Writing immediate, snarky humour

For a later section of my story serial, I intend to introduce a ragtag group of misfits — who spend their time wandering the city looking for any opportunity which looks remotely interesting. From pick-up games of basketball to water-balloon fights, to mall pillaging over to 'armed' robbery.

This group is lead by one 14-year old boy, Tre Styles. He has an adventuresome spirit, and likes the action of excitement in life, doing things. You'll not likely find him sit behind some desk all day listening to the teacher blab "The Riemann sum of this integral function.." Think of someone like Harry Callahan, or Snake Plissken. Daredevil fellows.

As a result of his lifestyle, he has found quite a quirky style of joking. But here is where I am stuck.

What sort of humour would you likely find in such a guy? I have only the vaguest idea.. something around 'smirky' rather than laugh-out-loud:

"I am five times the man you will ever hope to be.”

Of course you are.. in body mass index.

“You’re all so tough on the internet, but I doubt you’d dare stutter a word in my presence.”

If I was in your presence, I’d rip you a new asshole.

“You people are simply pathetic and I will do as Christ commands and turn the other cheek.”

After ranting about it, of course.

It's a little whimsy I'm wondering about, and I might hope for pointers on this.

edited 14th Apr '11 6:51:00 PM by QQQQQ

Those are all examples of the kind of thing Deadpan Snarkers are known for saying. They deal in sarcastic, witty remarks just like the ones you mentioned.

Watch but a single episode of The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, and you'll get to see Kyon the narrator spout off sarcastic little remarks in his voiceovers all the time.

It's a different type of humour I'm looking for. I know Kyon spouts out snark like a hose does with water, but his remarks are more on the "abstract" side. If you're familiar with Myers-Briggs, it says Kyon's an INTP type. ('N' for iNtuitive.) Your stereotypical glasses-geek, nervous nerd. He digresses into related topics while he's at it.

Tre Styles might be similar, snarking, but it's a different flavour of snark. He is closer to being an ISTP ('S' for Sensory.) — more hands-on, more "five senses" kind of person. Know whad'I mean? On the mark, direct. I imagine there might be one or two people on this site who can give me pointers for his humour.

edited 14th Apr '11 7:13:53 PM by QQQQQ

I don't know, man. I both read the novels and watched the anime several times but frankly, his oh-so-amazingly-wonderful-snark is overrated. Not that he's bad, but not nearly as good as what other people talks about.

I'd say the best snarker you can actually learn from is Mark Twain and if you are more into slapsticks, Dr. Cox or Harry Dresden.

Kyon's a bit more subtle in his snark, though, and subtlety is very rarely done well in humor nowadays, or at least I'm finding it harder to find.

THAT'S the exact kind of thing that I was whining about.

I think the important things about snark are firstly, they need to be conversational. Whether the snarker is talking to friend, foe, or stranger, it needs to sound natural and light. The snarker must be able to look critically at any subject, to see several different reasons and layers. Also, it has to be imaginative, and the speaker must, must know pop culture. It doesn't have to be a pop culture reference every time, but the speaker must speak the cultural language of his snark target. Check out Randal Graves for the best example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uqTJO7OL7w

I've written a lot of snark this month, and what worked for me was to think of a snarky response, and then write what he's snarking at, rather than the other way around.

edited 15th Apr '11 3:49:45 AM by RPGenius

Although this is my prejudice, it helps to add some affection (not affectation) in snarks. Your Mileage May Vary, but a playful and affectionate snarker is much more endearing to the audiences/readers.

I agree. There's no fun in it unless the seems like he's having fun. To go back to the great Randal Graves, while he has a raging hate-on for most everything, the dude loves Dante. He still mocks him as well as using him as a sounding board for the mockery, but there's real affection in everything.

Xander's another awesome example of this kind of snarker. Notice he never actually (to my memory) snarks at a bad guy. He only ever snarks at his friends, and it's a sign of affectionate wordplay between them.

If you want to do an antagonistic snarker though, I'd reccomend reading some Raymond Chandler, who you can find quotes from online (as well as Pearls are a Nuisance, a fantastic short story full of snark: http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/chandler__pearls_are_a_nuisance__en.htm ), and uh, Hamlet. Miserable bastard, but my god he has the gift of snark in spades. Again available online, the best bits being Act I, Scene II, and Act II, Scene II.

I find him rather mixed in his style of "joking". The first comeback is great because it fits with the insult. Its thematic, thus making it easy for the readers to understand and chuckle when they read it.

The second comeback sounds more like a threat than an actual comeback. I'm not really sure how it is supposed to be funny. Maybe I'm confused. @_@

The last comeback sort of fits together with the rude comment, but you can loose you capability to be funny to a certain audience. Obviously here you could offend a good chunk of Christians with this banter, and thus would not appreciate it as much as other people. Personally I was really baffled by the rude comment, because I've never heard such a comment before and such a person is not following Jesus.

Do you know any of the The Secret Of Monkey Island insults? They might be something good for you to look into.

The comments were from Christ Wire's article about how masturbating is an evil sin as proven by the good bible's quotations, and by the apparently stupifying effects it can have on one's facial expressions. Little did many people know it's satire. Didn't stop Claire from matching wits with one Rev. Billings though. I think I'm beginning to like her snarky personality — as part inspiration for Tre.

The Monkey Island comebacks I like. I suppose I'll have to come up with my own, so I don't rip off a source. (Or perhaps I can throw that in as a Shout-Out.) I might need to talk to others to help me on this.

Ah, satire...

I guess it is sort of comforting that I know where it is coming from, and read the article and comments. I don't really care about satire most of the time, except for the Onion. The Onion tends to be pretty good.

Well you could talk to me about it if you want. I don't bite.

He's the leader, right?

So have him say stuff that his crew will find funny, even if it is sort of an in-joke.

You see some Mooks will laught at the boss' jokes because they're SUPPOSED to, but played straight, the leader is really only in it for his team because it helps win their support.

It IS a lot easier to be adventurous when you're surrounded by real friends than by "conditional" friends.

Also, don't force the funny, it will come when it comes.

How would affectionate snarking sound like?

I have a hard time identifying it.

I don't know if affectionate snarking necessarily sounds different from non-affectionate snarking, it's more that you have to establish that:

(a) the two characters involved genuinely like each other, enjoy spending time together, are willing to help each other out — in other words, even if they rag on each other verbally, their actions need to show that they're friends. Otherwise people will be left wondering why they even speak to each other anymore.

(b) the snarker is not hitting on any actual sore spots or serious issues that one would expect to get a Dude, Not Funny! response. For example, if Alice is really insecure about her weight* (and this is treated seriously in other parts of the story) and Bob makes a lot of fat jokes at her expense, the reader will probably be left with the impression that Bob is kind of a douchebag, even if Alice isn't shown as getting upset about it. Of course, in real life snarky friends will sometimes hit sensitive areas by mistake, but if that happens they ought to be apologetic about it, or, again, readers will be wondering why they're still friends.

(* Mind you, I'm not trying to make any kind of point about fat jokes in particular being always unacceptable or anything. You can replace "her weight" with "her hair color", "her intelligence", "her taste in comic books", or whatever else — the point is that anything Alice has particular issues with is probably not something her friends should be making fun of.)

That being said, I'm basing this more on real-life experience than writing experience, and I don't know if things will come across differently in text.

edited 5th Jun '11 2:32:10 AM by bluepenguin

You could also go in another direction and have snarks in the form of lampshades and flaws in another character's logic.

'If the hole is bottomless, how could you fill it with water?'

If I were a member of the Motion Picture Code of Ethics Committee, I would ban anyone under fifteen from watching this movie without hesitation.

Don't want to sound mean, but I don't find the OP's snarks to be that funny or clever. Legitimately funny and clever snarks are really hard to write, but weak ones will take all the punch out of the scene.