Funny Business: Putting Humor in Your Writing
()
About this ebook
Here's just some of what you'll get:
- The Basics of a Working Joke
- Why Humor is a Good Idea at Work
- The secret to puns
- Science Discovers Keys to Humor
- Business Jokes
Michael Dolan
Michael Dolan is a native of Washington, DC, and a longtime journalist and historian. He wrote The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place.
Read more from Michael Dolan
The Nation's Stage: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Find a Better Job Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Write Better and Get Ahead At Work: Successful Methods for Writing the Easy, Natural Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Results Through Learning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Funny Business
Related ebooks
How to Give the Best Speech of Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFunny Business: Comedic Epistemology, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Analyze People on Sight through the Science of Human Analysis: The Five Human Types Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCovert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Words that change the world: How to craft marketing texts for technical B2B products Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard (Review and Analysis of Kriegel's Book) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBreezy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBe Sarcastic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPunching In: On the Frontlines of the New Brand Cultu Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Tale of Two Team Members Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerception is Reality: Become a Winner in the Workplace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything You Know About Marketing is Wrong! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClustering & Chunking: How To Figure Out What You Want To Do. And How To Get It Done. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlee-Mail: Over 300 Funny e-Mail Messages for All Occasions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Can See You Naked: A Fearless Guide to Making Great Presentations Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dan Clark's Humor File Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrite Humor: Learn How to Produce Funny Material on a Regular Schedule Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGot You Covered: 60+ Layouts for Designing Great eBook Covers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarket Your Book Like An Eagle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelling Like a Caveman: An Evolutionary Perspective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Language of Business: How to Read Anyone in 3 Seconds or Less Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Modern Zombies: How to Stay Ahead of the Horde and Communicate Your Way to Incredible Success Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMotivational Story Book 1: Inspirational Short Stories from Everyday Life, with a Thought Provoking Anecdote Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmile Quotes: A Collection Of Colorful Quotes That Give Out A Smile On Your Face Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art Of Significant Leadership And Talent Development Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHook 'em with Humor: The Public Speaker's Guide to Having Fun and Using Humor to Mesmerize, Fascinate, and Engage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReady, Shoot, Aim: A Dyslexic's Guide to Success in Business & Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNever Split The Difference: Negotiate As If Your Life Depends Upon It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings5,000 One Liners: The Second Ultimate Collection of One Liners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Humor & Satire For You
Love and Other Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Fun Personality Quizzes: Who Are You . . . Really?! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best F*cking Activity Book Ever: Irreverent (and Slightly Vulgar) Activities for Adults Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Swiss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindful As F*ck: 100 Simple Exercises to Let That Sh*t Go! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soulmate Equation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best Joke Book (Period): Hundreds of the Funniest, Silliest, Most Ridiculous Jokes Ever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Favorite Half-Night Stand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Go the F**k to Sleep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Dies at the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In a Holidaze Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Funny Business
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Funny Business - Michael Dolan
Work
Good Morning
This book fulfills a promise. Many people in my business writing classes have asked me about using humor in writing. Usually I give them a little suggestion -- often a warning -- then say I will put something together later. This is later.
You can find several books on humor. Many books on business. And plenty of books on writing. But hardly any on writing business humor. This book is a dawn of a new era. Except that it’s the expanded second edition so it must be the less heralded noonish of a new era.
You’ll find the information here to be useful for all forms of writing: memos, emails, reports, tweets and more. Write on paper or online. It all applies. In fact, there is nothing about the new media that overtakes the suggestions here. Brevity, after all, is the soul of wit. And brevity is exactly what today’s Internet-damaged brain craves so much. Much of this book is cheap and juvenile – just what online media excels at. Some of this book is not cheap and juvenile.
Although I tell you what to do in this book, I don’t expect you to just do that stuff. My goal here is to encourage new and creative humor. I will have accomplished my goal if no work place ever again is subjected to a blonde joke or a Chinese
proverb. At the same time, I’ll give you the benefit of my long years of accidentally offending people. I know how to avoid that. Likely you are faced daily with the universally dreaded assistant department manager. He aches from lack of real authority so must daily show greater allegiance to his corporate master than you. Humor is not among his scarce skills. He or she may have a different title but these boobs are easy to identify. They are easy to handle but you can’t be sloppy. They can burn with envy when they fear your wit will make you popular.
Look for new ways to apply humor at work – even in unlikely places. A friend of mine says a good place for humor is collection letters. People are having a hard time already,
she says. So why not give them something to laugh about.
I can’t say I’ve seen this work. But she says she has a great collection rate and the work is less stressful. Funny business works in this unlikely place because her humor is a natural extension of her work style
And here is the first of many mentions of this technique: Look it up.
One of the great values of the Internet is freeing writers from laboring over previously required but usually boring passages of background. You are likely a few key strokes away from a search engine. I try to avoid discussing what you can find easily online.
Whether you are the office wit with a history of funny or just a schlub looking for a way to draw attention, you’ll enjoy this book. It’s not about real business writing. I have another book for that, Write Better and Get Ahead at Work, a practical thorough and serious effort, wielding humor only as counter point.
Funny Business" avoids the information in that tome, with only slight overlaps. The main one is coming up soon. It is George Orwell's Simple Rules for Writing.
1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other combination of words that you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word when a short one will do.
3. If you can cut a word, cut it.
[Or: When in doubt, leave it out.]
4. Prefer verbs in the active voice to verbs in the passive voice.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous
Aren't they neatly elegant? The thrust of the message in these rules is to rely on yourself. Don't copy other phrases just because you have seen them often in memos; create your own sentences unique to your situation. Instead of using long words or complicated wording in order to impress, write simply in plain language. Finally, be active. That's it. The key to effective writing at work—as elsewhere—is sincere expression of what's in your heart. Most writers need to remove the clutter of bad habits rather than add any skill they currently lack. These rules are from Orwell’s outstanding and enduring essay Politics and the English Language.
Look it up. (See how the background plan works?)
George Orwell is one thinker I admire and respect. You will soon see another person I put in that same category is Steve Allen. If you combined George Orwell and Steve Allen, you would be arrested in 23 states (misdirection; see Chapter 3).
This book is totally practical. I mean it to go