There’s another humorous sci-fi writer who comes to mind, who’s had a big impact:

Kurt Vonnegut

Nearly every SF author from the “Golden Age” tried their hand at humorous stories. They’d end up in mags like Astounding or Galaxy or Analog as little more than filler. The stories were really silly, as if the authors wanted to make them way over-the-top so that they could distance themselves. Other than Vonnegut and one or two others like CM Kornbluth and Ron Goulart most dabbled with sci-fi humor but that was pretty much it. In a genre already in the closet – this was the super secret trapdoor in the back of the closet. All the silliness went into book cover design.

On the other hand, I love detective genre humor like Carl Hiaasen and to a lesser extent, Elmore Leonard. I read Gary K Wolf’s_Who Censored Roger Rabbit?_ a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably because I’m a big fan of Chandler and Hammett and the “bizarre noir” quality struck a chord. I’ll have to check out Paul Kane, Aurelio O’Brien & Adrienne Jones. Thanks for the tip and great discussion of character and humor.

A long time ago in… anyway it was way back, I went to a sci-fi convention to meet my hero Isaac Asimov. With a copy of _Pebble in the Sky_ in hand I went off to hunt him down and get his autograph. I found him hiding behind a group of potted palms with a group of fans and two other SF writers; DC Fontana and David Gerrold. Asimov was kind of scary looking in real life. He had these coke bottle thick glasses and enormous mutton chop sideburns that made him look like the mayor of Whoville. The topic of discussion was humor in SF. David Gerrold the guy who wrote the infamous Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” was catching flak from a couple of fans for injecting humor into a “serious show” like Star Trek.

Anyway, Asimov defended Gerrold and said that he would have put more humor in his writing but that he’d have to put in a yiddish glossary half as long as the book and his publisher wouldn’t go for it. Bottom line, he thought there was enough room for humor in the genre and people should lighten up.

If they ever invent a time machine I want to take Triumph the Insult Comic Dog back to that convention as my wingman. That and put in a buy order for Microsoft in 1975 and a sell order for 1999. Hey, I was like 12 at that convention, what did I know? Besides, I spent most of the time staring at Nichelle Nichols breasts.

It’s true that people love to laugh, and non-genre books in the humour category do well. I like to buy funny books for other people, especially if I think they need a laugh or two, and writing a funny series was an extension of that.

Wonderful discussion, all of you. Aurelio, I loved your comment about the giggling McNuggets – how you show us the absurd things we already accept in our culture by changing their forms.

Simon – So nice to see you here!

Once you’ve gone out and supported the above authors, consider checking out the teasers at http://gudmagazine.com/vault/0/ — especially “Trying to Make Coffee” and “4 Short Parables” — we’re doing what we can to support humor, as well. :)

-kaolin fire
-chief instigator, issue 0
-greatest uncommon denominator magazine