From the course: Video Writing: Using Humor to Communicate and Persuade

Use humor to take your videos to the next level

From the course: Video Writing: Using Humor to Communicate and Persuade

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Use humor to take your videos to the next level

- Hello, and welcome to Video Writing Using Humor to Communicate and Persuade. I'm Roger Schulman. I'm here in this pretend condo to make a real point. Video is becoming an increasingly important and widespread tool in business, and humor can make that tool more effective. Humor is generally thought of as entertainment, not as an aid to communication. Yet it can be a powerful messaging tool, and like any power tool, comedy can be dangerous. Misused, it can obscure your message or worse, offend your audience. But when used correctly, it can burn your message into your audience's memory, so it's worth learning to use safely. In this course, we'll look at why something is funny in the first place, how to use humor to leverage your message without overwhelming, where to use it, where it's better to just take out the jokes and do it straight, and a sophisticated process known as de-yuck-ification. I'll start by showing you the essential role of comedy plays, not just in business, but in life. It's that vital role that makes humor so potent when used correctly. Not every video benefits from laughs, but you'll be surprised to learn just how many types of messages can be enhanced by a light touch. We'll learn how some comedy works regardless of culture, while other humor is audience-dependent. And I'll show you the proper mix of objective and subjective humor in your writing. We'll even cover how to tailor your comedy to fit a video of any length and within any budget. Comedy is really more than a single tool, it's a name for a whole tool box of effective techniques. There's visual comedy, word play, timing, and (uplifting music) (birds chirping) Hi, I'm Roger Schulman, welcome to Video Writing Using Humor to Communicate and Persaude. Every day millions of, what? I already said that? Oh, let's get started.

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