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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I stick around here mainly FOR the sarcasm. It’s an art form.
If you’re really into sarcasm you have to visit despair.com
I made a purchase from them and their sarcasm is a thing of beauty.
You can see my purchase confirmation email from them here. It’s delicious.
http://showoffcards.blogspot.com/2006/01/sweet-sweet-sarcasm.html
@ CSO — Jesus Christ, that’s funny. I see a blog contest in the future. Absolutely glorious.
@ CSO (yes, again) — “customer satisfaction, while theoretically possible, is neither guaranteed nor statistically likely” may be in the runnings for the tagline.
Being the epitome of a Connecticut Wasp, I’m clearly qualified to speak on this issue.
I understand that trust is a big part of blogging, and April Fools’ Day is all about abusing that trust to be funny. It’s once a year, and everyone’s doing it. I don’t think the people who threaten to unsubscribe really care all that much about the broken trust, but instead want to feel important. They want to make the big pro bloggers grovel for forgiveness.
I subscribe to both Darren and Tim’s blogs, and got the joke a few paragraphs in in both cases. These guys put out wonderful content nearly every day, and I’m lucking that they give it away for free. Why would I unsubscribe if they piss me off once a year? That’s a net loss for me. I’m not doing them a favor by subscribing. If anything, they’re doing me a favor by writing for free.
It’s the blogs that keep pissing you off that you should consider unsubscribing from, but sometimes it’s fun to watch a train wreck.
I tend to unsubscribe from blogs that update way too much with boring content, because I get nothing from them except a guilty feeling for having so many unread RSS articles.
Long live April Fools’ Day!
@ Willy — Ah, yes. Feed guilt. I get that too. Who knew that an unread feed article would feel so much like running into a person at a party, knowing you slept with them four years ago and never called them after? Amazing it has so much power. :-)
Having participated in not only one (Copyblogger) but two (with Deb), I’ll add in my two cents.
That, and I’m the Comment King. I have to comment.
People didn’t trust me. People know I’m a schemer and a plotter. Very few got taken in, and those who did get taken in are also those who can laugh at the situation and we all have fun.
So anywhere my name was, I wasn’t taken seriously. On Copyblogger, Brian wasn’t taken seriously because he made a point of not being taken seriously and is known for goofing off when we least expect it.
Deb got taken very seriously, I found. Had she not tried the same angle last year, people might’ve really bitten. (Thank you to those who showed support for me if it really was true!)
I think your perception is correct - if you’re not known for a practical joke and your audience relies on your seriousness and honesty, it may not be a good idea to pull a prank.
Also, cultural differences. Did you know that in Quebec, April Fools is called “April Fish?” Quebecers run around with cutout paper fish and try to stick them to people’s backs without their knowledge.
So yeah. I hear you.
On the other side, people do need to lighten up. A little.
I come here because of your writing style. You are funny and sarcastic and honest and I could never write like you, so I enjoy reading you.
Re practical jokes and blog expectations: blogs and websites are businesses. Bloggers should consider the impact of what they write before they publish. A blogger can publish whatever she wants, but she should accept that sometimes there will be a price to pay (as in, actions tend to have consequences). But as James said, it won’t hurt some people to lighten up and stop taking themselves so seriously.
I totally agree on the cultural difference thing. Blogs being online n’all, it’s quite likely you get readers from all over the place, and it’s just impossible for everyone to be on the same page with April Fools jokes. What I’ve always personally thought is that if the joke is crazy enough (in a “WOAH that’s mad!” way rather than “Oh, that’s not good”) it has a better chance at being understood, because while most people appreciate a joke (even a practical one if it’s good enough), a lot of people object to feeling like they’ve been deceived, and I think there is a world of difference.
Then there’s the issue of the subject matter of some AF jokes, which in itself can sometimes be offensive. But that’s a whole different kettle of fish…
This post is a perfect example of what makes this blog one of the very best edutainment resources out there.
It’s timely yet timeless,
it’s direct yet colorful,
it shows experience plus personality+(+!),
and it’s got a valuable lesson:
ALWAYS CONSIDER YOUR AUDIENCE.
A smart requirement for all (but diary) writers, any business person, and the poor soul learning to tell a joke as a speaking gig opener…
Thank you.
@ James — I had to look up April fish on Wikipedia to see if you were telling the truth. Turns out, you’re not full of shit. Who knew?
@ Vered — Exactly. What you said. Balance.
@ Jimmy — I read your comment out to my husband because I liked it so much. The ones that make you go “Holy cow!” are the best.
@ GirlPie — (When I typed your name, I accidentally typed “GrilPie”. Totally different.) You’re very nice. It would help me if you went on record affirming that I’m not, in fact, paying you to comment. :-) All I can say is that whenever you get a blog to link to, I will whore it out until not just the proverbial cows come home, but the actual cows as well.
Harry? HARRY? Did you HEAR that?? I’m NOT full of shit! HA! So there!
If you’re going to pull off April Fool’s jokes successfully, you have to do it every year and people have to expect it. Gmail has a good one every year. They do it EVERY year. This year it was a new “feature” that let you date your email into the past so that it could never be late. It was cute and funny and unbelievable. Nobody that I know of got offended.
Per Naomi:
For The as-if-this-is-actually-helpful Record:
>I’m more well-mannered than I am nice, but: thank you;
>Neither Naomi, nor Jamie, nor Jack, nor Michael nor anyone on their individual or collective behalf has paid me to comment (or do anything else for that matter, thank-you-very-much);
>Having a blog and sharing its link are separate issues, but thanks for your valuable generosity, I appreciate it;
>I’m delighted to have WHORE IT OUT and COWS in a complimentary request directed at me — biggest thank you of all, Naomi.
Naomi, maybe you should verify James’ statements with a source that he can’t edit! Maybe on the Wikipedia discussion boards they’re asking “Does anyone know this guy who added the April fish thing this morning? Is this really true?” :)
I’ll add that you shouldn’t make jokes that challenge your own authority. Like a guy I know, the president of a small company, who announced his “resignation” one April 1st. It didn’t go over well at all, and then people were always wondering “so, is he still the president, or what?”
One useful thing for AFD jokes is that they be funny. Godin’s was so weirdly, awkwardly, *determinedly* unfunny that I winced. The worst part was that it could have been funny, some of the ideas were funny, but that’s not the way his writing rhythms work. It was like hearing a knock-knock joke told in Serbo-Croatian.
(Note to Seth Godin: I am available to ghost-write funny posts. I won’t even tell anyone other than my husband and my two-year-old. Naomi could also ghost-write funny posts, but she will inevitably give the game away by calling someone a fuckwad.)
I also think that the Internet maybe has enough people who are trying to fool us that we don’t need extra. Then again, I’m another one who hates AFD.
I’ll pipe in here and vouch for James and the Quebec/Fish thing (but of course, who the hell am I and why should you believe me??).
I’m originally from Quebec myself (in BC now) but it is true. Mind you, it’s more with the french community…us ‘anglais’ didn’t really do the fish thing. At least the folks I hung out with didn’t.
James, I feel I know you since you seem to be guest posting on every damn blog I read! :)
I wouldn’t be so sure that people in Tanzania don’t celebrate April’s Fool. I think by now it has become a pretty universal thing…
And after all, most of the readers don’t come from Tanzania. And we Europeans all do April Fools. In Finland, you can’t even trust newspapers or TV news on April 1st :)
Wow, I guess it has been confirmed once again: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”! I checked the finger-pointed blogs of Tim, Deb and the one of Darren and added them to my reader. Win some, loose some, I guess. That how the balance is achieved.
Oh, and BTW, I’m a Macedonian and we even have masquerades all over the country on the 1st. Some bars/clubs even organize competitions for the best mask.
Anyway, a propos the practical jokes – I really dislike them too. It has to do something with the fact that I hate coming out as a sucker out of it - and that is 99% of the time!
choo choo
@James- who’s your buddy? Voila:http://parisbreakfasts.blogspot.com/2008/04/poissons-davril.html
@naomi- April Fools reminds me of high school…do we need to do that again? Would love to be hip, but mostly I was annoyed.
@Naomi -
“I’m fine with that — it was a conscious decision I made to eliminate potential pain-in-the-ass clients.”
That’s a great attitude (seriously). For people in small business, sometimes it’s tempting to work with whatever customers choose you, but we all have to remember that we should choose our customers too, and weed out ones who we won’t be a good fit for.
Your blog is like a “reverse filter” - you want to work with people who ALLOW your words rather than block ‘em!
@ Dave- you make a huge, important point. Some clients are not worth all the money in the world. You have to develop qualifiers, screens , or simply great big pain in the derriere alerts. Not because we are so precious, but our time is, our gifts are…so a little Soup Nazi is a good thing…or “snarkiness”. The substance is there. Get it or get out. Not a bad way to go.
@ James — Did I really say that? I should have said you were telling the truth on this very specific issue.
@ MM — Can somebody please really invent that for me? Please?
@ girlpie — Can you at least tell me privately what your blog is? Pretty please?
@ Hunter — You raise a good point re: James and his French Fish. (That’s a hell of a name for a book, by the way. Bite me, Roald Dahl and your Giant Fuzzy Peach.) Now I’m thinking of that CEO saying he resigns in a Cartman voice.
@ Sonia — Where is his post? What was it? I can’t find it and now I feel totally out of the Marketing Cool Kid loop! (@ Seth Godin — Do not hire me for guest posts. I will give myself away within seconds, a la the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher, in which fake IttyBiz uttered the word “fucker” 4 times out of 5, in the first line.)
Naomi,
I thought I was the only one in the world not a fan of practical jokes. Since AFD is when every nut who never was funny opens their mouth to remove all doubt, it must rank as my least favorite “holiday.” This and some of the comments here (Sonia, saying Naomi would eventually give the game away… LOL!) would make a nice late entry to peach’s You’re Not the Only One.
It’s not that you don’t have a sense of humor if you don’t like practical jokes. Just that mean and/or unfunny is not a “joke.”
I didn’t unsubscribe anywhere, just sighed and moved on. Actually I did get one in the inbox that was rather funny, but I had to go through twenty unfunnies for it. Hmpf.
Regards,
Kelly
@ Karen — Thank you for the confirmation. I still have my doubts. :) The reason you see James around everywhere is because he is a Trampy Pants.
@ Jarkko — Hmm. Finland too, huh? The whole world has gone nuts when you can’t even trust the Finns.
@ Dren — I dig the idea of masquerades and masks and stuff because nobody sees you wearing a Reagan mask and thinks you’re actually Reagan. Glad you checked out the blogs — they’re all good ones, plus/minus a little April Fools’ craziness. :)
@ Janice — Thank you. Yes. Um, yes. I hated high school when I was in it and I hate it now. Like previous posters have said, if it’s funny to 90% of the readers/victims, it qualifies as good. If it is not funny, it’s not a very good joke. (And I like the Soup Nazi comparison. The Soup Nazi of marketing!)
@ Dave “I Don’t Get It” Navarro — I was wondering when you’d stop by. I figured you were still thinking of the perfect middle name. Glad you like my PITA rule. Very important at IttyBiz HQ. First question Jamie and I ask each other. What’s the estimated PITA quotient? Over 4/10 and we’re “too busy”.
@ Naomi…not to step on Sonia’s toes, but I believe she meant this one: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/03/when-poets-get.html
@ Kelly — I consider myself lucky because I had an empty reader for months. I’ve only just started to add feeds again, so I only had about 15 or so, meaning I didn’t have to sort through much. Next year I’m screwed.
@ Karen — THAT was it? Um. OK. Agreed. Not funny. I actually saw that post and kind of ignored it. Not the reaction one is looking for, methinks. Thanks!
@ Naomi…I know! I only realized it was a ‘joke’ after reading Sonia’s comment! His link at the bottom to sign the petition is his admission that it was an AFD prank. I still don’t get it…
BTW I’m with you about the whole AFD thing. I don’t find making other people look or feel stupid, ‘funny’. I hate prank/hidden camera TV shows. Or does that just stem from my own deep, subconscious fear of looking stupid myself??
If I want to laugh, I’ll watch South Park :)
Even though you don’t like April fool’s joke’s, you will have to admit, this one you will love.
Last April 1st, was the day after Davey bought his new car, he lent his old car to young David including THE CLUB that we bought after the old car was almost stolen.
I got up early April 1st, to walk the dogs, and when I got back I moved the new car to a parking spot out of the line of vision, and then told Davey that ” I knew we should have kept the Club here”.
I don’t think I have ever seen any man let alone Davey jump out of bed that fast.
To say the least, he is still rather miffed about that, so as a recipient of the joke, not so fun I guess, but as the sender, Fucking A.
@ Melanie — Fucking A, indeed. Honey, the whole thing changes when the joke’s on Davey. You of all people should know that. Remember the individually wrapped bottles of beer? THAT, my dear, is high comedy.
The Seth thing had some potential. He started to get into multimillionaire poets screwing over their fans to squeeze the last drop of royalties out of them–there was something there.
Alas, Seth is brainy and (I suspect) bighearted, and he writes about his stuff amazingly well, but he has the comic timing of a bowl of oatmeal. No raisins, even.
A gift for you: http://flickr.com/photos/25250804@N03/2381703971/
OK, I’m new here, but this is what this post is making me think of…
I’m a sarcastic person. I get in trouble for being sarcastic more often than not. Sometimes people look at me wide-eyed and in disbelief, obviously not aware I’m being sarcastic. Other times, my co-workers sharply say my name because I’ve just casually insulted a customer who I believed would get the joke.
I think I’m from the same ilk as you Naomi. I’m trying to be serious with my blog, but you’ve inspired me to let some of that sarcasm seep in.
Looking forward to reading and commenting here.
@ Ricardo — Total perfection.
@ Christopher — Absolutely. Seep forth. Life is very short and I will regret it if I could have said something stupid to a customer and missed the opportunity. :-)