Funny SF About

About

About FunnySF.com

While I enjoy either sf or humor by itself, I am thrilled when they're combined.

I'd like to give it more recognition, as a legitimate subgenre of sf.

I'd like to see more of it. Too little funny sf is published today. It's in the movies, to be sure, like Galaxy Quest, or Men in Black.

Sometimes, when I'm in a bad mood, I think that too many people in science fiction take themselves a wee bit too seriously.

Many sf writers who are extremely funny in person never seem to get around to writing funny sf. Or maybe they just can't get it published. I remember attending a reading at the Winnepeg Worldcon a few years ago. David Brin was there, and when the reader finished and announced he had another appointment to hurry off to, David said "well, could I read something?" Everyone in the room said "YES!!!!" David Brin proceeded to read one of the funniest segments of a story I'd ever heard. He explained he couldn't get it published; at least that's what I recall him saying. If so, it's too bad. Perhaps he's identified so thoroughly with serious science fiction that the publishers are afraid something funny wouldn't sell (perhaps they've forgotten Brin's The Practice Effect, which was pretty funny if I recall).

Don't get me wrong. There is a fair amount of funny sf out there. Many well-known sf authors have written it: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, and so on. Usually it's a minor subset of their work. People who've written lots of it include Spider Robinson, Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Connie Willis. Most of these are also known for their serious stuff as well.

I would just like to encourage them to write more of it. And encourage you to read it.

I hope I can point you to some of what I've enjoyed.

Updated 17 May 2008