When truth scares audiences off, the best way to get them back is through laughter. One must avoid solemnity and presumption at all costs. Humor and laughter are not only part of life but a fundamental tool for survival.
There are several types and tastes of humor, about such diverse topics as excrement and philosophy, sometimes in the same joke. The quality of humor is very hard to determine, to the point of people being killed for alleged profanity.
Whatever the reaction might be, humor is a very efficient tool to reveal the unpleasant truth and make peace with it. One of the most relevant examples is the nonexistence of God and the afterlife. The fear to die is the barest emotion of every living being. It is what keeps life in the first place. No wonder the human need to soothing the finitude of existence. Making fun of it helps us to acknowledge such hard reality and face it as something natural. For instance, one could say we don’t have to worry about death because we won’t feel a thing. We have physical pain from injuries and diseases that might take us to death, and the last breath is the utmost relief. Opium is a bless, much better than a priest asking for our darkest secrets before we pass away.
When creating fiction, an author concerned with the construct of a fantasy that expresses the truth will find humor extremely resourceful to captivate audiences. The disgraceful truth can always be funny, even in the most cruel and darkest moments. That is precisely when humor becomes the fundamental boost to survive or to have some anesthesia. Society demands us to be serious in painful and disgraceful moments. Solemnity at all costs, at the expense of our last energies. It’s much more helpful to do the exact opposite. If you find something to laugh about, don’t restrain yourself, as long as you’re not laughing at someone disrespectfully.
Respect is a very complex issue, since people like to take offence. It makes them feel important. Being offended ads value to one’s self-esteem. This doesn’t mean they like to be insulted. It means they like to act as if they were insulted and have an opportunity to make a stand and gain attention. When making a joke, an author must verify whether he’s being really offensive or just offering an opportunity for stupid people to act as if offended. This requires tremendous skill and knowledge of the human nature.
Success comes from the largest number of people willing to laugh with your work. All it takes is finding out the least controversial humor possible, that is, the soft humor of our daily lives. If some of these get hilarious enough, people must find worthwhile investing their time in whatever you do. It takes hard work.
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