Rashida
Some of you may disagree, but we can write some pretty funny stuff here at Content Cucumber. While I would certainly not label myself as a very funny person, I do know how to churn out the occasional humorous article.
Humor is a (not so) secret weapon that you can wield to keep your audience entertained. It helps you position your brand as more likable and relatable, but only when it’s done tastefully.
Unfortunately, most of us are not stand-up comedians in disguise, so how the heck can we write funny content?
Here are some of our tried and true tips for how to write funny content.
Believe in Yourself
You have to believe you can be funny before anyone else will. Writing humor comes easier to some than others, but everyone has the potential. Start by just trying. Take a stab at adding humorous elements into your content and let your personal humor shine through.
Why Write Funny Content?
First, it’s important to go over the purpose of including humor in your content. While there are definitely a few industries or topics that you may want to avoid humor with, the vast majority of content writing can benefit from a few chuckle-inducing moments. Here’s why:
- Humor is engaging. Humor will keep your audience interested and wanting to read more.
- It makes you personable. If you want people to connect with your brand and feel like they know you, get them to laugh.
- It can lighten the mood. While you must be careful with it, some humor can also help to lighten heavy topics and make them more approachable for your readers.
- To stand out. Humor is risky, a little taboo for professionals. That’s what makes it absolute gold for content writing. The counter-intuitive nature of humor will give readers a breath of fresh air, which can help you stand out from the crowd.
- Your audience is more likely to share it, thus providing free marketing.
- It’s more fun to write. Let’s face it, adding a bit of your personality and humor to a piece makes it far more exciting to write. Content writing can get boring and tedious if you let it!
Enough of the “why” let’s get into the good stuff: how to write funny content.
Know Your Audience
Yes, you always need to write for your audience but it’s never more important than with humor. To write something that your target audience finds funny, you have to understand them on a deep level. You are not writing for “women 18-25 years old,” you are writing for Susie who just graduated from college, loves SoulCycle, and has framed photos of her dog in her bedroom. The better you know your audience, the easier it will be to land the right jokes.
If you’re trying to make Gen Z laugh, mock older Millennials, but if you’re trying to make older Millennials laugh then you obviously won’t want to do that. Considering your audience will help you choose the right word choice, relevant jokes, and references.
Tell the Truth
It may seem counterintuitive, but one of the funniest things you can write about is the truth. Bringing in personal experiences and stories makes the humor far more believable and relatable than trying to make up some far-fetched tale.
Simple Wins
As any comedian will tell you “if you have to explain your joke, it wasn’t funny.” Keep your humor simple. Your reader shouldn’t need a novel to set up the joke and understand it. Some of the funniest content is short, sweet, and simple.
Make it Obvious
Tone and intent can be hard to decipher on paper. I keep trying to explain to my dad that “ok.” is not an acceptable response to my paragraph text unless he’s upset or annoyed, but he just got Facebook in 2020 so we can’t expect too much. Don’t be like my dad. Make your joking tone obvious to the reader with punctuation, bolding, italics, and quotes.
Bonus points if you can spot the places I’ve used those methods of emphasis already!
Use Jokes Like Seasoning
The best way to add humor to your writing is to treat it like a potent seasoning. You can enhance, or destroy, a meal with seasoning. Not enough, and you can’t taste it. Too much, and it’s all you can taste, it becomes overwhelming and annoying. You don’t want your writing to be soaked in “seasoning”, you want to subtly sprinkle it in.
Be Yourself
The best humor is authentic. Don’t try to be someone else with your writing, it will come off as gaudy or awkward. Be true to your own sense of humor. If you aren’t a sarcastic person, go for a one-liner. If you’re punny, then embrace it! Just be yourself, unless you aren’t funny.
I’m only kidding!
Kind of…
Humor is a great way to make your content entertaining for the reader, but it also makes the writing experience more enjoyable. You don’t need to be a comedian to tastefully incorporate humor into your content. Just believe in your ability, give it a try, and be true to your humor.
And, hey, if it doesn’t work out you can hire some actually funny writers to help you out. You can sign up for a content writing demo today!
