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Q&A Averting Bathos

I'd say it depends. It depends on the kind of humour you're planning to insert, on the characters, and on the specific situations. Slapstick in the middle of a death scene would probably be too m...

posted 4y ago by Llewellyn‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:59:44Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48100
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Llewellyn‭ · 2019-12-08T12:59:44Z (over 4 years ago)
I'd say it depends. It depends on the kind of humour you're planning to insert, on the characters, and on the specific situations.

Slapstick in the middle of a death scene would probably be too much. People making joking comments, on the other hand, or finding humour in the situation, as explained by @Keith Morrison is only realistic.

However, it also depends a bit on the type of characters. Some characters are more serious and would think joking completely inappropriate. Others might have a tendency to treat everything as a joke, even in the bleakest of circumstance. Most people find themselves somewhere in the middle. Joking is a way to relieve tension, not just in the story or for the reader, but also for the characters (or people in real life). After all, there's such a thing as gallows humour.

Again, it depends a bit on the situation. Say, your characters just survived a gruesome battle. Then there's nothing wrong with them goofing off afterwards. Maybe not the ones who lost a friend or loved one, but the others will want to celebrate still being alive.

At funerals, people tend to be somber and sometimes will cry. But often, at the shared meal afterwards, those same people will chat merrily, crack jokes, fondly remember the person they lost - there will still be grief, but also laughter.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-09-21T09:27:17Z (over 4 years ago)
Original score: 0