Ahr river
Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame pulled it off fairly well, use that for research.
Be warned, the humor is very British.
Read my stories!
Space hobo
Surreal humor is characterized by being really spontaneus, think of something so ridiculous, out of place, and random that you can't help but burst into laughs or at least smirk in amusement when witnessing.
Try to avoid not-actually-random random humor. That is, everything on the Inherently Funny Words page (despite the name, everything there's been done too often to really surprise anyone). Go for genuinely obscure stuff.
Bigonkers! is Magic
Ahr river
Paraprosdokians
. They are your friend.
Apparition in the Woods
Take an absurd action and have people react for the most part logically to it. Watch them fail horribly.
Or alternately, do the inverse: Have people respond absurdly to an average event to great success.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
Space hobo
Sweet Cuppin Cakes is practically made of surreal humor. Check it out if you are interested.
Banned, selectively
I second Hitchhikers and add Illuminatus. It depends on what type of surreal you are going for. I have a story that simply compressed a bunch of absurd, real events into a smaller time frame. That gave it a surreal (dreamlike) quality because so many things happened one after the other, each of which were plausible but it got a bit ridiculous when crammed into one shift or one week.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are probably right.
Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Spoon.
What do you mean, "not that kind of surreal humor"?
[DATA EXPUNGED] - I would NEVER do that to a kitten! -Dr. █████
Apparition in the Woods
Because it's just Word Salad. Surrealism relies upon dream logic, not a complete lack of logic. Here's a better example, perhaps:
Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Never the same one.
Q: And why's that?
A: Because they always end up bringing another one in.
Q: For what purpose?
A: To ask him a question.
Q: And what's that?
A: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Q: Never the same one.
Hi, I'm working on a new project right now. It's a surreal slice-of-life story and I started thinking...How do you successfully pull off surreal or "random" humor without it seeming forced?
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