Gothic Steam Phantastic > Information > Funny Steampunk Funny Steampunk

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Why take it so seriously? It’s heavy, science fiction and fantasy, and all subgenres. It’s a big business thing, blood serious. Competing “real” literature, the realms of SciFi and Fantasy have taken their arms and fight against the label of being just trivial. A story is not enough, it has to be a trilogy, in as many books as possible. Funny science-fiction and funny fantasy are just a niche - as if something can only be funny when one can laugh at its lack of success. Of course, there are a few writers who did make it big - Terry Pratchett being one of them, but even he has to deal with the fact that his books are not considered serious literature - they are a mere laugh. It’s not about the big things in life, like tossing a ring in a volcano. Now the father and mother of the subgenres already have problems with their funny cousins, the subgenres themselves have an even harder time. With a smaller audience, there is a possibility that there are not even fans enough to make it worthwhile making a sub of the subgenre. I won’t deny there is humour in some steampunk (Wild Wild West being good for more than one laugh) but the basics are usually much to serious to laugh about; a mad scientist taking over the world is not considered funny. The conspiracies popping up everywhere are way to difficult to make it funny. Well, of course humour comes in wide varieties, but why not set something truly hilarious in a steampunk setting? It’s been done with gothic horror, though. Horror as a genre was pretty big in the seventies, and so many slapstick horror, that was funny but still horror, made it to the audience. I’m thinking of Young Frankenstein (directed by Mel Brooks) and other parodies. I came to the idea of funny steampunk while watching The Great Race. What is the Mad Scientist taking over the world would be a clumsy fool, what if there were so much conspiracies nobody knew anymore whom was spying on whose secret society? What if many inventions broke down, or had other side effects? What if the plot itself would be hilarious, or even lacking (as in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Doug Adams)? Many modern writers and directors take themselves much too serious in my opinion, and fail to use their fantasy to come up with something surprising, thus not wandering off into the realms of humour, slapstick and foolishness. All has to suit the paved paths, and should help the artist reach its Pulitzer Price or Academy Award. I want to be entertained, and I like a good laugh every once in a while. So give me some silly steampunk, hilarious horror and funny fantasy! © Yaghish 2003

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