I don’t typically use profanity in this blog, but today is an EFFING TREAT! I love this guy. Once you know him, you’ll love him, too. His name is Ednor Therriault, though some may know him as Bob Wire. He a musician and a writer and I am not sure which of his talents impress me more. Want to hear the best part? We’ve never actually met in person. I know, I know, on the ole Internet these days that’s not a big deal—but he is a good friend of my sister’s and I’ve visited that neck of the woods a couple of times in my life. In other words, I should have met him already. We ended up connecting because my sister said to me, or to him (or both) “hey, I think you would really dig my brother/friend, his sense of humor is just like yours and he’s a writer, too.”

Ednor’s written a lot more than I have, though as you’ll find out he’s still in that marshland we authors all like to call The Backwater Swamp of First Novels Unfinished.

Oh hell, I know of no such swamp. But there’s damn sure a quagmire each of us who are published novelists (however we are published) has waded, swam, backstroked, face-floated, and nearly drowned in. In today’s guest post, my friend takes a look at humor’s role in all of this silliness we call writing. And I know of NO ONE better to address it.

Do me a favor. Follow his links. Read his other articles. Get his book on back road Montana towns, quaint personalities, and AMAZING memorabilia. I swear you will not be disappointed. And oh yes, check out the country-slathered, bluesy, badass honky tonk masterpiece that is the music of Bob Wire, the band (Their first album is entitled American Piehole and one of my favorite songs is “Too Tired To Cheat”). This cat is one of a kind I am telling you. Take it away, my friend:

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Is there such a thing as too much funny? You bet there is, and I’ll give you a sterling example in a bit. But first, one question: how important is humor in your writing? And who decides where the line exists between edgy and tasteless? How can you hit a common funny bone when humor itself is such a subjective thing? And didn’t this guy say, like, one question?

Of course the answer to all these questions is: it depends. As a humorist, I’ve written more than five hundred columns for a variety of online news/blogging sites over the past several years. Writing under my nom de guerre, Bob Wire, I have been free, with extremely rare exceptions, to decide on my own what’s too offensive for public consumption. I’ve also been given free rein to choose whatever subjects I think my readers might find entertaining. (I’ve been meaning to call both of them and find out.)

I’ve also written dozens of articles for local and regional publications, all with different standards of decorum. Our local weekly alternative will abide the occasional F bomb, but I rarely feel the need to open those bomb bay doors. The persona I’ve cultivated for Bob Wire (I’m also a musician) is quite a bit coarser and more profane, but no less articulate than my own true self. Bob, as I like to explain, is willing to blurt what everybody’s thinking but doesn’t want to say aloud. So when I’m writing in his voice, the humor is frequently over-the-top with bold opinions, indulgent wordplay, and jaw-droppingly overwrought similes and metaphors.

What I’m aiming for with Bob Wire is material that a sophisticated reader’s inner hillbilly will love. That’s the no-holds-barred end of my writing, and I adjust the level of outrageousness to the publication or site where it will be published.

(One example of a humor piece that my blog host, www.makeitmissoula.com, deemed too racy to appear was my completely fabricated account of my torrid affair with Herman Cain. It can be seen at my own site, www.bobwirehasapoint.com.)

The Bob Wire “brand” of music and writing has become well-known enough that I find myself having to struggle to get my real name out from under its lengthening shadow. An odd situation, to be sure. Although “Bob” has had numerous articles and cover stories run in Western Montana newspapers and magazines, my first book was published under my real name.

“Montana Curiosities” came out on Globe Pequot in 2010, one of a series of irreverent roadside attraction guides produced by the Connecticut publisher. It’s designed to be a humorous read, but my tone was noticeably gentler than when writing as Bob Wire. The book’s humor still has an edge, and reflects my interest in pop culture with numerous references to cult movies and classic rock. But, as per the publisher’s guidelines, there is no profanity. It’s PG at worst, the kind of humor that is more likely to be over a kid’s head than to offend him.

The book had sold several thousand copies by the end of 2010, doing better than G-P’s expectations. This bodes well for my having the inside track at the second edition, which should come up for grabs within a couple of years. (Ironically, I was offered the original contract by an acquisition editor who was a fan of Bob Wire’s blog.)

Having the good fortune of being published should help me get my foot a little further in the door with my first novel, currently in its sixth draft. I’m finding that putting humor into a novel is an entirely different kettle of wax than writing to entertain with my own (or Bob’s) wit. I’ve come to the daunting realization that I have to imbue each character with his own sense of humor!

This task makes writing a smartass humor blog look like a tiptoe through the dandelions by comparison. Hell, I can’t even transfer my own sense of humor to the protagonist; he’s a nicer guy than I am! So in this novel (a comic crime caper intertwined with rock ‘n roll historical fiction), the humor is executed with nuance and consistency. It’s far more difficult than crafting a standup routine or simply sprinkling jokes throughout.

Besides, if I’ve heard a joke, chances are the reader will have heard it by the time the book hits the shelves (or the discount bin). I’m thinking of James Cameron’s egregious “unobtanium” groaner in the movie Avatar. I mean, a 10-year-old gag from the realm of nerds and engineers? King of the world, my ass.

I guess what I’m getting at is that humor is not just important to most writing, it’s crucial. A laugh gives the reader a little break, a little breather, and a little insight into the characters that just can’t be delivered through straight exposition. Saying a woman is funny isn’t nearly as effective as putting some wickedly funny dialog in her mouth.

But being funny or outrageous for its own sake can backfire like a popcorn fart at a barbecue. I’m a fan of crime fiction, especially books that take place in South Florida. The paperback bookshelves are stuffed with writers working that turf, and the ones I like most drop in a few laughs with the mayhem. Some of my favorites are James W. Hall, Randy Wayne White, and the master of wacked-out, WTF black humor crime fiction, Carl Hiaasen.

I started reading another writer a few years ago, hooked by the wild, colorful covers of his paperbacks. I was halfway through his third novel when I saw it. This guy was trying to out-Hiaasen Hiaasen. If Hiaasen had a character with a golf club for a prosthetic arm, this guy had an Eskimo dwarf who was born with a dorsal fin and a penis that shoots lightning.

It’s difficult to bail on a book part way through, but I decided this guy had taken enough of my time. The writing itself was decent, but his style was so “look at how outrageous I am!” that its loony implausibility completely distracted from the story itself.

That’s a mistake I’m working hard to avoid with my own writing, be it the R-rated bloviations of Bob Wire, or the (hopefully) fluid narrative prose of Ednor.

Missoula’s honky tonkin’ “man about town,” Bob Wire’s main mission is to entertain. Bob is a prolific songwriter, and has recorded four CDs of Maximum Honky Tonk since 2006. His latest release, “Off White Christmas,” will surely be a holiday classic. His first Montana band, the Fencemenders, was voted Best Local Band twice by the Independent readers poll. Bob was voted the Trail 103/Missoulian Entertainer of the Year in 2007.

Bob is also a successful writer, having published more than 500 humor columns for regional websites over the last five years. His articles, usually about music, have appeared in the Missoulian, the Missoula Independent, Montana Magazine, and other publications.

His blog is posted at bobwirehasapoint.com. You can hear his music at bobwiremusic.com, or download it at iTunes, Amazon, and other online music providers.