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John Wilkerson, sci-fi author, journalist, and ghostwriter, has a favorite type of humor: the unintentional kind. Sometimes the funniest characters are the class-clown characters: the people who are always cracking jokes, setting up punch lines, and creating humorous situations. Wilkerson, however, built his Rye Ironstone sci-fi series around a character that doesn’t know he’s being funny. This creates a bit of dramatic irony because the readers and even other characters in the story are in on the joke even when the main character isn’t. The character believes that he’s being completely serious, “but his life is no more than a campy trip from point A to point B,” says Wilkerson. This “fish out of water” set of situations allows Wilkerson to weave entertainment in and around the drama of the story without telling a joke and taking the reader out of the narrative. Even the main character’s home state plays into this humor. Listen to the clip below to learn about crafting genuinely funny characters, not just funny jokes.