Humour in the Western Haiku

page 1 - Subjects: what do we laugh at?
page 2 - Ways: is the haiku noted or composed?
page 3 - Kinds: why do we write humour haiku?
page 4 - Methods: how do we write humour haiku?

Ways: is the haiku noted or composed?

Are humour haiku constructed deliberately, or is the situation from real life, sometimes modified?

— Deliberately:

The situation is created, put on stage. It could have been a similar situation at the beginning but here, it was modified by the use of a pun. There are surely no black widows in Quebec but the author plays on the double meaning of the word "widow" and the link between "widow" and cemetery.

au cimetière sur une dalle de pierre une veuve noire	at the graveyard on a tombstone a black widow
François-Bernard Tremblay (Canada, HFC p95)

— Involuntary:

We discover a situation that is essentially funny, and we simply relate it. Here the haiku is real, not contrived. It must be written down quickly, otherwise it is lost.

It can be a detail that the mind has noted through the bringing together of things:

Un os dans la soupe aux légumes	A bone in the soup with vegetables
Louve Mathieu (Quebec, FT)

Or a projection over an actual situation:

route abandonnée seuls les pissenlits voyagent	disused road only the dandelions travel
Hugo Dufort (Canada, HFC p39)

Here the contrast is in action:

Dos tournés aux feux d'artifice avec musique les joueurs de pétanque	Back to the fireworks with music the petanque players
Michel André Sincennes (Canada, HFC p89)

Here the similarity, the scaling:

Travaux à l'hosto le grutier opère par gestes. Très gros bistouri.	Works at the hospital the crane driver operates by gesture. Very big bistoury.
Jean Féron (Belgium)

page 1 - Subjects: what do we laugh at?
page 2 - Ways: is the haiku noted or composed?
page 3 - Kinds: why do we write humour haiku?
page 4 - Methods: how do we write humour haiku?

Bibliography

FDC : Flaques du chemin, Louis Raoul, Ed Traces, 2000
TL : tempslibres - free times web site
HFC : Haiku et Francophonie Canadienne, A. Duhaime, Ed David, 1999
HK-xx : Haiku, Zagreb
HS : Hasee web site
HSF : Haiku sans frontières, une anthologie mondiale, A. Duhaime, Ed. David, 1998
KNOTS : Knots, The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry, D. Anakiev, Ed Prijatelj, 1999

Thanks to Billie Wilson who has revised my English translation.