From the course: Video Writing: Using Humor to Communicate and Persuade

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Flavors of good humor

Flavors of good humor

From the course: Video Writing: Using Humor to Communicate and Persuade

Start my 1-month free trial

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…

Contents