How to Write Fantasy Characters Who Are Actually Funny
By Jacklyn Walters
So you’re writing a novel.
The story is vibrant in your mind. It’s bursting with mystery and intrigue. It’s beautiful and strange and life changing. It takes place in the most idyllic setting. And it all orbits around an effervescent cast of characters. Funny characters.
The thing about funny characters is that some authors treat them like they’re all one and the same. Loud, sassy, banter-y characters take center stage.
Now I love a loud, sassy, banter-y character—that’s my favorite FMC archetype. But not every character has to be fast-talking, witty, and sarcastic. There are different types of humor and, therefore, different types of humorous characters.
Diversifying the humor in your story will make your cast members feel less like caricatures and more like individuals.
To illustrate this, we’re going to remind you of some of your—or at least my—favorite funny characters, their archetypes, and the comedic devices that make them so memorable.
Then, you can take these traits, mix and match them, pull them out of a hat, make your own prompts, and ultimately create your own characters’ unique senses of humor.
Okay. Here we go.
Ron Weasley
The Book: Harry Potter J.K. Rowling
The Archetype: The best friend.
The Comedic Device: One liners, sarcasm, and a steady thrum of disappointment.
Before you yell at me, I know he is not the obvious choice. He is not even the obvious Weasley choice. But Fred and George are funny on purpose.
Ron is funny because he is so absolutely fed up.
It’s in calling people “a git.” It’s the remarks he makes under his breath. It’s being confused and scared and mad when those are the appropriate emotions and no one else seems to be experiencing them. It’s the literary equivalent of Jim looking into the camera.
Rowan Whitethorn
The Book: Throne of Glass Sarah J. Maas
The Archetype: The love interest.
The Comedic Device: Secretly funny.
Rowan is standoffish.
In a cadre (iykyk) of talkative, charismatic, sarcastic characters, Rowan is the silent, intimidating one.
He’s stoic. He’s virtually unreadable. He plays the role of will-they-won’t-they love interest, the steadfast protector, the found brother.
But the man cannot keep a secret. And it’s so funny.
Just because Rowan rejects verbosity doesn’t mean he can’t get a good laugh out of the group (or us).
Azriel & Cassian
The Book: A Court of Thorns and Roses Sarah J. Maas
The Archetype: The older brother(s).
The Comedic Device: The dynamic duo.
They are, individually, each very funny.
Azriel is the brooding type. He makes quiet quips that you might not even notice if you don’t know him.
Cassian is crude. He’ll take food off your plate and make a sex joke at the dinner table.
Together, they are an unstoppable force. Two sides of the same coin.
When I surveyed my friends for their favorite funny characters, many said Rhysand. He does make me laugh. I do love him more than most of the human beings I know. But there’s something special about Cass and Az. I’d want them at my roast, not Rhys.
The secret is in the duo.
Sometimes the best humor comes in pairs. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Statler and Waldorf. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. They play off each other. They make their own fun.
Louise LeBlanc
The Book: Serpent & Dove Shelby Mauhrin
The Archetype: The vulgar woman.
The Comedic Device: Bits.
Lou is raunchy, it’s her whole thing. Then, she’s stuck in a tower of religious men and paired with the new recruit who is more pure than Bambi before the whole… well, you know.
So she entertains herself—to the dismay of the conservative men around her—by singing her favorite pub song: Big Tiddy Liddy.
It’s a recurring bit that shows us Lou’s playful, and inappropriate, nature.
Big Tiddy Liddy isn’t just pulled out when Lou wants to make the chasseurs blush. She uses it to dissolve tension, to create diversions, and as a little bit of sunshine in dark times. If you make it to Book 3, you even get to hear the end of Big Tiddy Liddy’s story.
A bit can do it all. A bit is everything. Bring back bits.
Mr. Bennet
The Book: Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
The Archetype: The exhausted dad.
The Comedic Device: Dry sarcasm.
Nobody does dry humor better than the Brits.
Mr. Bennet is a man unconcerned with the silliness of the ton. Never rude, but always pointing out just how ridiculous the goings on of his wife and daughters are.
He is a man who knows how to poke the bear, because he deeply loves and respects the bear.
All he wants is contentment for his wife, suitable husbands for his daughters, and a little bit of peace and quiet in his library.
He is one of us.
Mark Watney
The Book: The Martian Andy Weir
The Archetype: The lone wolf.
The Comedic Device: Crowd work.
If you’ve been keeping up with the Woodland Writers Instagram, you were probably shocked to not find The Martian on our 10 best openers list. “I’m pretty much fucked,” is about as good as an opener gets.
It’s because I wanted to save it for this one.
Mark Watney was Mars’ best stand-up comic, made even more impressive since his crowd work required no crowd.
His character needed to be strong because he’s all he’s got. If he wasn’t funny he’d be insufferable or, more likely, dead. It’s his good attitude and insistence on surviving that makes us want to read about a guy by himself on Mars.
Isaac
The Book: The Fault in Our Stars John Green
The Archetype: The third wheel.
The Comedic Device: Self-deprecating humor.
There is a real art to making light of heavy situations.
The Fault in Our Stars is about really terrible things. Worse yet, it’s a YA novel. The only way to make a terrible story about a real-life terrible disease is with some comic relief.
Isaac is our comic relief.
With hits like, “Thank you for explaining that my eye cancer isn’t going to make me deaf,” and “I’m pretty sure all asses are blind,” we were bound to fall in love with Isaac. Which is just his luck since Monica left him the minute she found out he was going to be blind.
There are dozens (hundreds? Millions?) of ways to be funny.
Some of my favorite archetypes didn’t even make the list: the class clown, the insane mentor, the crazy old lady, the bumbling-but-very-sweet idiot friend, the court jester, the outcast noble (you know the type—a haughty prince with daddy issues).
To set your characters apart, you’ll need to break the mold. But to break a mold you must first know what molds exist.
Spend some time considering your own favorite funny characters. Then, with a brain full of inspiration and a belly full of laughs, craft some characters you’ve never read before.