Writing Humor to Promote Your Business.

We are very pleased today to have for Our Little Books Guest Post Wednesday, Steve Hartkopf, author and business consultant. Steve was recently named one of the top 20 Most Influential People Online in Charlotte, NC. You will enjoy his post and make sure you check out his company, Aligned Marketing.

Using jokes and funny stories is a great way to promote your business and get your point across. Some people struggle telling jokes because timing, the voice inflection and body language all have to be in sync. Juggling all those communication balls is hard. If you think verbal humor is tough, try being funny writing.

Most writers avoid writing humorous stories because it’s so hard to do well. That’s unfortunate because humor is such a great tool and so embedded in our culture. I often use sarcasm, a particularly edgy kind of humor, to make my points. 

But when you strip away the visual cues, my facial expressions, expansive hand gestures, and my perfect use of voice inflection, my incredible wit can get lost on the page. See what I mean? 

Good humor writing is one-part grammar, one-part angle and one-part misdirection. 

I encourage generous use of dashes, colons, semicolons and three dots to extend a sentence, signal an interrupted thought or change of direction, to inject the proper timing into your stories. 

But the last two parts – angle and misdirection - are really the keys to effective humor. Like an illusionist, you want to move your audience down a familiar path and then, before they have time to anticipate a course change, re-direct them to your conclusion. It sounds hard but it’s not. 

Start with objects and people that your readers already know. Combining two dissimilar objects or people together is an early signal to your audience that something unusual, something funny, is coming. 

Many jokes begin with this type of set-up. It’s a variation of the “a parrot and a Priest are sitting in a bar”…theme. You know what a Priest, a parrot and a bar are but you don’t know what they could possibly have in common. The unusual combination tells you the story is probably going to be humorous and that it probably has a larger point, a punch line. 

Humor is fiction. The basic instruction for writing good fiction is to show, don’t tell. I don’t know the original author, but I edited the following story to illustrate my point: 

The day finally arrived. Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven. 

Forrest walks up to the Pearly Gates and is met by St. Peter himself. As he approaches he notices the gates are closed. 

Looking up, St. Peter says, “Well, Forrest, it is good to see you. We’ve heard good things about you. There is one small issue, however, Heaven is filling up fast so we’re administering entrance examinations for everyone who wants to get in. It’s a short test, but you must pass to get into Heaven. Do you understand, Forrest?” 

“It sure is good to be here, St. Peter, sir,” Forrest responded. “Nobody ever told me about any exam. I sure hope the test is easy. I don’t much like tests and life was one big test all by itself.” 

“I know, Forrest,” said St. Peter. “But there are only three questions and you must try if you want to enter through these gates.” 

Folding his large hands together, St. Peter looked poor Forrest in the eyes and said. “The first question is, what two days of the week begin with the letter T? He let that sink in for a minute or two and then continued, “The second question is, how many seconds are there in a year? 

Bobbing his head up and down slowly, Forrest seemed to be staring at St. Peter’s mouth. 

St. Peter continued. “And the third and final question is, what is God’s first name?” 

Forrest didn’t say a word. He just walked away. 

The next day Forrest returns and sees St. Peter, who waves him up and says, “Forrest, now that you have had a chance to consider the three questions, what are your answers?” 

Smiling, Forrest replies, “Well, the first one, which two days in the week begins with the letter ‘T’? Shucks, that wasn’t as hard as I thought it was. The answers are Today and Tomorrow.” 

St. Peter’s eyes widened. He stroked his long beard for several seconds and, then, in an understanding voice he responded, “Forrest, that is not the answer I was expecting but you do have a point. Perhaps I wasn’t specific enough so I’m going to give you credit for a correct answer.” 

“What about the second question?” asked St. Peter. “How many seconds in a year?” 

Forrest smiled and said, “Now that was real hard to figure out but I thunk and thunk about it and I guess the right answer is twelve.” 

St. Peter stopped stroking his beard, leaned into Forrest and yelled, ”Twelve? Twelve? How in name of all that is Holy did you come up with twelve seconds in a year?” 

Forrest chin quivered slightly but he kept his eyes on the Saint. “It has to be twelve, sir: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd… ‘ 

“Hold it right there,” said St. Peter, showing Forrest the palm of his right hand. “I see your point, though, once again, that was not what I had in mind. Still, in fairness, I will give you credit for the correct answer. We’ll just go to the third and final question. Can you tell me God’s first name?” 

“You bet, that was the only easy one” Forrest replied with a wide grin, “it’s Andy.” 

“What did you say, Forrest? Did I hear you say God’s first name is Andy?” an exasperated and frustrated St. Peter blurted out. “Forrest, I can understand how you came up with your unusual answers to my first two questions, but how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as God’s first name?” 

“Shucks,” Forrest said. “Just like everyone else, I learnt it from the song.” With that Forrest began to sing, “Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me, Andy tells me I am his own.” 

St. Peter jumps up, sprints over to the Pearly Gates, flings them open and screams at the top of his lungs, “Run, Forrest, Run!” 

Well, it’s funny to me.

Steve

Steve Hartkopf is an author and business consultant. Through his company, Aligned Marketing (http://www.aligned-marketing.com), Steve helps emerging businesses develop their communication and marketing tools to increase sales and leverage web technologies.

Steve is very active in social media. He blogs regularly for two of his online properties, writes blogs for several of his clients and was recently named one of the top 20 Most Influential People Online in Charlotte, NC. 

You can contact Steve through email at shartkopf@aligned-marketing.com or by phone at 800-707-9150.