We’ve all heard it said that laughter is the best medicine. Some studies have even shown that women think that funny men are smarter and more honest than more serious guys, and may even find them more attractive. But while enjoying a good chuckle every so often for our overall well-being, let’s not overlook the fact that humour can also be an effective tool in drawing visitors to your blog.
There is a long history of written word humour; I suspect even some of those cave wall drawings may have been pretty funny all those centuries ago – the cartoon B.C. draws on that theme. Humorous novels, plays, and certainly films abound – the fact is, people like to laugh, some would go so far as to say laughter is essential to being a well-balanced person. Bloggers have several methods and styles at their fingertips to help out with the mirthful posts. Here are two of my favorites.
Good Old Fashioned Prose
There’s nothing like sitting back and reading a well-written funny tract. With no graphics or videos to get in the way, the onus is on good writing and the reader’s imagination. The author has to grab the reader’s attention, provide them with the “paint” to create a mental picture and hit their funny bone with words alone. When using written humour you should try to write as you would speak, as though you were telling a joke or relating a funny experience to a group of friends. In fact a good exercise is to take a favourite joke you like to tell and commit it to paper (okay, commit it to cyber space). It’s not as easy as you might think, and requires patience to make the joke flow properly so that the punch line works.
I like to use puns and wordplay in my posts, often little bits of things that pop up in everyday life. For instance just this morning I was at a medical appointment and as I registered the receptionist asked, which doctor. I was impressed not only that the clinic offered the services of a Witch Doctor but that the receptionist knew I was looking for some Voodoo treatments before I even mentioned it.
But when it comes to puns stop before it becomes tiresome; no one likes a person who is constantly punning or twisting words into knots to make small jokes. If your reader has to jump through several linguistic hoops, there better be something great at the end.
Juxtaposing Photographs
A form of blog post humour that is readily available to the blogger who isn’t keen on written humour is to take a couple of unrelated photographs that strike a note with you and post them side-by-side. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy I posted two photos, one of the limp construction crane that became an emblem of the storm and beside it one of a properly functioning, or erect crane. The cut line was “Will Viagra use these as before and after shots?”
Warning
Not everyone is comfortable with creating mirth. While we all like to laugh, being able to make others laugh is another issue. As I’ve mentioned, humour can be a great draw to your blog, but if you don’t feel you can pull it off, you’re better off not trying. It is much safer to avoid trying to be funny than to try and come up short. Ever have someone tell you a joke that was not funny and just fell flat? That awkward feeling is bad enough in person, and is what a blogger wants to avoid.
By Guest Author – DCMontreal lives in, not surprisingly, Montreal, Canada and is a freelance writer who blogs at http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/.
