How-to stick it in your audience’s mind: Make ’em Laugh, Make ’em Think
Seth Godin, the famous author-marketer-speaker have in all his presentations & speaking gigs, slides full of funny pictures. He talks nuggets full of wisdom but keeps ’em laughing and telling stories embedded with the message he wants to convey.
Manish Sisodia, Minister of Education, New Delhi has transformed Delhi’s education model with happiness curriculum (CNN and Guardian are saying its ‘revolutionary’; The edu-budget was raised from <10% to 25%). He says when he faces a tough, hostile and skeptic audience, he just goes ahead and ‘speak the truth along with a good laugh’ and ‘it works better than any other way’.
-Mark Abrahams, author of ‘This is Improbable’ and Ig Noble Prize founder, says they award people who do outlandish research: “Something that makes people laugh, then makes them think.”
Here are three examples where recipients were awarded for :
— Analyzing- injuries due to falling coconuts
— Paper on Farting during colonoscopy
— Invention of emergency face-mask from a bra.
Comedy in Tragedy
AIB, the most successful stand-up comic group in India(the pioneers of original YouTube content in India) think the best way to deal with all the negativity in the media and the politics in India is by laughing over the tragedy.
When people laugh, they open up and they listen. When they listen, you have a small window to tell them what makes them think. If it makes ’em think. It sticks. Even one of their most successful web-only talk-show was named aptly “On Air with AIB: Tragedy mein Comedy” (translates to: Comedy in Tragedy)
Roman Mars (the host and producer of successful radio show 99% Invisible) when interviewed by Chase Jarvis, talked about his idol Ian MacKaye, who founded Discord Records(known for punk-rock & its DIY ethos). He said the core thing that made him like Discord’s music was that it provided both challenge and comfort: something for people to rely on, be thoughtful about, or in other words, comfort them but also make them think.
If it’s just all comfort, it’ll grow tiresome. So, challenge is important. Laugh+Think is a potent combination, when delivered to right audience.
Laugh provides the comfort and Think provides the (intellectual)challenge.
