You Have A Serious Business. So What? So Does Everyone Else.

Humor, Business and How It Isn't About You


Content is not just king. It's queen, rook, bishop.

However, a pervasive issue that AI is not helping with is aggressively bland text that doesn't stand out in any way. Thousands of words that are blander than crackers and far less fulfilling.

One thing AI can't do - because a lot of actual people can't either - is a humorous tone.

When you're writing any kind of copy a little humor is a solid bet because it evokes a strong, positive emotion and people will remember that.

Every year the Clio Awards are roughly half humorous advertising. 

Everyone has expectations about how topics are written about. There is an endless supply of writing - from medium to substack - about *ANYTHING* and any sampling based on a topic will likely give some clue about the pervading tone. 

I regularly read about warfare. The pervading tone? VERY SERIOUS©️ 

However, a wise old Navy Chief once told me "The military is too goddamned dangerous to be taken seriously." 

Another important thing about humor is you must be knowledgeable about something to properly joke about it. A deep understanding of anything more technical than sandwich-making instructions (which can be REALLY technical) can be conveyed with a joke. Even a bad joke. 

A true classic is a variation on "Three Statisticians Go Hunting," and spoiler alert, the setup is three statisticians go hunting. One takes aim at a duck or a deer or a rhino and misses because they aim to far to the left. The next hunter takes aim but misses due to aiming too far to the right. The third statistician says "We got it! Let's go home." 

That joke has layers in its use which I won't go into aside from this: a lot of the STEM community knows it and it can be a quick way to gain the acceptance of your expertise.  

Personally, I once had an "audition" for a copywriting position where I had to write an article about a particular software product. 

After years in the DoD and seeing what happens when using a certain software isn't optional, I actually found their product to be REALLY useful, especially for big organizations. 

I wrote the piece for middle management, but not the middle management that doesn't care. I essentially wrote a piece for a member of the military who is in charge of making things happen, as I used to be (we call them non-commissioned officers but I'm trying to avoid jargon).

If that type of manager was listening to their employees, I reasoned, they likely understood if not shared their frustrations. Two software platforms I used were the Automated Fund Control System (AFCoS) - extremely powerful and stable but not intuitive - and the Defense Travel System (DTS) which I believe was programmed by someone who wanted to punish all of mankind for daring to defy god by using airplanes. 

This informed the tone I took with the software I was writing ad copy for. It had the potential to solve some truly irritating problems that don't have to be problems. 

They didn't care for it, but you can still read it here. 




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