A Funny Bone

I took a workshop about writing funny from the very funny author, Brenda Scott Royce (Monkey Love and Monkey Star.) She said that the "K" sound is funny. I took her word for it, not really getting that. But today, I finally DID get it.

I had to write a line of dialogue that included an ear bone. I had three choices: the stapes, the malleus, or the incus. And OMG, incus was way funnier!

Here's the snippet.

"We’re talking about the future. Adam’s future," Davina said.

“Which, to reiterate, will not end in marriage," said Lazslo. "Nothing personal against this Paige person, but my client feels strongly about this.”

“But love—”

“Isn’t something Adam is looking for here, not with this human woman. If she was a shapeshifter, that would be one thing, but she’s not. So, we want a clause stipulating that this is a temporal wish, twenty-four hours only. After that you’re out of the picture, Davina. No fairy mumbo-jumbo to push them down the aisle.”

Davina wrinkled her nose.

“No matter how good their numbers look,” Laszlo added.

“You’re killing me, Laszlo. Don’t you have one romantic bone in your body?”

"As a matter of fact, I do," Lazslo said a little stiffly. “My incus is romantic.”

“Your…?” Davina blinked. “Your incus?”

“It’s a very small bone in my ear.”

“You’re making that up.”

“Am not.”

CONCLUSION: Incus = a funny bone. Stapes and malleus = not funny bones