HOW DO YOU GUYS COME UP WITH WITTY QUOTES?

I can only think of one really quotable RM game.

"NOTHING WILL STOP ME FROM STOPPING YOU!!"

Eddie Izzard once said that the key to dealing with hecklers and sounding witty is just to say whatever the first thing that pops into your head is, without even thinking about it beforehand. It may not make any sense or anything, but the speed of the retort and the rhythm of the speech will do half your work for you. It's 40% how you look, 40% how you sound, and only 20% what you actually say, after all.

Of course when you're writing your scripts, you have the advantage of being able to go back to those quickfire retorts and revising them to work better. The main thing to do there is just to cut out anything that isn't necessary to the statement or the character (take out "well"s for example, or unnecessary transitions that aren't part of the character's specific idiom) and "tighten" the dialogue, though.

author=Atavus Dei link=topic=3251.msg64265#msg64265 date=1235969838
Such as, you don't want to have a serious dramatic scene ruined by a misplaced sarcastic quip (not to say you can't put quips in such scenes; many stories do that successfully, but the quip usually fits in with both the character's way of talking and the subject of the scene).

As long as we're on Whedonites, Jane Espenson comments on that specifically: joke in those scenes often need to not be funny. They need to come off as sort of painful and awkward, because they're about the characters trying to diffuse situations. Snarky characters are generally going to have some sort of response to any situation, but in those darker situations those quips are going to be there to try to deflect their emotions. They can still be kind of funny, but they need to be funny in a sort of painful way, if you take my meaning.

Yes, well, it's a deep subject.

We all draw our inspiration from various places, KRoP, and some of us are just gifted with the ability to say hilarious things at the drop of a hat (Karsuman and Ciel are really good examples of cutting wit).

My best advice to you is to read a lot of Douglas Adams books (He's the guy who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), any of the Xanth Series by Piers Anthony, and watch anything by Kevin Smith (including the original Clerks) and Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, while not always funny, has some incredibly witty banter). If you're into the old-school comedy, watch anything by The Marx Brothers. Groucho Marx practically invented witty dialogue.

Most importantly, don't try too hard to be funny. That's one of the big rules of comedy (that and comedy is serious business). Witty dialogue should just flow naturally. Find the brand of humor that works best for yourself. And remember, not everyone will find your brand of humor funny. I, personally, don't think any of the Austin Powers or <insert genre here> Movies are funny. Not my style.

Good luck!

author=Storm link=topic=3251.msg64450#msg64450 date=1236028187
Also, don't rip-off any well-known quote.


I've lost the count of how many times I saw the following quote in a game:

"You thief!"
"I prefer the term 'treasure hunter'."

Haha!


I think that writing witty banter can be very difficult. There are some traps that are easy to fall into:

A. You have a character who has something to say about EVERYTHING.
B. The hyper version of A, in that, you happen to be a witty person (Or think you are), and so you project your own wittiness onto EVERY character in your story, so that even the gormless farm boy and his goats are having 'witty banter'
C. Witty banter that goes on for far too long, becoming absorbed in its wittiness. Like this:

"Oh Suzanne, you are such a trout!"
"Ho, I may be a trout but I'd rather swim than sink into mediocrity,"
"Ah, that may be true, my darling Suzanne, but I'd rather sink into mediocrity than swim into the mouth of a shark,"
"That doesn't surprise me -- Carol, darling, you were always quite frigid,"
"Rather that side of the spectrum than the other, Suzanne."
"You mean you'd rather be cold-blooded than hot-blooded?"
"Oh, no, Suzanne. I believe that I called you the fish."

and on and so forth. It may be fun to write, but don't get carried away. I like Douglas Adams because he is funny AND keeps the story moving.

And so on and so forth.

And some people just 'have' it, but if you don't think you do, it doesn't mean you can't (Even the ones who just have it have to work on it, hence 'hone your wit'). Like MayorAnime said, read funny books (Terry Pratchett, maybe?). I try to incorporate plenty of humour in my stories, so I'm currently trying to hone my wit by watching sitcoms like Fawlty Towers, or whatever.

How do you guys come up with witty quotes?

The best way to learn how to be funny is to understand what is funny. Once you have figured that out, comedy is easy.














Cabbages.








That is all.

author=MayorAnime link=topic=3251.msg64439#msg64439 date=1236025770
any of the Xanth Series by Piers Anthony

Please no. The first five books are fine, but after that he just started phoning it in and basically letting the fans write the books themselves. And they totally lose all wit when he starts just explaining the puns rather than letting them speak for themselves.

You want quality role models as far as puns go, you want to look at the Marx Brothers. Or Shakespeare. But Shakespeare's work a lot better if you know Victorian slang, and realize how practically everything any character says is some sort of reference to the genitals, or sex. "Country matters" indeed.

In both cases I think a big part of their ability to make puns bearable is the sheer speed at which they fire them off. They go by so fast that you don't have time to groan at the groaners and the sheer volume of puns-per-second makes it hard not to laugh, even if none of them are individually amazing.

Timing is everything in humor and wit. It can be hard to achieve that with prose, and the best humorist writers tend to be the ones with a clear cadence even in their written word--Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett being excellent examples. As is Dave Barry, for all he plays off all of his humor as "booger jokes."

Coleslaw