FANTASTIC REALMS

Alex Davis takes a look at writing humour in your science-fiction

So, an extraterrestrial, a robot and an astronaut walk into a bar… sorry, I’m sure you’ve heard that one. Anyway, science-fiction in its past guise was a world of optimism and adventure, the ‘Golden Age’ of the genre giving us novels of space exploration, exciting action and often a smattering of humour here and there. We’ve discussed this before in these pages, but the events of World War II seemed to change the nature of the genre a great deal, with the hopeful and upbeat tales of interstellar escapades replaced with a more sombre and serious outlook as the world starkly realised the destructive potential of technology.

That remains the case with much SF today, of course, with dystopian fiction and tales of the risks of technology abounding. I’m a huge fan of Black Mirror, which for me remains TV’s most insightful take on where our beloved machines might end up taking us. Every genre is a broad church, however, and while it may not be the biggest thing right now, we still see touches of humour in the field. Indeed, iconic books such as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy made it a central tenet. Hundreds or thousands of years from now, the world will not be without its absurdities and moments of comedy – which will be our focus for today.

Comedy is hard

Comedy, when done well, has an air of being effortless – great comic novels seem to flow smoothly from scene to scene, eliciting smiles and laughter along the way. But it’s not an easy thing to do despite that impression – which is not to put anyone off, but we need to think a little about the nature of comedy at large.