There aren’t many easy ways to make your stuff funnier – tactics you can apply to pretty much anything to “funny it up“.
Specificity is one.
If you want to be funny, be specific.
BAD – “I was dancing to some music when…“
GOOD – “I was vogue-ing on the patio, in my underwear, to MC Hammer’s ‘U Can’t Touch This when…’“
(This may, or may not, be based on personal experience)
One of the main aims of marketing is to paint a clear picture in your customer’s mind.
To do that, you need to be SPECIFIC.
It’s like giving directions. If you won the Lotto and the organisers wanted to pop round with a cheque for £100m, I reckon you’d be pretty precise and exact with the directions…
…unless you’re Elon Musk and don’t get out of bed for less than £1bn…
It’s the same with comedy. Listen to comedians. They put on accents, act out on stage and are very explicit when talking. They go all out to make sure you picture EXACTLY what they want you to see.
Take this example from Aziz Ansari:
“My perfect date night: I pick you up. In my Kia Sorrento. You get in. There are candles in the car. You go ‘Is that dangerous?” and I go, Yes… but I like danger. …We come outside and we see my cars on fire. You go, “Aziz, your cars on fire. Aren’t you upset?” I pull out a bag of marshmallows and I go, No. I knew this was gonna happen. And then I kiss you. In front of my burning car.“
He doesn’t pick her up in his “car”, he picks her up in his Kia Sorrento. Why? Because it’s funnier.
Even if, like me up until this exact moment, you thought “Kia Sorrento” was a YouTuber, it’s STILL funnier.
When we’re marketing, we’re like comedians. We paint pictures in our reader’s mind, so it pays to follow their lead.
The sharper the picture you paint, the more clearly the customer sees what you want them to see.
So, regardless of whether you want to use humour or not in your marketing, for gawd’s sake, BE SPECIFIC.