Humour - the cheat's shield against truth

I've just read yet another judge's report on a short story competition. And guess what?  The story was chosen as the winner because it was funny.  And I have to say that really pisses me off.

Time and again, I see excellent stories that I think are way better than the winning entry relegated to runner-up positions because they had no shred of humour in them.  In short, they were serious stories, often dealing with subjects that didn't lend themselves to being described by a quick quip.  Someone dealing with abuse, rape, a massive loss in their life, isn't going to see it in a humorous way.  When the end of someone's world is approaching, trying to make it funny is just crass and insensitive.

The truth is, I don't find a lot of what passes for humour and comedy funny.  I can't think of a worse torture than being forced to listen to a stand-up comedian.  It's forced humour, trying too hard, and generally feels excuciating.  Humour that's artificially constructed in this way leaves me completely cold.  Yet it seems to be what short story judges love.  

So does that mean I'm wasting my time writing stories about serious subjects?  Stories about the consequences of rape, discrimination, war, prejudice?  I don't think so.  I have something important I need to say, something that i believe crass comedy can't adequately get across.  So it then becomes a game of select-the-judge.  We read the judge's work to decide if we're wasting our time submitting.  As an SF writer, I'd probably opt not to enter a competition where the judge was a romance writer.  I've had too many stupid "that's interesting, dear" types of critiques from these people.  I can't see some of them grasping a big idea about the end of the universe.  

I feel a little like that about humour too.  Humour is a deflection mechanism.  It's a way to look at things sideways.  It's a cheat's shield against seeing the truth.  To me, humour is a cop-out, a way to make light of a situation someone's too scared to turn and look in the face.

But often the most powerful stories are about people who are scared to death. When a scared to death person raises the courage to turn around and examine the demon that's been haunting them for years we're all with her, cheering her on.  Because a character who's scared and willing to admit it brings us closer.  We want to support her on her quest.  But if she makes a funny quip she pushes us away with her shallowness.  Give me the scared character any day.