, many bibliographic entries in libraries around the country!

So what does a long-term, career author think about on the publication of his 26th book  - the first in a new series, and not set in the Garden State? Well, he's looking at some other dynamite authors. And wondering, how do you know when you've written your best?

 

Just recently I watched Mank, the movie that is supposedly about the writing of the Citizen Kane screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz, who you probably know as the grandfather of the nice guy on Turner Classic Movies but who I know as the guy who produced the best three Marx Brothers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup. But that, as people who say nonsensical things say, is neither here nor there (it’s someplace but nobody ever seems to look for it). 

 

Anyway, I’m not offering a movie review here, but one moment (actually, two moments) in the movie struck me in an unexpected way. At one point, Herman’s brother Joe (who would go on to write and direct All About Eve, among other things), in trying to dissuade Mank from going ahead with the Kane script (here called American), says, “It’s the best thing you’ve ever written,” which is fairly poor salesmanship if you’re sincerely trying to get a guy not to submit his screenplay.

 

Later, when Orson Welles shows up and Mank starts arguing with him over screen credit for the screenplay, our “hero” says to Welles, “It’s the best thing I’ve ever written.” And that’s when my solar plexus felt a little punched.

I’ve been writing a long time, and writing mystery novels for a decent portion of that long time. I’d never considered the question before: What’s the best thing I ever wrote?

 

How would I know?

 

I mean, my 26^th novel, Inherit the Shoes, was just published, and people seem to like it well. (Very few people other than reviewers will tell an author they hate the book to the author’s face, a societal convention I applaud wholeheartedly.) It starts a new series that I hope will last for a long time, dealing with a New Jersey criminal prosecutor who tires of the whole putting-people-in-jail thing and decides to move to Los Angeles when she’s offered a job as a family attorney, which is a polite way of saying a divorce lawyer. And that’s all I’ll tell you for now because we’re trying to decide what the best thing I’ve ever written might be. Or had you forgotten?

 

It might be Inherit the Shoes. It might not. Could be it’s a book you haven’t had the chance to see yet. Maybe it’s one of the many (many) screenplays I wrote before turning to the long form, none of which was ever produced. It’s entirely possible it was a newspaper article I wrote back in the day, a journal entry from my college days or a blog post on the late, somewhat lamented Hey, There’s A Dead Guy in the Living Room. For all I know it’s a grocery list I wrote back when we used to go to grocery stores. 

 

To be fair, it’s also a distinct possibility that I’ll write something better my next time out. That’s what keeps this writer going, the prospect of writing something amazing. Hey, it’s possible. Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote Citizen Kane, after all. 

 

But as of now? The best thing? I honestly can’t say. I know I have favorites for sentimental reasons but I can’t say objectively that one is better than all the others. There are readers who love my Haunted Guesthouse series and have no time for any of the rest. That’s fair; you’re entitled to like what you like. Others believe that the stuff I wrote back when I had another name was the best material I’ve produced. Sure, it could be. 

 

The writer is too close to the work to know. It’s why Mank has to hear it from his brother before he believes it of the Kane screenplay. We were there the whole time we were writing it and we know we compromised in places for lack of a killer idea in that small passage or that chapter or that plot point. So that can’t be best, can it?

 

Maybe it can. Maybe everybody gets to decide for themselves. 

 

As for me, I’m hoping nobody ever asks me what the best thing I’ve ever written might be because I honestly couldn’t give a definitive honest answer. On the other hand, if you want to tell me what the best thing I’ve ever written has been for you, I’ll never not want to hear it. Because that means that something I wrote got to you, and what’s not to like about that?

 

Wow. This might not be the best thing I’ve ever written, but it certainly the most self-obsessed.

 

JULIA: Okay, dear readers, can you name "the best thing" any of your favorite authors have written? Can you point to a moment when you can say, "This was my best?"

 

E.J.Copperman is the author of 26 published mystery novels including INHERIT THE SHOES, the first Jersey Girl Legal Mystery, which as it turns out is available now. The other 25 books are also still available. As far as Copperman knows. On the other hand, Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote Citizen Kane, ostensibly with Orson Welles, and that was, in everybody’s opinion, the best thing he ever wrote.

Always Good When Things Go Wrong; a guest blog by Tim Maleeny

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: All authors, if they're not lying, will confess they can be afflicted with cover envy, that grasping sense of covetousness when you see a book with a cover that will lure browsers from all the way across the bookstore. Friends, I felt cover envy when I saw Tim Maleeny's BOXING THE OCTOPUS. Then I read Kirkus's review: “Maleeny moves his colorful cast around with giddy panache." Now I have quote envy. Then I read the cover copy: "Boxing The Octopus is a runaway tour of San Francisco’s underworld which reminds us that when things get out of hand, having eight arms is always better than two." How can you not want something like that?



All I'm saying is, it's a good thing we mystery writers are as nice and friendly as Tim says we are.

Julia, a big thanks to you and all the Jungle Red Writers for inviting me to stop by. It was great seeing you all at Bouchercon—what a weekend! I’m always amazed at how friendly, generous and supportive the mystery community is, and you definitely feel that at Bouchercon, maybe because we were all readers and fans long before we were writers.

I admit to being a bit nervous the first time I attended a big mystery conference, marveling at my proximity to so many writers whose books I’d devoured over the years. After a while, a far more experienced writer wandered over to where I was standing and asked if this was my first conference. (Yes, it was that obvious.) She then put it all in perspective by saying: “Look, mystery writers spend all day getting their aggressions out on the page—killing people, torturing them, getting their revenge—so in real life they are the nicest, kindest people you’ll ever meet.” After a pause she added, “There are only two or three jackasses, and we all know who they are.”

I instantly relaxed and realized I was now part of a community, and as we walked over to the group she said, “But you’d better watch your back with those romance writers!”

I’ve been having a ball writing mysteries ever since, not only because I love to tell stories, but because every new story makes fresh connections across this incredible community of mystery lovers.

Speaking of having fun, I was originally asked to write about the use of humor in mystery novels, but since I was feeling nostalgic at the start of this post, I’ll keep this part brief, even though it’s one of my favorite subjects. The great thing about the mystery genre is the myriad of sub-genres, from psychological suspense to domestic thrillers to spy novels or even supernatural sleuths. There are characters and stories for every kind of escape.

My own novels have been called comic noir, comedic thrillers, capers, and even “zany” by reviewers, and my latest was recently described as a “Hiaasen-esque delight,” which I took as high praise. No doubt that’s because my plots go sideways at every turn, largely because of missteps by characters more than capable of getting in their own way. Some mysteries are driven by a master criminal with a master plan, but I’ve always believed plots should be propelled by things going horribly wrong.

Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Carl Hiaasen, John D. MacDonald and Ross Thomas are some of the authors that led to my addiction to crime fiction, as I found myself rooting for a morally ambiguous cast of characters with a common goal but competing agendas. Those collisions can lead the reader on a breakneck chase with surprising turns and, sometimes, hilarious detours. We can see ourselves in the human failings of a bank robber who forgets to fill his getaway car with gas, and we almost feel sorry for the thief who leaves the loot on the train. How many of us have lost phones, umbrellas or briefcases behind, and what would you do if the stakes were much, much higher? Or simply the lifelong dilemma of not knowing whom you can trust when things go against you.

Seeing how ordinary people react in extraordinary circumstances is the heart of character development. And if you can do that with a smile, the opportunities for empathy, social commentary and reader involvement are endless.

Watch I Love Lucy, Seinfeld or Friends through the lens of a mystery reader and you’ll find countless plots driven by misunderstandings, puzzles or outright mysteries. And the characters aren’t laughing, because for them the social awkwardness or potential consequences are deadly serious. But at home, we’re laughing out loud because we’ve been in that kind of pickle, and we’re relieved that we’re not the only ones who screw up every once in a while.

The mystery community is fun group of wonderful people, and every time I get together with other writers, we make each other laugh. Maybe that’s where my writing voice comes from, an unconscious desire to channel all that positive energy onto the page.

See you at the next conference!

JULIA: Okay, dear readers, it's your turn. Do you like funny mysteries? What are some of your favorites? And are we really all as nice as Tim says? One lucky commentor will win a copy of BOXING THE OCTOPUS!

TIM MALEENY is the award-winning author of the Cape Weathers mysteries and the bestselling comedic thriller JUMP, which Publishers Weekly called “a perfectly blended cocktail of escapism.” His latest caper is BOXING THE OCTOPUS, which Kirkus called “a Hiaasen-esque delight” and Bookreporter described as “a great mystery novel, but it is also terrific literature.” A past winner of the Macavity Award, Tim has also won the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery. He lives and writes at an undisclosed location in New York City. You can read more about Tim and his books at his website, friend him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter as @TimMaleeny.