Why I Write Dark Humor

I was on a podcast called All Things Writing, discussing the publication of my book Inglorious Ink. The host, Bryan Nowak brought up the question as to why my book changed genres in the process of making Inglorious Ink.

Walk me through the process of you planning out this storyline, cause you said it flip-flopped on you?

I had answered that I was able to cover the criteria a bit better to elaborate on the commentaries that I wanted to present, as well as have my characters go a little further in their motives. Inglorious Ink was originally a toned-down dramedy story, and then eventually it took a darker route in the plot as well as the characters becoming pride-less, unapologetic, and vulgar.

But before I go into why I found that my forte was writing Dark Humor, let's have the question up to discuss: What is Dark Humor?

The genre term has varied over the years between Dark Humor, Black Comedy, Morbid Humor, Dark Comedy, or Gallows Humor. It's a style of writing focused on crude topics, relating to uncomfortable subjects, or morbid slices of life.

There are two fun facts about the history of dark humor.

1. The Greeks are the earliest ones to start the genre of black comedy.
2. The first recorded dark humor story is from the 1759 novel, Tristam Shandy.

I have some personal definitions:

• It's casual nerve, someone who does something shocking and has no shame about it.
• A lack of morals that still has panache while the characters barely have any pride and no filter.
• It blends blue-collar humor with an accepted unapologetic reaction.
• Similar to the music of The Blues, that music genre has heartbreak, but the ambition to have better days. In dark humor, there is just an acceptance that things are going to get worse.

The relief I have with writing dark humor, helped me cope with the problems that kept re-occurring. Dark humor does tackle the frustrating, depressing, tough slices of life. I also have a vulgar side to myself, I enjoy being able to make crass jokes or cover criteria in a raw way. When I can use a crass way of comedy for a character's reaction, it was the most fulfilling feeling to use a part of comedy I enjoy.

With dark humor there is a freedom to draw from personal experiences, and make it raw, nothing sugarcoated to go to a happy resolve. I haven't gotten to a happy ending or solved anything I'm going through, some of it is permanent suffering. My characters have that element of what suffering is like, mixed with crass humor to cope with what happened, and what has yet to come to bring chaos in their life.

The characters I created for Inglorious Ink have suffered and scraped by. They've known what misery is like, so situations they have gone through are normalized throughout the story between violence, stealing, and blackmail. It's a way of life for them, they have no problem with minor or major destruction created.

By transitioning my genre to dark humor I was able to go a little deeper into these characters. I honestly never thought that dark humor would be the genre that I would end up writing in. Watching certain TV shows with the genre of dark humor does have a bit more of a broad spectrum that can be able to go a little bit farther. To reach the sensitive criteria that can reveal and relate to uncomfortable or infuriating situations with the characters. When I first started writing the book, I felt that I couldn't emphasize what these characters' motives were or make them unique. As I started progressing the story, I created these characters to be unapologetic, irredeemable, destroyed, miserable, black sheep misfits.

Now that I've explained the way I got to dark humor, I want to share what kinds of tactics I've seen in the ways to write dark humor.

Woven with Weird

With dark humor, there’s a bit more freedom to make things weird.

I remember I was struggling for a moment to make a funny conversation with the character Cassie, as she was talking to a bartender that was hitting on her awkwardly and bluntly. I couldn’t understand why it was this hard to make something unique and comedic without trying to go too dark and insulting, or too minor. Then I had three little words that came to mind that helped me get the scene right, “make it weird”. I took the ambiance of the situation and made the characters casually say weird stuff to dismiss a vulgar statement in a way that normally wouldn't be said.

Dark Humor is a tricky tone to set. It can go a little stale without going the extra mile to shock and entertain while on the other side, it could go too far and can’t be considered to be dark humor, it would be insulting and nasty.

Accurate Inaccuracies

You can get away with stretching the truth of reality. It is good to research what the story is set in or what the character has as a job. It's difficult to get the accuracy down so there wouldn't be backlash for having incorrect information. I was immensely terrified that I was going to get a bad review for not having everything correct about how a tattoo artist does a tattoo. There is still some stuff I'm learning about how the tattoo world functions, so my worries started to ebb away from that it was OK if something wasn't accurate to the term or application of a tattoo.

I was told by an anonymous source, "As long as you make them have a bad attitude, your good."

Stories already are a stretch of the truth of how the order works in the world. Whether it's medical or physical, there is a free pass to get away with not having the procedure or profession be 100% accurate. Because at the end of the day, it is a fictional story. Thereof are tons of movies and TV shows where the writing will have one or two inaccurate facts.

If you look at the show David Lynch show, Twin Peaks, the whole case and premise is baffling to an FBI agent as to why the town is out of order and why everyone is intriguingly offbeat. Then that premise is perfect to go out of the norm of the usual police procedures. It's an automatic acceptance that something is amiss, and it doesn't have to be true to life. It's not dire that Dale Cooper is an authentic FBI agent, his intrigued character can carry the story through the odd investigation.

There isn't a lot of questioning for logic in the story which makes the freedom to expand weird moments. It's just an automatic acceptance of the reality these characters live in.

Creating the Character's Personality to be selfish and selfless

Despite the moral behaviors in society to not be cruel, don't steal, do not slander, and not be a bad person in general. That's all anyone ever wants, but is it ever seen? Rarely. With characters in dark humor, there is a casualness and a strange appeal to their immorality.

Characters of dark humor have this smarmy nature, lack of pride, or selfish based life decisions. Because that's the way it has to be. Because that's their way of life, it's what makes sense to them, it's like I defined it earlier, it's casual nerve.

Often there has to be justified selfishness for a certain character to get by with how dire their situation is.

Despite the abundance of selfish antics, there is also a kindness to these crass characters, after all the turmoil they have been through. It makes them cater to those who have been through hellish ways without compassion. The way of life for these characters is vulgar but vulnerable.

One character I'll mention from my book for example is Jules Wilkinson. He is rude, snarky, and smarmy, the kind of guy you would hate to make mad. He will not hesitate to swindle a deal out from someone to benefit himself. He does not hesitate to use physical violence on someone. But on the latter, he's not inconsiderate, and he doesn't hesitate to acknowledge someone's mental health and be respectfully silent about what is it they are dealing with. He is patient with someone who is dealing with a lot in their place, he's courteous to someone who is trying hard to say something. It's why his character works well with the others, he's a pain in the ass, but a reliable person who knows when enough is enough.

Addressing The Depressing

There is that shred of being humane that is sprinkled throughout the stories of dark humor. All that discomfort of various situations that the characters go through has to have that shred of sincerity. It is the heart and the soul that people can relate to the raw emotion of being pushed too far or having too many unfair occurrences.

I've had moments I fell to my knees and shed some tears for these characters and when they were pushed to a breaking point. I truly felt the emotional wavelength through the various harsh hardships that I wrote for them. But there was also a comfort I could take to show that these characters suffer in silence as I did.

I bared my soul to share my story. I had my thoughts about depression and anxiety that I felt I couldn't convey, and I used that turmoil to share through the characters. It helped me get through what I felt I couldn't say to someone who wouldn't take the time to understand, I integrated that into the characters of Inglorious Ink. When someone reads the book and sees the way I expressed what depression and anxiety are like, I would hope someone can take comfort in that.

Depression and anxiety do have a placement to be a topic within the genre of dark humor. Many story ideas do have characters who have been deprived of kindness or constantly endure the life they hate to live in. They might not have the healthiest ways of dealing with mental health struggles, but it is acknowledged that they struggle with it. People have different ways of coping with what dwells within them, and sharing that individual definition of what depression is like, is going to help someone know how they can make their definition of depression to show someone.

In conclusion

Dark humor changed the way I write, I feel better as a writer in that I can fully express myself, and test myself on how I can create a tricky turmoil for these characters to trudge through.

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned a podcast episode that I was in, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would check out the podcast by Bryan Nowak.

Additional Information

If you have any questions about writing feel free to contact me on my Instagram at @parrishpassages.

Check out Bryan Nowak on his Facebook page, Bryan Nowak the Writer

Inglorious Ink is available on Amazon

Thank you for reading!