How would you write something with TV Tropes-style humor?

(Not quite sure if this is the right subforum but hey...)

So my large Spring Break assignment is to write a synopsis of American history from the pre-Columbian era to Reconstruction. Being a troper, and not liking boring things and desiring to have snark in all writing, I have decided I now want to write this in TV Tropes-style humor.

So...what are your ideas on what defines TV Tropes-style humor? What kind of snark? In what amounts? How is the snark presented? (Since this is a school assignment I cannot use potholes or links.)

The hard part will be figuring out how to put potholes in a paper document.

Well, you could always underline certain phrases in blue and underline them, and give them a footnote with the name of the "associated" trope...

But Snarking isn't just a TV Tropes thing. Some people are snarky. Some people aren't.

True. If the Snark is strong with you, then it will follow you in all of your endeavours.

This being said, if by "TV Tropes-style humour" you mean specifically the kind of meta-media subtext/hypertext-heavy low-key sardonicisms that permeate this site thoroughly... Think of Douglas Adams. Specifically, think of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and even more particularly how he introduces ideas into the narrative: He gives initial exposition of the underlying concepts, and then proceeds to use certain phrases similar in tone or structure to that previous work to harken back to that original series of ideas about that thing. Combined with footnotes or endnotes of a similar persuasion, one may provide a great deal of amusement for the intuitive, attentive reader.

edited 10th Apr '11 11:56:43 AM by JHM