Guest Post: Dunne Brothers #WinterofZombie

 NOVEMBER 21, 2015 BY ARMAND ROSAMILIA

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G’day Everyone,
Comedy in horror writing? How do you do it? It’s not easy, but i think it makes for a better story. Especially in horror stories. It’s the ying to the yang, the calm in the storm, the flash of light in the dark, the held back smile in the face of fear and the kung to the fu.

If done properly it can add to the story in a big way. Done incorrectly it just seems amateurish. One of my best lines I ever wrote was when we were still in school: The devastation was overwhelming, my heart sank and I softly farted. – See? Amateurish.

My favourite type of humour is the awkward, everyday, relatable humour. You know those awkward moments that we all encounter but most of us ignore. e.g. you drive down the freeway on the way to work, all alone on your own version of auto pilot. Not thinking of anything, maybe you don’t even notice the grin on your head listening to the morning crew chatting and laughing. Maybe you don’t realize your wearing your resting bitch face because you hate the world and everything on it because you shouldn’t be up, yet let alone driving to work. But for some unknown, unexplainable reason you look out your window, not the front window, but the side window. It may be fate, it may be dumb luck or it could be the force, because for one brief second you look out the side window at that exact same time the driver in the car next to you looks out their window and you lock eyes for a few brief awkward seconds. You both see each other’s dumb grins or resting bitch faces. For a brief few seconds you see into the other persons little niche but neither of you admit it’s awkward and both parties continue on their ways.

It’s hard to explain awkward humour in writing. On screen, in a movie or on TV it would only take a few seconds to build the awkward humour, however when writing it, it takes a lot more explanation and can often lose the subtlety of the situation. For instance I find great humour in that little patch of awkwardness that can come not following the unspoken life rules. An example would be not following the rules on the required distance that is acceptable to hold the door open for the person following you. If you’re standing there looking like an idiot for to long because missed judged how long the next person will take to get through said door it can be very awkward. You can’t just close the door behind you and enter the room alone that would just be rude. Do you pretend that you weren’t ready to go through the door yet and close the door and wait for this person to catch up a little bit? And then there is the ordeal of letting the person in, do you walk through and hold it behind you, or do you sort of stand half in the door way half in front of the door struggling to hold it open, but pretending it’s easy while the person has to slide to closely past you.

Another example can be as simple as saying “You too”

Take-a-way employee: “Enjoy your burger Sir.”
You: “You too.”

You expect the take a way employee to say enjoy your day, instead he says something else, but you already have your answer in the chamber and you accidentally discharge before knowing what your doing. Of course you don’t want the take a way employee to also enjoy your burger. You didn’t order enough for you to both share because you weren’t intending on sharing. You’re only logical course of action is to find another burger joint and never speak of this again.

There is also the ‘set up and knock down’ type of humour. I have an example below that I made for a friend as a novelty wine label.

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The stench of frozen flesh is in the air! Welcome to the Winter of Zombie Blog Tour 2015, with 40+ of the best zombie authors spreading the disease in the month of November.

Stop by the event page on Facebook so you don’t miss an interview, guest post or teaser…and pick up some great swag as well!

Giveaways galore from most of the authors as well as interaction with them!

#WinterofZombie is the hashtag for Twitter, too!