Summary
This video explores humor's structure and creation, presenting 11 distinct categories or 'funny filters' that can be applied to opinions to generate humor. It delves into character archetypes, the evolution of humor tastes, and the learnability of comedy creation, often stemming from childhood coping mechanisms. The founder of The Onion, Scott Dikkers, shares insights from his career, emphasizing persistence and hard work over innate talent, and discusses the brand's growth and the development of Onion Labs.
Key Insights
Madcap humor, characterized by physical or non-sequitur absurdity, is a highly favored category, particularly when it has strong subtext.
Madcap humor, defined as crazy, wacky, or physical humor (like slipping on a banana peel) or non-sequitur humor, is a personally favored category. While Brits are known for it (e.g., Monty Python), Americans are often more restrained. For madcap humor to be effective, especially for the audience, it needs to have good subtext, such as making fun of wasteful government bureaucracy with the 'Ministry of Silly Walks'. The Marx Brothers in 'Duck Soup' are cited as an example of madcap farce with great subtext.
Comedy skills can be learned and developed, often driven by a need to cope, particularly for those with challenging childhoods.
Most people can learn to be funny; it's not an innate talent. Often, individuals turn to humor as a coping mechanism, especially those who experienced difficult childhoods. This drive leads them to self-teach and develop comedy skills by observing what elicits laughter and positive attention. Professional comedians like Eddie Murphy and Chris Farley are cited as examples of individuals who developed exceptional skills due to their formative circumstances.
Exaggerating a brand's identity to its most outrageous form is key to creating a memorable and viral brand marketing strategy.
Dikkers advocates for 'hyperbole' or comic exaggeration as a powerful marketing tool. He believes that living the most outrageous version of a brand's identity generates buzz and word-of-mouth, making it highly marketable. This approach, which he developed at The Onion, involves pushing the brand's core identity to extremes, making it more remarkable and shareable. He uses Walgreens' commitment to convenience as an example of exaggerating a brand's core value to an extreme.
Persistence and hard work, rather than just passion, are the true drivers of success and skill development in any field.
Dikkers argues that passion alone is insufficient for success; persistence and hard work are essential. He believes that consistently doing the 'back-breaking, grinding work' builds habits, leads to learning and improvement, and ultimately develops skills that can be mistaken for innate talent. This dedication is crucial for achieving mastery, as exemplified by The Onion's decade-long journey to widespread recognition.
Sections
Introduction to Humor Categories
Humor involves surprise and can be filtered through 11 literary devices (funny filters) to create professional-sounding comedy.
Scott Dikkers, founder of The Onion, explains that humor has an element of surprise and can be categorized. He developed 11 'funny filters', which are literary devices used to filter opinions and generate effective humor that feels professionally written. Different people may favor different filters based on personal preferences and evolving cultural tastes.
Madcap humor, characterized by physical or non-sequitur absurdity, is a highly favored category, particularly when it has strong subtext.
Madcap humor, defined as crazy, wacky, or physical humor (like slipping on a banana peel) or non-sequitur humor, is a personally favored category. While Brits are known for it (e.g., Monty Python), Americans are often more restrained. For madcap humor to be effective, especially for the audience, it needs to have good subtext, such as making fun of wasteful government bureaucracy with the 'Ministry of Silly Walks'. The Marx Brothers in 'Duck Soup' are cited as an example of madcap farce with great subtext.
Character archetypes, often originating from commedia dell'arte, are fundamental to humor, providing relatable and amusing character traits.
Character archetypes are crucial in humor, with many originating from Italian Renaissance theatre's commedia dell'arte. Examples include the 'man-child' or 'woman-child' (like Will Ferrell's characters), the 'dummy' (like Homer Simpson), and the 'bumbling authority figure' (like a mall cop). These archetypes are loved because they are relatable and often lampoon authority or societal structures, providing commentary through their predictable actions based on established traits.
Humor preferences and cultural trends evolve, with shocking humor being less favored now compared to more madcap or non-sequitur styles.
People's sense of humor changes over their lifetime. While earlier preferences might lean towards irony, cultural shifts influence what's popular. For instance, 'shock' humor, prevalent during National Lampoon's rise, feels tired now. Millennials and younger generations tend to favor madcap, non-sequitur, or nonsense-based humor, showing that humor trends evolve like fashion.
Creating Humor and The Onion's Origin
Comedy skills can be learned and developed, often driven by a need to cope, particularly for those with challenging childhoods.
Most people can learn to be funny; it's not an innate talent. Often, individuals turn to humor as a coping mechanism, especially those who experienced difficult childhoods. This drive leads them to self-teach and develop comedy skills by observing what elicits laughter and positive attention. Professional comedians like Eddie Murphy and Chris Farley are cited as examples of individuals who developed exceptional skills due to their formative circumstances.
Adults can learn comedy through formal education, workshops, and dedicated practice, including programs at established institutions like Second City.
It is possible for adults to learn comedy systematically. Colleges are developing accredited comedy studies programs, and institutions like Second City offer courses in improv and sketch writing. Dikkers himself developed a prose writing program there, enabling individuals with no prior experience to learn about subtext and the 11 funny filters, often leading to successful publication in comedy outlets within months.
The Onion was founded out of a desperate need to make a living in comedy, employing a business model based on advertising revenue for a humor magazine.
Scott Dikkers, then a college student, felt desperate to make a living through comedy. The opportunity to start The Onion arose when two entrepreneurial students approached him with the idea of a college humor magazine. They proposed a business model where advertising sales for a traditional magazine would fund the printing, and the remaining space would be filled with jokes, stories, and cartoons. This entrepreneurial endeavor was initially bootstrapped, with finances being tight for the first few years.
The Onion's editorial vision, driven by Scott Dikkers, focused on developing the funniest ideas and grew through consistent effort and adaptation over years.
Dikkers co-owned The Onion for its first 15 years, overseeing editorial content while his partner managed the business side. His editorial vision guided the publication until around 2000. He was rehired later and continued to shape the content. Dikkers emphasizes that The Onion's success wasn't immediate but the result of approximately ten years of obsessive commitment and figuring out how to write satire well, embodying the concept of paying dues.
Exaggerating a brand's identity to its most outrageous form is key to creating a memorable and viral brand marketing strategy.
Dikkers advocates for 'hyperbole' or comic exaggeration as a powerful marketing tool. He believes that living the most outrageous version of a brand's identity generates buzz and word-of-mouth, making it highly marketable. This approach, which he developed at The Onion, involves pushing the brand's core identity to extremes, making it more remarkable and shareable. He uses Walgreens' commitment to convenience as an example of exaggerating a brand's core value to an extreme.
Later Career and Philosophy on Success
Humor writing can be demanding, leading Dikkers to shift focus to teaching, podcasting, and personal website creation later in his career.
Dikkers finds humor writing, especially news satire, to be a demanding 'young person's game' that requires constant effort. As he's aged, he's reduced his direct involvement in daily joke creation for publications. He now focuses on his own comedy website, where he posts as inspiration strikes, and runs a program at Second City teaching comedy writing based on his book, 'How to Write Funny'. He also hosts a podcast interviewing comedians about their creative processes.
Persistence and hard work, rather than just passion, are the true drivers of success and skill development in any field.
Dikkers argues that passion alone is insufficient for success; persistence and hard work are essential. He believes that consistently doing the 'back-breaking, grinding work' builds habits, leads to learning and improvement, and ultimately develops skills that can be mistaken for innate talent. This dedication is crucial for achieving mastery, as exemplified by The Onion's decade-long journey to widespread recognition.
Early success can be detrimental if an individual hasn't gone through the necessary 'dues-paying' to handle fame and its pressures.
Achieving success too early can be overwhelming and destructive if one hasn't developed the personal capacity to handle it. Dikkers relates this to individuals who use humor to cope with emotional voids; finding success with their coping mechanism doesn't necessarily fill the void, leading to devastation. He cites Chris Farley as an example of someone who couldn't handle success due to not paying sufficient 'dues', and suggests that therapy, family, or personal work are necessary to fill such voids, not just comedy.
Mad Magazine was a revelation that showed making fun of everything was acceptable, offering an escape from a serious, humorless childhood.
Scott Dikkers found Mad Magazine during a stressful, humorless childhood to be a revelation. It demonstrated that it was permissible and even enjoyable to make fun of everything, as nothing was sacred. This exposure provided him with an escape and opened up the possibility of pursuing comedy as a way to make life more enjoyable and less serious, a stark contrast to his home environment.
Humor can be a career stepping stone, but ultimately, personal fulfillment requires addressing deeper emotional needs beyond one's work.
While humor provided Dikkers with a career and success, he experienced a personal crisis around age 35-40 when he realized his success wasn't filling an internal void. This led him to understand that humor is what he *does*, not who he *is*, prompting him to work on himself and his identity apart from his profession. He contrasts this by noting that while humor might not fill the void, addressing it through therapy or personal work is necessary for true human well-being.
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