The Worst Tragedy Can Be Turned Into Comedy

Roman mosaic, Italy, from the Baths, Rome. for more details see photo in Wikipedia under comedy.

I often struggle to tell funny stories. But when I tell tragic stories people fall about laughing.

I sat at an empty desk in the USA. When I reached for a mug, somebody said, 'Don't use that.'
"Why not.'
'Our colleague died.'
'Of what?'
'HIV.'

Surely you can't make anything funny out of death? Yes, you can. Especially if nobody knows it is true.

I wrote a story for my writers' circle in London. The plot was based on something I had read in a newspaper.

I won the prize for best story.

My fellow writers were rolling, roaring with laughter.

They said, 'it was the story of the night.'
'The funniest thing you've ever written.'

I was pleased. But slightly surprised.

I had been afraid somebody would recognize the story. Would they accuse me of plagiarism?

The plot was that a bomb went off and a woman survived under a desk. She held onto the hand of her friend all night. That kept her going and consoled her.

In the morning the rescuers pulled her out. There was nobody attached to the hand.

My English listeners in London thought it was hilariously funny. They laughed when I read it. They laughed afterwards talking about it. They went home laughing.

Nobody remembered the source.

It was a dreadful, harrowing story, a witness survivor's account of a woman who survived a notorious bombing in the USA.

Retold without the circumstances, transferred out of the time, into another country, with a different narrator, the tragedy had turned into a comedy.

If I wanted to re-use that true story a second time, I would make the twist ending that she had held onto the hand of a shop mannequin all night. Maybe thinking it was her deaf friend.

The lessons learned are:

1 You can use reports of tragedies in foreign countries and foreign newspapers for comic stories, written stories, or as stand up comedy or anecdotes.

2 By writing a story, and extending it to another, you can cope with an unsettling event by ensuring that every time you recall it your mind moves on to another, story, from a sad story to a happy or funny story.

Author
Angela Lansbury
travel writer and photographer.

Please come to Braddell Heights Advanced toastmasters on Wednesdays. Singapore time 7 pm to 9.30 pm. Workshop with Faith on Writing is Rewriting Online.
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