Is it possible to have a post-apocalyptic setting yet not too serious?

I know this one sounds a bit more fit to World Building, but it also affects characters, theme and plot, so might as well ask here.

Is it doable? I rarely see stories in media where in post-apocalypse, there's still a sense of humor, action, etc. while simply putting the bleakness at the backside. In a way, the post-apocalypse setting is a result from a machine-vs-people war. The main character is a delivery boy whose hobby is spent on reading comics that are quite idealistic, somehow ending up jumping at the call while gaining a snarky partner, a big guy, and a hyperactive young one.

edited 23rd Jul '11 12:09:22 AM by Ookamikun

Zombieland, off the top of my head. Sure there are others.

edited 23rd Jul '11 12:10:12 AM by Chubert

Gammaworld too. Well at least some of the earlier editions.

Of course it is.

It is possible; Romantically Apocalyptic springs to my mind.

Cosy Catastrophe

The hilarious comedy Battlefield Earth.

It can be done, but people might call you out for Cozy Catastrophe and just using it as an excuse to get people together and keep them there. There has to be a fine line between the funny and the serious (Fallout 3 comes to mind), or it has to go straight into full-out parody. Otherwise people start questioning why you bothered with such a setting at all.

How about Desert Punk?

edited 23rd Jul '11 12:41:51 AM by AdeptusAlpharius

You haven't played Fallout, have you? 'Cuz if you had, this thead would not exist

I was thinking of Adventure Time myself.

I'd certainly like to read more stories set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that weren't all Grimdark, or even with just really dark humour like Fallout. Lighter and Softer without being too Cosy Catastrophy, you know what I mean?

Fallout?

New Vegas' endings were quite depressive though :(

Now that I think about it, what I'm seeing is a bit semi-realistic, in that people actually try to reconstruct after the apocalypse rather than simply leave it like that.

Ah. Then you, my friend, are looking for the Emberverse. By the time the second book opens, things have been as reconstructed as they're likely to get, but the first book, Dies the Fire, seems exactly what you're looking for.

To answer the topic's title question: yes. Post-Apocalyptic does not have to be overly serious, even though it is treated as such in many works. It is entirely possible to have the characters maintain a sense of humour and/or feelings of hope. That's the way I tend to write my stories.

My Cyberpunk and TEOTWAWKI stories tend to be around the characters rather than the "crapsackness" of the world they live in, and my characters face their lives and the troubles they must overcome with humour and hope.

Personally, I feel the approach is justified by history - we've had a large number of wars, the Great Depression, the Industrial Revolution (which wasn't that fantastic from the point of view of all the people it put out of work), the Feudal Era and many other events and times that were not fantastic for the people to live in (one could even argue that we're living in a Crapsack World right now) but people still go on, people still strive, people still seek the humour in the situation to keep their spirits up and people still hope - the world and the times are just background to the human stories that go on everywhere.

Basically, it's A World Half Full.

^ Or a Black Comedy.

Pretty much, but more "makes ya laugh, dunnit?" than sour armour for the "knights".

edited 23rd Jul '11 9:37:48 PM by Wolf1066

That's what I'm aiming for too - city devastated by a robot war is rebuilding itself, but the enemy was able to survive. Delivery boy stumbles upon this and at the same time activates the enemy's secret weapon, binding it to him and becoming the hero.