funny vs. stupid

[redwing]

I'm dming a comical game. It is a homebrew world (not finished) and it was a combination from many sources. What I need to know is:

Where is the line between comedy and stupidity?

I do not want to dm a game that turns out to be like the movie Dude Where's My Car? I am sorry and do not mean to offend anyone involved with the movie or anyone who enjoyed it. I'm just saying that I don't want my campaign to contain "that kind" of comedy. Some of the suggestions my friends (who game but not in my group) mentioned seemed to be stupid (or hokey if you prefer).

One example: You make the descicion (comedy or stupidity) In desingning the world, make the continets look like different things or the whole world seems to resemble something.

 

[Crothian]

There are different types of comedy. The easist seperations are mature and immature. Comical games are fien and can work, you just need everyone to know what kind of funny is good, and what type of funny is bad.

 

[Mark]

I'm dming a comical game. It is a homebrew world (not finished) and it was a combination from many sources. What I need to know is:

Where is the line between comedy and stupidity?

I'm afraid that there is no way to answer this question realistically. The perception of what is funny is completely subjective and the only guide to this is your audience whose perceptions can change from moment to moment. Since you know your group better than anyone else, you're the best one to answer this question. For the record, though, Stupid is a sub-set of Funny (mathematically speaking, of course) and there isn't a line between them.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I would suggest just making up a "normal" fantasy world and just treating everything in a lighthearted fashion. Otherwise every game will devolve into slapstick and the palayers will just sit around hitting each other with fish or something.

For reference material, watch A Knight's Tale.

 

[Zhure]

Dave Berry once mentioned that at any sentence containing the phrase "weasels champing at my privates" and it's derivatives will be funny in any context.

Greg

 

[Moe Ronalds]

Re: Re: funny vs. stupid

I'm afraid that there is no way to answer this question realistically. The perception of what is funny is completely subjective and the only guide to this is your audience whose perceptions can change from moment to moment. Since you know your group better than anyone else, you're the best one to answer this question. For the record, though, Stupid is a sub-set of Funny (mathematically speaking, of course) and there isn't a line between them.

*nods* I second this. For the school talent show, I sang a song parody I wrote, even though I thought it was incredibly and the idea had been done to death before and was, after all, by now so 'last year'. But, since my audience was a bunch of 12-15 year olds, they loved it. My point? I don't know, I forgot long ago, this reply kind of degenerated into me pushing the air pump leading to my ego, but, I do agree with that guy, that what your audience considers funny and stupid may be different than what some people would say. That's what he meant, right?

 

[bondetamp]

This is a true story:

I once, for a show at my university, I wrote an incredible piece of parody. It was fifteen minutes long, all rhyming, spoofing a particular Norwegian translation of Goethes Faust.

No-one laughed.

 

[hong]

Where is the line between comedy and stupidity?

Damned if I know.

 

[Arkham]

Re: Re: funny vs. stupid

Damned if I know.

Now _THAT's_ comedy!

 

[nsruf]

Re: Re: funny vs. stupid

For the record, though, Stupid is a sub-set of Funny (mathematically speaking, of course) and there isn't a line between them.

I beg to differ Let's say that the intersection of the two isn't empty. But I can think of many stupid things that aren't funny - and redwing seems to think the same or he wouldn't ask.

If you are looking for a model of comic fantasy that is not stupid at all, try Terry Pratchet's Discworld series.