MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

Humour is one of those rare things that has global appeal. While it is true that humour does differ from nation to nation (think dry British humour vs. the more slapstick physical humour favoured by Americans), there are some cases where humour is broad enough to bridge the widest divides (the bizarre antics of pets are usually always good for a laugh, as are people falling or hurting themselves in unusual ways). Humour has the ability to unite, but injudicious use of humour has the ability to divide, insult, affront and incite anger, which is way you should approach humour with caution in your writing.

In a blog post on Piggybankpie, Patrick says that humour is one of the most efficient types of communication you can use if you want to reach a broad audience. He applies it to all media and blog posts in particular. He does advise that you use prudence when affecting a humourous stance, as humour can be challenging, but more than that, humour can set the wrong tone for your company or the particular topic that you are trying to address. For instance, Patrick says that you should never hesitate to end a heavy paragraph with a smile, which is fair enough in some instances, but if you’re writing about terminal illness or the rising number of deaths due to drunk driving or some other equally serious subject, the use of humour can be woefully out of place. If you plonk in a humourous line in one of the instances above, you’ll come across as an insensitive git and you’ll alienate a good few readers, who may feel compelled to document your crass insensitivity in blogs of their own.

I like to think that I have a very broad sense of humour and that I can see the funny side in just about any situation, and I especially love amusing and witty writing (Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors), but I know that not everyone shares my tastes, so I try to be careful with what I write. Satire is one of my favourite forms of comedy, and I love dry tongue-in-cheek stuff, however, I recognise that clients may not appreciate it when I write satirical content on their behalf. They may prefer something more serious and professional and I have to adapt my tone to their needs.

That’s because writing is not all about the writer, it’s about the audience, and sometimes (quite often really) it’s about who signs the cheques. Kurt Vonnegut, who is one of the most famous contemporary writers around, says that you need to pity the readers. What he means by this is that writers have to help their readers as much as possible; they have to make their prose easy to understand, which means they may have to abandon their preferred style in order to effectively convey their message. And that means that you have to put yourself in your readers’ shoes and see the topic from their perspective. If you had just lost a loved one and were reading an article that dealt with death (a morbid example I know), would you appreciate the occasional “witty” throw away line, or would you find it callous? If you had paid a sum of money to increase the awareness of your brand online, would you appreciate satirical references or sarcasm in content that leads back to your name?

Patrick says, people like to be informed and they like to laugh, and I agree with him, but I also believe that they don’t necessarily like both at the same time. Besides, as many people who have tried and failed know, it’s actually quite difficult to be funny. There is very little more off-putting than forced humour that falls flat. Authors of forced humour tend to cut rather ridiculous, slightly pathetic figures. You really want to feel sorry for them, but you can’t because they brought the misery on themselves. If you are not naturally funny or quirky, it’s best to leave humour well enough alone; your clients and your readers will thank you.