Arsthbt

I have a character that likes to make humor, puns and jokes.

Humor should work here as a character trait; something really peculiar to this particular char. He says a lot of puns because he find them amusing on an intellectual level. Some people like riddles, some like puzzle games, and some others play sudoku. My character fascination for wordplay and humor follows the same rules.

It doesn't have to be funny for the reader too, nor for the other characters (or at least not always). Being a person who enjoys puns, I know that what makes me snicker will probably make someone else roll up his eyes in annoyance. This is somehow part of comedy, since not everyone likes the same things.

What I want to avoid at all cost is writing a comic-relief character. It wouldn't work, both because I don't believe that comic-relief only props aren't a good way to go, and because it would feel completely out of place with the grim setting he's in. And moreover, I don't want the humor feel forced.
Jokes are allowed to land flat; but they shouldn't be annoying for the readers.

So, how do incorporate humor organically as a character trait?

Additional info:

• The character is not the protagonist.


• The character may have his PoV for few chapters.


• I'm not sure about the previous statement. If possible, for the sake of answering, assume he hasn't.


• The setting is a sci-fi with cyberpunk themes, like oppression of the masses, mindless extermination, general diregard for life, vast areas of the world left in decay and disrepair ...


• The main character is a young girl who experienced several losses in the story. So, it's pretty grim.

Related:

• Writing witty/funny characters with deadpan humor


• Tips for humor writing

You prevent writing a comic-relief character by making them essential to the mission. And not shallow or dumb.

Give him a skill (besides punning) that the others value, or even a trait: Perhaps he likes punning because he is also extremely inventive in a good way, for solving problems, for anticipating the enemy, for thinking around corners. Maybe puns, bad and good, are just signs of an always active mind looking at everything from six sides at once.

So his friends put up with the puns, because his insights and strategies save their butt more often than not, and they can actually be grateful to have him. Even if they don't find his puns funny, the gratitude they have for his contributions far outweigh any irritation they have at dumb puns; so they don't resent them. They just ignore 90% of them, and laugh at 10% of them. And he can be fine with that, he made them laugh.

To give two examples to @Amadeus' excellent answer, take a look at the characters of Marco from Animorphs and Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Both were comic relief characters on their face, but after spending time with them, we quickly see that they are the tactical masterminds of their own teams.

Sokka was the planner and could easily assess their strengths and weaknesses and think outside of the box. As much as he was the funny guy, he was also the idea guy and could easily see the solution everyone was missing. Marco's humor was more of a sarcasm response to the plan that pointed out the very big flaw of the mission of the book... he rarely actually devised the solution, but once one was put forward, he pointed out flaws in a form that the team could accept. The team leader, Jake, was his best friend and had long before the series started accepted the fact that "Marco is going to mess with you... just accept it and be prepared to counter it". In fact, Marco is the whole reason Jake was declared leader... he was the only person on the team everyone had a pre-existing relationship with and he could translate Marco for everyone else.

Both of these characters allowed their prefered humor to inform their useful skills.

Another characteristic of both of them, is that they tended to not so much say and do funny things, but react to bizarre stuff going on around them. Both characters do observe that their teams tend to get into bizarre situations all the freakin' time, even by the setting's logics and are quick to point it out... and get frustrated when the logic doesn't work.

The question is are you writing a point of view character? If it's point of view then you have to be funny. It's the same way as you would struggle to write a millinery tactician POV character if you did not know anything about military tactics. You just can't sell a character's thoughts to the reader if you don't have a good understanding of the subject matter he is thinking about. Humor is no different.

If you are not writing a POV character then everything is much easier. Arthur Conan Doyle did not have to be as smart as Sherlock Holmes because the POV character was Watson. In the same way you don't have to be funny if other characters are hearing the jokes.

This reminds me a lot of a character in one of my works that talked too much. I did not bore the reader with text to make them pick up on that trait. Instead the POV character said things like "He said something about his dog. I tuned out after the second sentence. His lips continued to flap for the next fifteen minutes"

You can do a very similar thing for your writing. "Someone brought up the President and Bob had to tell a joke. I rolled my eyes before he even got to the punchline." Simple characterization of Bob and the speaker, and no humor had to be written.

You could claim that you can use the same technique with POV. "I told a joke, but no one laughed" but I don't think that works well. With a POV character this seems to quickly take you from immersive writing, to descriptive writing, and that is never a good thing.

Just write it and trust to both the character and situation to keep it organic.

I have a character in my current work who has quite a dark sense of humour. He is a seasoned CIA officer who has seen and done much, but because of this his wry wit evolved. I have a scene where my MC - hunted by others - is essentially trapped by his loved ones and receiving medical treatment.This character finds that highly ironic and begins to smile. As time passes, the smile becomes larger as the absurdity of the situation is savoured by him. The MC and he exchange glances and he starts laughing. The MC joins in, seeing the ridiculous side to the situation he is in.

A third character refers to this CIA officer no longer as ghost (he does not know who he is, but what is clear) but chuckles and the monicker sticks.

As long as it is natural to both character and story, you should be fine. You say it is a trait, as long as it is one facet among others you will have a well rounded character whose point of view is such that humour is added. He can give comic relief without being comic relief.