Throwback Thursday #14: Top Five Favorite Comedic Fics

With just one week left in July, we’re wrapping up the month with jokes! This week, I’m blogging about my favorite humor stories. Comedy may not the genre I’m best known for writing, but I do enjoy occasionally taking a break from the drama to write something light and funny! With that being said, I do have a rather twisted, morbid sense of humor, so even my comedies tend to be a little dark. Here are my top five favorite comedic fics!

5. Dodging the Daylight

Dodging the Daylight is a satirical short story I wrote for April Fool’s Day about Brian’s courageous battle with skin cancer. The story was not meant to make light of skin cancer but to poke fun at my melodramatic cancer fics of the past, particularly Broken. In Dodging the Daylight, Brian discovers a suspicious mole on his shoulder and is subsequently diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, the most common and treatable type of skin cancer. He reacts every bit as dramatically as Broken Nick did over his (admittedly much more serious) bone cancer diagnosis. While cancer itself is far from funny, most of the humor in this story comes from Brian overreacting to everything that occurs in it and trying to prepare himself for the worst: hair loss due to chemo, the possible amputation of his arm, or even death, despite his 99.9% chance of survival. The last scene in Chapter 3, in which Brian tries to process his diagnosis, is a direct parody of Chapter 100 of Broken, in which Nick grapples with the decision of whether or not to proceed with the amputation of his leg in order to save his life. The start of Chapter 5, in which Brian bravely undergoes the removal of his cancerous mole, also parodies Chapter 106 of Broken, in which Nick ultimately does have his leg amputated. I had so much fun laughing at myself and how melodramatic I used to be, but I wrote this little send-up with nothing but love for its source material. Broken may be super cheesy at times, but it helped make me the writer I am today and will always hold a special place in my heart. That’s why I can’t help but love Dodging the Daylight, too.

4. 1000 Ways to Kill Nick Carter

Death isn’t funny either… except when it is. Americans around my age may remember the TV show 1000 Ways to Die, which contained comedic reenactments of supposedly real and unusual deaths. I definitely watched more than a few episodes of it back in the day – morbid sense of humor, remember? – and my equally-twisted co-writer, Rose, drew on its title when naming 1000 Ways to Kill Nick Carter, a round robin collaboration in which we and our fellow contributors attempted to creatively kill Fic Nick in one thousand different ways.

Why, you ask? Well, the idea came from a conversation on Twitter about why Nick always seems to be a victim in fanfics. I’ve since learned that the fannish term for this is a “woobie” – that loveable character who constantly ends up on the “hurt” side of hurt/comfort because fans just want to hug him and watch the other characters comfort him. I’m not sure if Nick is our woobie because he’s the most popular member of the group, because he’s the baby, or because he’s dealt with so much personal drama in his real life, but it’s probably some combination of the three.

In any case, this conversation led Rose to come up with the concept of a series of one-shots in which Nick dies in the most random, absurd, and comedic ways possible. For example, getting killed by a platypus (the world’s most poisonous mammal!) or literally ripped apart by crazy fans clamoring to get a piece of him. These are just two of the eight deaths I’ve written for this story. I enjoy all of them, but my favorite has to be Death #60, which is entitled “Bang Bang, Choo-Choo Train” after the funniest line from one of my favorite unreleased BSB songs, “Hologram.” I wrote this one in the summer of 2012, when the Boys were living together in London and working on songs for In a World Like This. That was a really fun summer because there was so much BSB content! Of course, a lot of it came in the form of AJ’s annoying “bomb” videos he put on SocialCam, which I made fun of in this story. The premise revolves around the Boys making a stop at King’s Cross Station to find Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters – which, of course, goes horribly awry for Nick. I love this one because it features the whole group and has a lot of fun banter and Harry Potter references. The end is pretty gory, but I guess that’s part of the humor if you’re twisted like me. If you’re not, well… this probably isn’t the story for you.

3. Shorty and the Deceased

Yet another dark and twisted, death-themed short story, Shorty and the Deceased was written for a challenge over at the Absolute Chaos forum. The challenge was for participants to write their own Backstreet version of a well-known fairy tale, post it anonymously, and then try to guess who wrote each story. We chose Beauty and the Beast as the fairy tale for everyone to Backstreet-ize in a way that fit their writing style and fanfic niche.

Since I was best known for writing Nick cancer stories at that point in time, my original idea was to turn Beauty and the Beast into a Nick cancer story. Nearly a decade before Dodging the Daylight, I attempted to parody Broken with a prologue in which Nick is cursed diagnosed with penile cancer and loses his dick, leading him to believe he’ll spend the rest of his life alone, “for who could ever learn to love a man with no peen?” If this is making you cringe, you’re not alone! I didn’t make it past the prologue of this version because it wasn’t funny, and I was way too uncomfortable writing it.

When I realized I needed to take it in a different direction, I turned to another topic I’d been writing a lot about more recently: zombies! Rose and I had been working on Song for the Undead for almost five years at that point, so I figured a zombie apocalypse version of Beauty and the Beast would be fun and also fitting for me as a writer. That’s exactly what Shorty and the Deceased is. Based on the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, it begins with a prologue in which Nick is bitten by an undead woman who turns up on his doorstep. The bite results in a rampant infection that spreads up his arm, which is amputated in a last resort to save his life. I was known as the “Choppage Queen” over at Absolute Chaos, so I had to include some kind of amputation. Self-conscious about his missing limb, Nick hides himself away in his mansion with an iPhone as his only window to the outside world. Meanwhile, Shorty ain’t got cable. She ain’t even got a radio. But she does have a book in her hand and a song in her heart as she strolls into her little town, which, unbeknownst to her, has been ravaged by the undead. Chased by a horde of zombies, Shorty takes refuge inside Nick’s mansion with him and the rest of the Backstreet Boys. But, of course, since she doesn’t have cable or a radio, she doesn’t have a clue who they are. Will Shorty be the one to look past Nick’s missing arm and love him for who he is on the inside rather than who the rest of the world sees him as? Will the Backstreet Boys survive the zombie apocalypse? These questions are answered in the rest of the story.

I adore this story for a couple of reasons. First of all, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, so I had fun writing this spoof of it, especially when it came to the songs. Secondly, “She’s a Dream” is my least favorite BSB song, so I also enjoyed making fun of it throughout the story, especially with the title character, Shorty. Besides being completely clueless about current events and pop culture, Shorty is clearly not the brightest crayon in the box, but her plucky optimism made her a fun protagonist for a post-apocalyptic parody.

2. 00Carter

00Carter is what happens when a bunch of girls who don’t know or care all that much about James Bond decide to write a James Bond parody starring the Backstreet Boys. This AU story started out loosely based on Bond… but quickly evolved into something else entirely, a quirky action-comedy that includes moonwalking penguins, swashbuckling pirates, bobsledding sasquatches, and so much more. Oh, and singing. Lots of singing. It sounds silly, and it absolutely is, but hopefully in a good, funny way. Maybe it’s because of the brilliant co-writers who have fueled my creativity, but I’ve laughed more while planning and writing this story than any other. It’s completely different from most of my other fanfics, and that’s one of the reasons why I love it. Writing comedy takes a different kind of creativity than writing drama, so it always challenges me in new ways.

It’s hard to pick a favorite episode of 00Carter, but I’ve always been partial to Episode 6: “It’s a Small World,” which takes place at Disney World, Episode 9: “Wreckage in a Winter Wonderland,” which is set during the Winter Olympics, and Episode 12: “Mr. Body Beautiful,” which takes place inside Kevin’s body. But, really, every episode has scenes that make me smile. Even Episode 13: “A Lost Odyssey,” our most serious episode to date, includes a Blue’s Clues B-plot that still cracks me up to this day. The various parodies are some of my favorite parts of 00Carter. We’ve spoofed everything from Speed to The Magic School Bus, Carmen Sandiego to Willy Wonka, Casablanca to Home Alone. I will write more about specific scenes and characters in upcoming blogs, but if you’ve never clicked on 00Carter, I encourage you to give it a try! It’s truly one of the most fun – and funniest – fics I’ve ever had a hand in writing.

00Carter almost took the top spot on this list, but ultimately, I went with… drumroll, please…

1. The Pandaskunk Saga

Technically, The Pandaskunk Saga is a trilogy, but I’m counting it as one story here because, otherwise, it would have taken at least two, possibly three spots on this list. What started as a silly little joke story turned into a trio of stories that I genuinely love and take pride in. Is this my best work ever? Probably not, but it is among the most entertaining – to me, anyway. And that’s the thing about humor: it’s subjective. What one person finds funny, another person might not, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

Personally, the biggest influence on my sense of humor has been Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, which I’ve been watching faithfully ever since its first season aired in 1997. I was only twelve at the time, so I basically grew up with South Park. While I would never dare to compare my writing or humor to that of Matt and Trey, whom I consider to be creative/comedic geniuses, I will say that The Pandaskunk Saga is where their influence on me is most apparent, in terms of my writing.

Inspired by the mystical flying panda with the long, fluffy, skunk-like tail in the music video for “It’s Christmas Time Again,” The Pandaskunk Saga tells the tale of Patches and Petunia, two anthropomorphic panda-skunk hybrids who team up with Brian, Nick, and the rest of the Backstreet Boys to save Christmas and the world. If it sounds stupid, that’s probably because it is – but in a funny way! The first story, The Gift of the Pandaskunk, started as a simple Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer parody that I wrote while home sick with the flu to “explain” the Boys’ trippy Christmas music video, which had just come out and was getting a lot of flack from fans. I had a lot of fun writing it, so when I got an idea for a sequel two years later, I wrote another one… and then a third story a few years after that.

Like 00Carter, I love these stories because they’re the complete opposite of what I typically write. I usually do a lot of research for my fics and try to make them as realistic as possible, but with the pandaskunk stories, anything goes – because, in a universe with flying, talking pandaskunks, anything can happen! Most of my “research” for this trilogy involved watching or reading the various movies, shows, and books I spoofed, everything from Christmas classics like Rudolph, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Christmas Vacation to stuff that has nothing to do with the holidays, such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Armageddon, Independence Day (technically holiday-related, I guess), Cujo, Captain Planet, multiple Disney movies, and The Backstreet Project comic and webisodes. But, while I may have hand-waved a lot for the sake of telling an entertaining story, I somehow managed to tie everything together in a way that makes sense, if you can accept that these stories are fantasy and take place in an alternate universe that doesn’t follow the same rules as ours.

Despite being fantasy, The Pandaskunk Saga does draw from real events in the world and BSB fandom. The first time I ever wrote about Brian’s vocal condition, a few years before he opened up about it in the documentary, was in The Gift of the Pandaskunk. Its sequel, Return of the Pandaskunk, was inspired by the 2014 Ebola outbreak but also includes “Nick Plague” and a lot of poking fun at Leighanne and her Wylee fashion line. The third story, The Year Without a Pandaskunk, was my way of expressing my frustration with Aaron Carter, who was in the midst of his mental breakdown and causing a lot of stress and strife in Nick’s life and the fandom at the time. As I’ve acknowledged before in these blogs, the last pandaskunk story hasn’t aged well, considering all that has happened to the Carter family since I wrote it, but it’s a product of its time. Despite the tragic turn real life has taken, I can still look back on this trio of fictional stories I wrote and feel proud.

So there you have it, my five favorite funny fanfics! Try saying that five times fast. I’m off to Vegas this weekend to see our Boys at the Sphere, but I’ll be back with more retrospective blogs next month!