From the course: Video Writing: Using Humor to Communicate and Persuade
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Flavors of good humor
From the course: Video Writing: Using Humor to Communicate and Persuade
Flavors of good humor
- Comedy is like color. There's an almost infinite number of varieties, and everyone has her favorite. An easy way to get a grip on the overwhelming choices it to break it down into categories of style. By style, I mean the overall tone or timbre of your humor. A violin, a viola, and an electric guitar can all play exactly the same note, but there's no mistaking which one is which. Sarcasm, for example, is brash, cutting, deliberately harsh. You could say sarcasm is the Stratocaster of humor, if you wanted to get all fancy with the musical metaphors. See, that's sarcasm. It's extremely popular, since it fuels most sitcoms and schoolyard stand-up. Variation include insult comedy, where you aim your barbs at someone else, and self-deprecation, where you put yourself down. Think Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog versus Rodney Dangerfield. Sarcasm is useful when you wanna set up a power differential, because the message of sarcasm is always that something or someone is better than something…