Writing Horror and comedy?

TotallyHuman

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It is said that both horror and comedy rely on the disperancy between what the reader (or, rather consumer) expects, and what is delivered.
But.... Can one make a joke that is both scary and funny? Not a horror story with comedy elements or vice versa, but something both funny and scary at the same time
 

Anon_Y_Mousse

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Try reading Franken Fran, I think that manga is basically what you're trying to say.

In writing, you can make an extremely detailed scene of a character being sliced in half, fully describing how their organs are falling off. Then finish it off with.
"Ah, it happened again, I'll just glue it back together"

Or something like that...

Psychological horror can blend well with comedy too.
 

ElijahRyne

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It is said that both horror and comedy rely on the disperancy between what the reader (or, rather consumer) expects, and what is delivered.
But.... Can one make a joke that is both scary and funny? Not a horror story with comedy elements or vice versa, but something both funny and scary at the same time
This lies more on the comedy side, but I think this fits.
 

Viator

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Absolutely. I have a macabre sense of humor. I scare people sometimes with the things I joke about. It just makes me laugh harder.
 

CupcakeNinja

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It is said that both horror and comedy rely on the disperancy between what the reader (or, rather consumer) expects, and what is delivered.
But.... Can one make a joke that is both scary and funny? Not a horror story with comedy elements or vice versa, but something both funny and scary at the same time
In a joke, yes. That's easy. In a horror? THATS harder. But you gotta set shit up first. For example: Start from a normal person's perspective. A forest setting, say. You're being hounded by a wendigo. It's tall, at least 8 feet with antlers and melted skin, standing on its hind legs and smelling like rotting flesh. You're running frantically in terror back to your friends.

Then boom, you find the monster sitting near the campfire with some crazy bastard whose sticking a firework in its ass for shits and giggles while all your friends are huddled together around the campfire scared out of their minds at this crazy motherfucker manhandling a goddamn WENDIGO of all things.

But everything's gotta be horror up until that point. Then you go balls to the walls. It's the shock factor. The "gap moe" if you will. Am I using that right? Eh, I dont care.
 

K5Rakitan

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Life is one giant, scary joke. We all die, and we know many possible ways to die, but we don't know how we will die until it is too late.
 

LostLibrarian

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Having something both funny and scary at the same isn't really possible.
(at least for the majority of authors and without a lot of preparation)
Horror works through building up tension and keeping it up even when nothing happens while comedy works through the depletion of tension. E.g. the usual punchlines build upon "tension" you build up through the sentences before.

At the same time, comedy and horror go against each other.
But they also complement each other when they are used alternately.

One of the big problems of horror are the rising stakes. If the tension is kept too long at the same level, then the impact will be less effective. So it's better to break the tension from time to time. One example would be the classic "cat jumpscare". It breaks the tension (so it can be build up again) but the catharsis together with "a cat" also makes a lot of people laugh at "how stupid that was".
The same example for comedy would be the usual "giant shadow at the wall" that builds a lot of tension through danger, because it gets smaller and smaller and in the end it's a really small person standing in front of a lamp. Because you build up tension through danger, the drop of the punchline is bigger and the "small person" is funnier compared to "a small person just stands there".

A more serious example would be "saving private ryan". Not a horror movie, but it also work on tension. Before the last big battle, you actually have the characters tell funny stories and release all the build up tension. This little bit of "comedic interlude" makes the last battle more impactful, because the tension goes from "0 to 100" instead of "60 to 100".


So while it is near impossible to do comedy and horror at the "same time", you can use one to highlight the other and the other way around...
 

OokamiKasumi

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It is said that both horror and comedy rely on the disperancy between what the reader (or, rather consumer) expects, and what is delivered.
But.... Can one make a joke that is both scary and funny? Not a horror story with comedy elements or vice versa, but something both funny and scary at the same time
YES.

Beetlejuice has more emphasis on Comedy, but it's still pretty damned creepy.
-- It's by Tim Burton after all.

1634844661481.png


Also:

Ravenous has more emphasis on Horror, but the situations still make you laugh even while people are being eaten. Gallows humor at its finest.

1634844978526.png
 

Chocolat_chan

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Not sure if this count, but I recently read the manga and anime for Mieruko-chan. I find the situation quite funny but also kinda scary for the main character.
 

GregoryStellar

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I am personally only interested in comedies! joy gives strength and relaxes))))) And to combine comedy and horror is unusual for me personally!
 

SpiraSpira

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It is said that both horror and comedy rely on the disperancy between what the reader (or, rather consumer) expects, and what is delivered.
But.... Can one make a joke that is both scary and funny? Not a horror story with comedy elements or vice versa, but something both funny and scary at the same time
It's fundamentally not possible to have a joke be both scary and funny, in my opinion. At least not simutaneously. It is quite possible to write a joke that reads funny the first time someone reads it, but then they think about it, re-read the sentence and it seems scary or creepy though. This is the type of joke where you hear it and then you laugh but as soon as you think about it you're like 'wait, a minute.'

If I'm wrong I'd be delighted because it sounds very interesting, but I don't think I am based on the way I think emotions work.
 
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