Creating funny content

I recently read an article about class clowns. Author #1 basically said class clowns have a deep insecurity and need for attention that leads them to do stupid stuff such as stick pencils up their nose and ears and act weird around cute girls. Now of course, I used to be the class clown, and sure maybe I did that to hide the fact that I wasn’t perfect, but well – everyone has insecurities, everyone wants some bit of attention, these things aren’t unique to class clowns. Right?! Call me defensive, but bloody hell I will be! I am going to defend my need to plaster most social conversations with humor. I shall not have my character assassinated like non-playable characters in a Grand Theft Auto video game.  In order to quell the existential crises and metaphysical questions faced by ALL, class clowns pick comedy as a conduit…of different sorts. The affective empath will ask themselves, why comedy in particular?

This post is going to be a light sparring session with the concept of comedy, the creative implications of choosing and implementing funny. Now, I am not Dr. Tino professor of kkks. Most of what I say, will be personal opinion, biased and barely validated. But, hey, I am writing 22 pieces of content, almost everyday so that I can win a 100 dollars that will change my life. #WINTERABC baby! On a more serious note though, I am someone who tries to create funny and insightful content on a regular. Consider me as a valuable source of information of the intricacies of the comedian’s toolbox. As I am ONE source, you should do what is responsible and consult multiple different ones instead of using me as the one and only. I am not the messiah of maniacal laughter.

Everyone is funny

No serious. I am. So are you. Everyone is funny. My recent ex had a tendency of being annoyed at my perpetual light heartedness and saying ‘you’re not funny’ whilst I have an idiots smile on my face after cracking a killer line. Whilst it might seem like an attempt to ground someone, uttering that is a serious attempt at ruining someone’s self esteem. Ladies, jokes are not easy to come by. Genuine laughter should be embraced. Seriousness is overrated. Everyone is funny and should be allowed to express their humor as often as possible. Imagine if your man looked at you randomly in your favorite dress and told you “you don’t look as good in that as you think you do.”

Humor is something that is inherent in every person, because humor can be found in everything and anything. That’s a common cliché amongst comedians that I’m sure you’ve heard. That subjective aspect of humor, really does away with gatekeepers, because if humor is everywhere then anyone is capable of seeing it is also capable of expressing it. This paradoxical win win idea of comedy is why we laugh at bad jokes, or poorly set up jokes. A poor joke does not become funny because the concept it describes is inherently funny, but rather the very scenario of someone’s misplaced assumption on the intrinsic nature of their funny, then proceeding to see their stupid face lose color as they realize that what they said didn’t get the reaction they thought it would. That’s funny! That good ol gap between expectation and reality! A comedian who understands that has to find a way to leverage that situation so they feel they are in TOTAL CONTROL. Urgh, its complex and not everyone can do it, but don’t act weird when your joke doesn’t land cause you can still smash my bro. It’s like saying something stupid to out on a date with a girl who finds you attractive! JUST DON’T MAKE IT AWKWARD!

You might ask yourself, so if comedy is everywhere and everyone is funny or at least capable of being, why is my girlfriend displaying toxic feminity with her ableist doctrine of “you’re not funny”. Well that obvious, sure your girlfriend should normalize seeing you as funny, but her left ventrical just doesn’t sense your funny bone Mister. Learn to take no as an answer and block her immediately. If she has a car, scratch it all over for good measure*. Just like why people were glasses because the sensory capability of their eyes is messed up, some people can not pick up the stimuli, reference or set up of your lyrical mastery. Don’t take it personal, just don’t try be funny in front of those people and find another crowd to milk laughs outta.

*do not do this please. Have sense

Leveraging ‘funny‘

The reason why I’m trying to expand on the source of the funny bone is because, being funny is the oldest trick in the book. Black nerd and trying to get the girl? Just be funny! Trying to get a promotion? Make your boss laugh a couple? Are the in laws bugging? Kill them with laughter. Seriously, its second nature to try use laughter to navigate occasionally difficult social interactions. Why do we tickle a baby who has been incessantly crying?

In creation, laughter being the most basic response to solicit, it’s quite logical to try be funny. Of course, some are better exploiting humor than others, but humor is the easiest response to garner, given how wide spread it is. Sure, it might not be the defining factor, but it allows your content to be more palatable and the rest of your content mix must be solid.

Think of this analogy, investing. We all hear about don’t put your eggs in one basket, but we also hear about stratifying your investment picks by rate of return and risk involved. The lower the rate of return and risk involved, the more that investment should be put aside for long term use. You don’t typically do intensive planning and information search for low risk, long term investment because they…are right in front of you and accessible. Invest in Delta if you want a slow, yet reliable rate of return. Think of comedy as a long term investment into the content mix. It should often come effortlessly and be a part of your brand profile. It should become innate. For those with little to differentiate their content from, laughter is the easiest way to, not necessarily stand out, but easiest way to be noticed. Like many portfolios, to stand out might mean you make risks, invest in some discontinuous project with mountains of potential and risk. You are Lebo M – instead of taking straight cash for your powerful voice at the beginning of the Lion King – you take royalties, cause your making killer content here aren’t you.

Don’t neglect quality

Whilst content doesn’t have to be funny, funny is so unique and so powerful that it sort of makes other poor quality aspects your content less jarring. By quality think about video resolution, editing, animation fluidity. Achieving Disney levels of quality is draaaaaining! It’s almost…like…a job. Now that I think of it, that’s probably Youtube pays successful creators**, because creating recognized quality is not easy yo!

**well duh

Just because funny is overpowered does not mean it is the end all. Sure, I watch poor resolution  Onion videos, but the quality of the funny is immense. Youtubers such as Internet Historian did have poor quality videos to begin with, that eventually became of a higher quality, but the quality of his humor is top notch. Quality does not become redundant now that you have figured out a way to make someone chuckle for two seconds. Now also consider that these are my personal opinions of the state of funny. Internet Historian is not funny to everyone, and that might be paradoxical with the idea of funny as being low risk and accessible to all. Of course funny is not risk free! Low risk doesnt mean NO RISK! You can still crash and burn!

Write meaningful stuff! Edit properly! Make your jokes, idk, impressively funny?! That definitely means something, trust me. Perhaps this is where some class clowns get it wrong, and why my ex girl was possibly right. If the person inside lives for being funny, then they become a shell and do not offer any value beside a quick and easy haha. You might have class clown Mark. Tell him to be funny, but tell me about your self Mark. what do you do during the weekends, and if Mark shoves more pencils in his nose then fuck Mark. Punk ass bitch.

I guess that is also why a lot of modern comedy is, deep. Like social commentary, ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’, ‘I Am So Smart’  deep. Trevor Noah is a social commentary news broadcaster along with his friends Colbert and Steward, Amy Schumer thinks she is Maya Angelou, SNL is a liberal thought bubble, The Onion satirizes modern media, Paul Beatty won a Booker Prize for lacing his jokes with continuously absurd mockeries of the idea of a post racial America, Magamba Network in Zimbabwe poke fun at the patriarchy and another other organizations of power in our teapot nation.  I am the Socrates of blogging but with funny charisma. Yes, I have put myself in the same category as all these great creative, and one of the greatest philosophical minds in history, and why not? I hope my readers at the WINTERABC don’t get so worked up and force me, a harmless fly of a 22 year old, to drink fancy sounding poison. Then again, this is Zimbabwi, a left turn and 10,000 miles away from being a tolerant nation.

Winding up!

 Like many things in life, the approach you take really does depend on your strengths, however I do encourage people to sneak a joke a giggle or two into their content – ESPECIALLY AT THE START! If it doesn’t work, walk it off, if it does you’re this much richer or this much closer from getting that girl you like to call you daddy. Don’t overdo it, offer genuine value on top of being funny, such as being consistent, informative or quality centric.

#winterabc #funnycontent