When’s the last time a brand made you laugh?

If you’re struggling for an answer, don’t blame yourself. Blame brands. Because they are not, as a rule, very funny.

And that’s not surprising – it’s hard to make people laugh. And it’s a whole lot harder when you’re a Mega Corp® with stakeholders to satisfy, regulators to soothe, and an audience with better things to do than giggle at sponsored Facebook posts.

But funny brand writing is possible. It just takes a few magic ingredients…

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1. Get specific

Which is funnier?

My haircut is unusual.

My haircut is a cross between Camilla Parker Bowles and a hot lesbian.

Specificity is the key to humour.

So, if you’re talking about a product, think about the exact place, time, and way someone might use it. And make it real. Not marketing-real. Real-real. Booking a cab on an app in a generic outdoor environment? BORING. Booking a cab on an app while trying to eat a kebab and smearing meat juice all over the phone? LESS BORING.

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Next, get specific about your audience. Get to know them – you’ll be in with a much better chance of making them laugh if you do. Don’t believe me? Ask Funny Person of Note Taika Waititi, who directed this 👌👌👌 ad:

This is the work of someone who knows his audience. He knows their tastes, he knows their references, and he knows what particular flavour of funny’s likely to set them off.

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2. Ask: funny how?

I think it was Confucius who said: ‘humour does not a tonal trait make’. Because humour isn’t one thing.

When your client says ‘funny’, do they mean…

The insouciance of Reformation?

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The playfulness of Innocent?

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The balls-to-the-wall brashness of Cards Against Humanity?

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Or one of a million other types of humour floating around the universe?

Before a brand has a hope in hell of being funny, it needs to be crystal clear on what kind of funny it wants to be.

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3. Sweat the small stuff

The difference between funny and flat can be a single word. So if humour is a priority, you and your client need to resist the lure of the ‘tweak’. A comma here… a word there… soon you’ve lost the delicate rhythm that made the joke a joke in the first place.

EXAMPLE TIME.

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Here is an amusing headline promoting a nightclub’s winter lineup:

NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCOTHEQUE

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And here’s how that same headline might sound after an Attack of the Tweaks:

GET READY FOR THE WINTER OF OUR NIGHTCLUB

If you think this is an extreme example, I promise you: it doesn’t come close to just how unfunny a client can make copy once they start obsessing over the wood while all around them the trees are fully on fire. Part of your job is keeping them sane.

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4. Make yourself laugh

A lot of brand copy reads like it was written for a target audience of amiable planks. People with no taste, no opinions, nowhere to be except right here, reading a corporate newsletter.

That kind of writing is always a bad look, but if you’re going for ‘funny’, it’s a disaster. To be funny, you need to write like you’re writing for your wittiest WhatsApp group. You need to know that your readers are smart, discerning and capable of spotting a good joke, because they tell them all the time.

So don’t settle for funny in theory. You need to be writing stuff so good it makes you smirk at your keyboard. If it’s not funny to you, it sure as hell won’t be funny to anyone else.

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About Genevieve:

‍Genevieve Edwards is a freelance copywriter and stand-up comedian. Find her on Instagram or LinkedIn.