The Romantic Comedy
Romance Tropes · romantic comedy

The Romantic Comedy

Jaycee Weaver

Romantic comedy as a genre is exploding right now. After the last year and a half of pandemic life, it’s not hard to understand why. After all, it’s been a hugely successful film genre for decades, but while some people will re-watch their favorite film a gazillion times, not all readers treat books the same way. Not to mention most readers consume books like the world will run out of paper.

I’ve been gorging myself on a large number of romantic comedies myself this year. Let’s face it, romantic comedies tend to be high on laughs and low on language and sex, even if they aren’t Christian or inspirational fiction. And though the racier rom coms are growing in popularity, so are Christian ones. (Yay! Finally!)

To be honest, I’ve been kicking around dabbling in the genre myself recently. Considering my natural inclination for hyperbole, I’ve been thinking it could be really fun to experiment more in my writing. Really let my voice loose and quit holding back all the crazy, silly, fun things my spastic brain comes up with. Plus, I’d get to write in first person all the time. Present tense even! Both of which tend to be no-nos outside the rom com genre. Not a lot of people who read serious books (aka literature spoken in a very austere tone) admit to also liking the sassy silliness of a good rom com heroine.

Why are romantic comedies so awesome? For me, it’s how well a book balances the romance with the comedy in the following key elements:

  • The meet cute
  • Chemistry and tension between H/h
  • The potential for disaster
  • Messes and miscommunication
  • Serious moments that matter

And finally,

  • The grand gesture/make up

It must be original or creatively executed. We all know there’s going to be an HEA. After all, it is NOT A ROMANCE without one (I dare you to argue that point). But if any one element tips too far toward romance, it loses the funny. Too far toward comedy, it loses impact in the romance department.

For example, when the H/h have major miscommunications, it can really amp up the potential for laughs. Too far, though, and we want to smack one or both because it’s stopped being funny and threatens the romance. Two enemies might have chemistry galore, but a funny situation can quickly become unromantic (which then becomes less funny) if one character behaves too badly at the expense of the other. It’s a carefully crafted cycle!

My favorite books are the ones that balance tension and angst with humor and lighthearted fun. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what constitutes a great romantic comedy.

Does the whole story have to be funny, or just at a few key points? What are some books you’ve found that really strike a good balance? Is there anything that drives you crazy when things go off balance—either in a good way OR a bad way?

Looking forward to chatting with you in the comments!

Published by Jaycee Weaver

When New Mexico resident and USA Today bestselling author Jaycee Weaver isn't reading or writing, she enjoys dates with her brainiac hubby, drinking coffee, crafting, pretending she's a nature photographer, and making her teenagers cringe. Jaycee considers herself a recovering perfectionist and frequent hot mess. She does her best to live her faith in action authentically, trusting God to be Lord over the good, the bad, and the ugly even when it’s hard.

39 thoughts on “The Romantic Comedy”

  1. YES!!! I love this post! And based on your blog posts, I’d love it if you’d write a romcom. 😉 As you said, I love the perfect balance between romance and comedy, and yes, I’m looking forward to these books making me smile/laugh more than a Contemporary Romance. Sometimes it can be through the characters’ dialogue/banter, but other times it can be through the descriptions or their inner monologues. Some books I’ve enjoyed so far are Liwen’s Fab Forties series, as well as Sarah Monzon’s Molly from her Sewing in SoCal series.

  2. Jaycee,
    I can just see you writing rom/coms. I’d love to read them!
    I love rom/coms because they bring a lightness and easy read to my ever-growing suspense collection of books.
    I believe we all need a little laughter and joy in our lives and rom/coms can do that!
    WRITE IT, I’LL READ IT!!!!

  5. I’ve enjoyed Jessie Gussman stories – Small Town Romantic Comedy in Good Grief series 🙂

    1. Yes!!! Those are hilarious. I love authors who don’t take things so seriously and can poke a little fun at themselves. (These are my favorite kinds of movies as well.)

  6. You have hit all the right angles. I do not think that all the book needs to be funny. There needs to be some seriousness included. I really enjoyed reading Tacos For Two by Betsy St. Amant. It was an awesome Rom Com. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.

  7. I like romantic comedies! just that spicy or secular ones don’t make me laugh so much especially when funny is something sinful for a Christian.
    I admit that I have read few Christian romantic comedies since discovering the genre I have been too busy stuffing myself with young adult / new adult, fantasy, science fiction, contemporary with drama, historical, etc. It also doesn’t help that I feel much younger than many romantic comedy heroines: I haven’t entered the world of work yet, I don’t have children or anything like that,

    1. Too true, many mainstream rom coms can run to the risqué side. I’m hoping to see (or write!) more Christ-centered ones.

  8. I’m like you and prefer a good balance of tension & angst with humor & lighthearted fun.

    Liwen Ho has some great examples of this in her books! I also love Bethany Turner and some people also swear by Jen Turano & Regina Jennings. I’ve not read anything by them yet, but will at some point in time.

    I love witty banter & mildly sarcastic dialogue 🙂

    1. Yes!!! You’re spot on with all of this! I’ve read a few Jen Turano, but im not big into historicals and I forget she has a few contemporary. Hmm….I’ll have to go check again.

  9. Hi, I like Romcoms, and I like it when their is a balance of humor in them. I like to read different genres also, as long as it is a good book, I read it . Have a great weekend and stay safe. I enjoyed reading your post, thank you.

  12. I love rom/coms! Some of my favorite writers for theater are Jessica Kate, Bethany Turner and Melissa Ferguson. What I like is the light-hearted laughs, knowing there will be a happy ending with a fun journey. What I’d ont like is if the situations keeping them apart aren’t realistic or are wrapped up too quickly to be satisfying. I think you’d be great at writing a rom/com though.

    1. I agree. I can’t do a ton of unrealistic drama. Even some of my favorite rom-com authors have written books I had to DNF due to the heroine being too self-absorbed or angsty as the main source of humor—I just can’t do that. We all have our things that drive us nuts, don’t we? LOL!

      And thank you! I’m definitely going to give it a try.

  13. Romcom is one of my favorite genres! I completely agree with everything you said, and I would also add that I love it when they’re written in a light, witty, and almost self-deprecating voice! I’m also totally cool with a romcom tackling tougher topics as long as there is humor and laughs to balance it out!
    And a Jaycee Weaver romcom? Sign me up, that would be a dream come true! 😍

  14. Hi, Jaycee! Great topic!

    I definitely enjoy humor in romance. I think, in a sense, it is just another one of the “feels” in the context of regular romance. Day-to-day life *needs* humor to help balance the struggles. So, with that said, ramping up the humor becomes a matter of stretching beyond the everyday. Perhaps we could think of it as a series of “perfect storms”.

    In everyday life, you might realize that you forgot your car keys after getting settled in the driver seat, chuckle at your own klutzy-ness and go get your keys. In a comedy, you might realize this AND that your house keys are on the same ring with your car keys on the small table by the front door which you have already locked. Now finding a solution involves trying to reach in through the doggy door on the back door to the kitchen in order to get to the handle and open the door from the inside. You would then find that your playful Jack Russell terrier, named “Bandit”, wants in on the fun, snagging your sleeve and pulling it away from the door, making the whole task impossible. Then you might have the bright idea of talking to your dog through the doggy door and telling him to “Go get the keys, Bandit!”. At this point, your neighbor having noticed the suspicious activity and called the police, you notice that there is a very large officer looking down at you with your arm in the doggy door, hollering to Bandit to “Get the keys!”. You look up at the officer and say, “Hi. Can I help you?” Of course, the things that you might have done to solve this situation in a more sane fashion were rendered unavailable because your cell phone was in your purse, also on the table by the door, right next to the keys. When the officer asks for some ID in response to your claim that you live here, you explain that it is in the purse along with the cell phone. So, as you sit in the back seat of the police cruiser, hands cuffed behind you, pulling away from the curb, you look back and see Bandit running into the front yard with the keys in his teeth. Looks like you may be late for your date this evening.

    The thing that I REALLY dislike in relationship stories (any stories, actually) is embarrassment humor. You see the train wreck coming and one of the characters is going to be humiliated and other characters are going to use the opportunity to look down on the loser. That galls me because I’ve been the hapless soul who wasn’t the cool kid or who lost his cool and wound up in tears.

    I’m also not a big fan of characters being jerks and me being expected to laugh at that. (See almost any Will Ferrell comedy. Will Arnett falls in the category, too.)

    Your description of the romance/comedy balance is on the money. I think the secret may be to make the humor be self-deprecating. Have the characters own their own silliness while still seeing themselves as valuable, loving and lovable people. H and h look at each other and break up laughing. Joyful humility can be a very vulnerable way to bond.

    A Jaycee Weaver zany rom-com? Bring it!

    1. Self-deprecating humor is good, and situational humor as you so perfectly described is GREAT! And yes, I’m right there with you on humiliating scenes—not funny. I’m not a big fan of people acting badly and it’s supposed to be funny—falls flat for me every time. As always, you’re spot on and had me laughing out loud!

  15. I read only christian romance and clean romance.I have read a few ofliwen ho’s book and I really enjoyed them.i read love inspired books and harlequin heartwarming books.

  16. Hi Jaycee, Margaret Brownley, Vickie McDonough, and Mary Connealy (they’ve written books in the LI line) use comedy in their historicals usually through the shenanigans of their side-kick characters. My favorite Rom/com movie is The Money Pit with a young Tom Hanks and Shelley Duvall). I like a little humor peppered into the story. You said it best about using humor in books.

  17. I’m not crazy about Rom Coms, but I also don’t watch movies, so there’s that. If I’m going to watch a movie, it’s going to be a western, or something like War Room and I Can Only Imagine. I have read a few, and most of them I’m not real crazy about. I do like humor in the books I read, but a straight Rom Com is not my favorite at all. I have read a couple of Liwen Ho’s, and I did like them, but it’s still definitely not my favorite. I actually avoid them.

    1. Interesting. How wonderful it is that we have so many good options to choose our books from, yeah? Not every gook or every genre will be someone’s cuppa tea.

      1. Definitely! Give me anything else in the CF genre, and I’m up for that! I’ve even discovered that I like fantasy, and after Sharon Rose’s SciFi, remembered how much I really love SciFi, too!! Honestly, mention almost any other genre and I can probably tell you at least one author in it that I’ve read!

  18. I LOVE RomComs! But it does have to be a balance. Some don’t have enough laughter & are more serious than laughs. Some people who do RomCom right are Remi Carrington, Liwen Ho and Lisa Renee.

  20. Quite simply makes me smile/laugh!
    Though have noticed many HFN endings as the book is split into three books and only HEA at end of the last book.
    Go for it, hug a tree, tune into nature and write you heart out 😀
    Then you can do a post here about writing it, yeah!!!!

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