Output: The Light and the Dark

Comedy in Contrasts

Check out my first post here to read more about the namesake of this newsletter and make a copy of the input/output tracking sheet if you so desire.

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Today, I want to share a writing prompt that I created for my Catapult (RIP) class called “Reading Modern Comic Literature as Writers.” I taught two sections of the class, and we read books across several forms to pull out and practice concepts:

• Made for Love by Alissa Nutting (comedic novel; class focus was physical and hyperreal comedy)

• Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (comedic memoir; class focus was writing the personal and creating comedic characters)

• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (comedic novel; class focus was dark/violent comedy and poetic images)

• Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Lavery (collection of comedic essays and conceptual humor; class focus was writing about yourself and periods of change)

• Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour (comedic novel; class focus was the structure of parody)

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer (comedic novel; class focus was travelogue and narratorial techniques)

• Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (comedic novel; class focus was innovative form)

• Temporary by Hilary Leichter (comedic novel; class focus was absurd humor)

I truly loved teaching these classes—they were like a book club, with the final thirty minutes of each class reserved for 2-3 writing prompts to implement some of the strategies the author used in that week’s book. Students could then post their writing exercise in the class forum and get feedback on early stage, generative writing.

Here’s a prompt from that class for you to try, taken from the week we discussed the dark comedy of My Sister the Serial Killer. I structured this prompt to bake in a sense of contrast that can heighten an interaction into comedic territory:

In My Sister the Serial Killer, Korede says you have to accept someone into your confidence to be friends with them. Write a monologue of a character confessing something dark (a crime, an indiscretion, a secret, anything else) to someone they hope to make their friend. Think of setting — are they at a baby shower? In line for the bathroom? One of them giving the other a pelvic exam? Think about creating the contrast between the light and the dark using the setting and the secret. Contrast is a huge engine for comedy!

Share your writing if you so desire!

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ABOUT ME: My name is Caitlin Kunkel and I’m a comedy writer, long-time teacher, and creator of The Second City’s Online Satire Writing Program. I currently teach classes and consult on gift book proposals, modern adaptation, satire, and comedic literature. I co-founded The Belladonna Comedy and the Satire and Humor Festival, and I co-wrote the satirical gift book New Erotica for Feminists: Satirical Fantasies of Love, Lust, and Equal Pay, named one of the Top 10 Comedy Books of 2018 by Vulture.