Sprinkling Humour Into Your Blogs
Humour is a very effective tool to attract the reading crowd. It can also make them come back for more.
So how do you write funny blogs?
There’s no hard and fast rule to writing humorous blogs.
However, you can keep the following in mind when you want to bring in that ‘fun’ element into your blogs, so… let me show you how we can it!
Know your niche
When you know your niche really well, then humour will just occur to you. For example, if your niche is politics, you should know the what, when, where, who and how of it all. You’ll then be able to use your knowledge at the right time to strike the right punch line in your blog.
Don’t hold back
As soon as something funny occurs to you, put it into your blog. Don’t brood over whether to include it or not. You can always go back and alter it later on. Or make a friend read it and watch their reaction to see how funny your blog is. It is not necessary that you always give “LOL” kind of humour. Something subtle or simple can also make the mood of the blog, light.
Use sarcasm and exaggeration
These are 2 powerful weapons that can send the target audience into peals of laughter.
For example – TechnicalMarkus, in his blog about a luxury mobile phone made of gold, with sharp cuts and bends on its surface, describes the phone as follows:
“In the case of this mobile phone, the phrase ’sculpted from solid gold’ could be interpreted, based on the looks, as ‘got a hippo to repeatedly stamp on a lump of gold’.”
There’s exaggeration. But it is funny.
Use related anecdotes or jokes or other current incidents
If certain anecdotes or some funny current affair is related to your topic, you can as well mention it in your blog. Usually some famous personality caught up in controversy ends up being the butt of jokes in many blogs.
Make fun of people selectively
You can make fun of yourself or someone related to you, who would not mind having his leg pulled. Sometimes, you can even include some bloopers of some famous personality, if it is relevant to your blog. However, make sure you do not make fun of your target audience.
For example – In a mobile phone review in Mobileshop.com, the author does not agree with the battery life that has been specified. This is how he expresses his disagreement:
“The chances of you actually getting 300 hours out of this are about as good as the chances of me winning the London Marathon, with both legs tied to my head, while dressed as the Honey Monster, and being eaten by a pack of thylacines.”
Choosing words
Try using simple language as far as possible, when writing humour. Using complicated words and sentences might spoil all the fun. You could also use synonymous words which are more funny than the regular words.
For example – The luxury mobile phone described in TechnicalMarkus’ blog is supposed to be evocative of the brand’s jewellery house. To this, TechnicalMarkus says:
“Really, the only reaction I can give to that is… well… I dread to think what the brand‘s jewellery looks like if it’s anything like this monstrosity.”
The usage of the word “monstrosity” instead of “ugly” induces humour into the sentence.
Sometimes using crude language or curses can also tickle the readers’ ribs. Some authors, when writing about something frustrating, do use the F-word. While using crude language at the right place can make the humour effective, over-using the words can be displeasing too.
Punning and playing with words can be quite an interesting humour-tool as well.
For example – After the Tiger Woods controversy, the following one liner made rounds:-
A lion would not cheat, but a tiger wood.
The Don’ts
- Finally let’s take a look at a few important things that you need to ensure when including humour in your blogs:-
- Do it. But do NOT over-do it.
- Do not hurt anyone’s sentiments or feelings, especially when dealing with sensitive matters, like religion.
- Do not explain the joke, when you throw in a punch line.
- Do not make fun of your target audience.
- Do not use over-familiar jokes. The readers will tend to get bored.
Share your thoughts!
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