Writing Guide 101: How to Use Humor in Essay Writing?

As highlighted by the Academic Writing Experts, essay writing is a serious business; hence, it should be taken seriously!

But here’s the thing: what is the purpose of any writing piece? To grab readers’ attention, right? And you won’t be able to do that with straight facts and a “down your throat” strategy.

So what exactly do you need to grab the reader’s attention? Yes, you guessed it right: Creativity!

And that’s where humor comes in to make your essays look creative and fun! Humor has the power to bring people together and change your perspective of the world. Obviously, not everyone is an expert at being funny, especially in writing. Making people burst out with laughter takes expertise and skill, and since humor heavily relies on instincts, it is tougher to learn than the rest of the techniques.

Despite the serious nature of essay writing, writers can always experiment with a humorous spin once or twice through their essay. Well, we’re not recommending you to fill your entire essay with irrelevant and forced jokes; just a funny statement or a humorous sarcasm is enough to bring a smile or a smirk to your readers’ face. The goal is not a laughing-out-loud laugh, just a little smirk, that’s it!

Humor can do wonders if used appropriately at the right time and at the right moment. Remember: everyone likes a humorous sentence only if it isn’t offensive.

But before moving on, let’s discuss what exactly humor writing is:

Humor writing refers to a sentence, piece or statement of nonfiction or fiction written with the intention of being amusing. The piece or statement doesn’t necessarily need to be laugh-out-loud funny.

 Types of Humorous writing:

Humor is not only restricted to sitcoms or stand-up comedy shows. It can also be used in both fiction and nonfiction pieces:

1. Humor novel:

Humor or comedic novels have their own separate genre. They can either be fiction or nonfiction. Fiction humorous novels often are satirical pieces, where the writers use irony, humor and hyperbole literary devices to expose or critique government or a corrupt politician—for example, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Animal Farm by George Orwell.

2. Short form:

Humor is also commonly found in short stories and narratives. Stories can be under 100-3000 words; the goal is to get smiles from the readers. These form of humorous pieces are usually published by literary journals.

3. Humor essay:

Humor essays are kind of essays whose main purpose is to entertain or amuse instead of persuading or inform. In order to add a comedic effect, many writers use humor essay technique to make their write-up look funny and interesting or there are online cheap essay writers who can assist you in writing.

Now that you understood the basic concepts of humorous writing (we hope so), let’s discuss its do’s and don’ts:

Do’s:

• A good sense of humor.
• Poke fun at stereotypes, relatable behaviors and situations that your readers can relate to.
• Identify your style of humor: are you a master of sarcasm like Chandler from Friends? Or do you like to tell intellectual jokes like Ross? Identify your niche and go on with it. There are many kinds of styles. Some of them are listed below:
• Situational humor: Finding humor in mundane and everyday situations.
• Self-depreciative humor: be a joke yourself! Having a sense of humor for yourself engage you to your readers.
• Dark humor: Also known as gallows humor, where a writer pokes fun at unpleasant or serious aspects of life like failure, death or suffering.
• Satirical humor: where a writer uses humor to critique or make fun of various failures of society, politician and government.
• Last but not least: Be original!

Don’ts:

• Avoid writing lame and cold jokes.
• Don’t be insensitive: avoid making jokes about race, religion and anything that could hurt people’s sentiments.
• Don’t be overboard. Too much humor makes you sound stupid!
• Don’t use forced jokes. Always be considerate about the choice of your jokes and use them where you feel appropriate.
• Don’t try too hard to be funny. If humor is not your thing, leave it. There’s no pressure!