When They Don’t Get The Joke
I get a lot of shit for being so sarcastic on my little home business blog, and I happily take it. If I wasn’t sarcastic I wouldn’t have very much to say at all, so for me it works out to being either sarcastic or blogless. Blogless means businessless — I get about 95% of my business because of my blog — so I choose the former.
But what happens when people don’t get the joke?
I didn’t post an April Fools’ post on my blog — well, I posted on the first of April, but it wasn’t a joke — because I’m not into it. A lot of people are, though, and the blogosphere was abuzz.
Deb Ng Quits Freelance Writing Gigs
Darren Rowse Launches PayPerTweet
Tim Ferriss Quit Blogging A Year Ago (Thanks, Hunter, for this one.)
While some readers, especially North American ones who are familiar with April First shenanigans or those who have been in the blogging world for more than a year and were prepared for some craziness, thought these things were funny, “touché” or “well-played”, some didn’t. In fact, a lot didn’t.
Why didn’t it work? Why did people not get the joke? Why are people threatening to unsubscribe left and right? Three reasons.
1. These people are not known for being funny.
Maybe they are funny — I read a few of the blogs that ran April Fools’ jokes, and they can be funny folks — but they’re not known for it. Dooce is known for being funny. David Sedaris. Many of the lesser known mommy bloggers. But not these three.
Many of the readers of these blogs were not expecting a joke, and April Fools’ jokes are traditionally known for being practical jokes. Practical jokes are often not funny. They’re something one person does to make someone else look or feel stupid. They are an expression of superiority, or one-up-man-ship, of derision. And when you’re not the type of person who does this thing normally, people feel like they got screwed over.
On this blog, I make a regular habit of talking smack about everyone I can find. People come here and expect a certain level of snarkiness. Other than those who are very, very new (Hi, new people!) nobody’s surprised when I talk a little shit.
Tim, Deb, and Darren are known for offering fairly serious advice, and people felt betrayed. They are trusted resources, and it didn’t cross many people’s minds that their trusted resources were kidding.
2. A lot of people don’t like April Fools’ Day.
I, for one, like comedy movies. I like to laugh. But I don’t remember the last time I went to the theatre to see a comedy because I don’t like the comedy that’s on offer. I don’t like the Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn/ Ice Cube/ Wayans brothers style of comedy. Not inherently bad, just not for me.
Many people feel the same way about April Fools’ Day, or about physical comedy, or about practical jokes in general. Some people don’t like the Saran-Wrap-On-The-Toilet thing. Birds of a feather flock together, and when people realize you’re not like them, sometimes they leave. Sometimes they don’t, and I’m the last one to tell people to change who they are just to keep a few dozen blog subscribers, but it’s worth noting.
3. A lot of people aren’t North American/British/Australian.
While I’m not an expert on the culture in Tanzania or Serbia or Mauritius, I have a feeling that the citizens of these countries don’t hold April Fools’ Day in the same high regard as your average Connecticut WASP. (Don’t start. You know damn well I’m not saying a word against Connecticut WASPs. I’m just saying they’re different from your garden-variety Tanzanian. Am I wrong?)
Many international readers just weren’t prepared for April Fools’ Day. Thus even when people said, “HA HA! Don’t freak out, it was April Fools’!” they still didn’t get it. They were in many cases offended and pissed off and I don’t particularly blame them.
My point, and I do have one:
Joke, don’t joke. Doesn’t really matter. Just consider the impact your joke might have. If you run a business blog, consider the potential impact on your clients. I lose some clients because of my language, because of my sarcasm, and because I tend to run off point. I’m fine with that — it was a conscious decision I made to eliminate potential pain-in-the-ass clients.
Your business might be the same, but it might be different. You might be at the point in your career where you don’t want to run the risk of pissing off the Mauritians. (Who knew THAT was a word?) Whatever. Just know what you’re doing, and if you do end up pissing people off, don’t blame them for leaving.
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