Have you ever read a piece of such dreary writing that by the end you have decided a little jail time would be preferable to reading that piece of dribble again? I definitely have. It's called academic writing.
Oh boy, do I hate it so. Yet, here I am in grad school, writing said dribble, hoping someone will publish my said dribble.
Every great writer uses humor in some way, even in his or her most depressing piece. For example, Shakespeare wrote a charming piece called Hamlet, in which Hamlet father is murdered by Hamlet's uncle. His uncle marries his mother. By the end, Hamlet's girlfriend, her brother and father, Hamlet's mother and uncle, and Hamlet himself are dead. They are not to be. But Shakespeare made sure he injected humor into this crazy fest.
The great question of Hamlet's insanity has been answered by me. And I very humbly submit the answer to you. Hamlet is crazy because Shakespeare needed to add some laughs. Let's have Hamlet call old man Polonius a fishmonger. That will get them rolling in the aisles.
A piece of writing is dead without humor. If you are a serious writer, but you are concerned that you may not be very funny, you better start watching some Marx Brothers or reading some David Sedaris. Stand up comedy is also a great start.
But here are a couple general pointers:
* Notice the absurd in every day life. In one of my humorous pieces, I took the word literally and made explicit how misused that particular expression happens to be. For example, someone says, "I am literally crying like a little girl." To me this means that a grown person is having a tantrum. Maybe he didn't get as many cookies as his friend.
* Think of different and unique ways of presenting something. Not only do comedians notice the absurd, but they make combinations and present unique situations that could happen in real life, but luckily quite rarely. For example, getting drunk on a plane was used to great effect in the movie Bridesmaids.
* Heighten reality. Be sure to take all those crazy moments and make them just a little more absurd. Seinfeld is a master at taking the ordinary and blowing it out of proportion. For example, his "pop tart" jokes makes the pop tart look like it was a mind-blowing revolution when it came out.
I hope you've enjoyed these basic pointers. Best of luck on your future writings and don't forget to be funny!