Situational vs. Character Driven Zingers

The two basic types of humor found in comic strips are situational and character-driven. What does that mean? Simply put, situational humor comes from what happens in a comic strip. Character-driven humor relates to how the characters react to what happens.

Situational is where it starts. This is the basic premise of any comic strip, the core of the cartoonist's idea. The zinger in the last panel is based on what happens before it. A situational zinger takes the standard form of any joke - the setup, then the punchline. The focus is on what happens or what is said. This is the most common type of humor in comics.

Character-driven zingers are more complex, taking the humor to the next level. This is only possible with well-developed characters. Situations becomes secondary. The cartoonist can place the characters in almost any situation and know how they will act and the humor comes from those actions. This doesn't make writing a funny zinger any easier but the humor is derived from a more personal experience, for the cartoonist and the reader. The best and most successful comic strips reach this level of humor.

This isn't to say situational zingers are bad humor. Sometimes they are brilliantly hilarious! They work best in strips without reoccurring characters or at least ones that have that gag-a-day mentality. Where situational zingers falter is when the strip is character-driven but the humor is not. This unfortunately is common as it is more difficult (or just more rare) to write good character-driven zingers than think up funny situations. How do you spot this? When you read a comic strip, ask yourself whether it matters which character did or said what. Or if it matters whether it took those specific characters to tell that specific joke. If it doesn't matter, the humor is situational. I think most strips strive to achieve character-driven humor but end up situational. The result is often a flat zinger.

Try asking yourself these questions when you next read the funny pages. Are they situational or character-driven? Which ones make you laugh most?