Sucking the fun out of funny

Published 12 months ago • 1 min read

♻️ We’re taking a fresh-episode break for a bit, and bringing back some old favorites instead. Disappointed? I know, but as much as we love fresh content, a second listen usually surfaces something you missed the first time ‘round – and replaying smart ideas deepens the insights.

Still, if you only want to get notified when we publish fresh episodes, click here and you’ll skip these updates.

And if you want to skip all podcast updates and only get my ~~musings~~ emails, click here.

“When you dissect a dinosaur, it dies.”

Growing up, that was our inside joke about over-explaining jokes.

Which might explain why I’ve always shied away from comedic frameworks, humor theories – or anything else that engineers funny.

But funny can be engineered. And these how-to-be-funny skills are super handy.

(Especially since AI’s funny bone isn’t as big as its brain yet.)

So, this week, we’re pulling a favorite from the archives, by one of the casually funniest copywriters I know. Nick makes it look natural – but he’s got serious skills – and he breaks ‘em down in this replay episode:

Other ideas from this episode that you don’t want to miss:

(3:14) Why the New York Times slammed Rev – and how Nick took the opportunity to turn around the brand voice by the (sled) reigns

(4:32) How they reduced risk pre-send

(6:59) The follow up email that snowballed the campaign viral-ity

(10:31) Why you shouldn’t plan an airtight content calendar

(13:00) How Nick reapplied media principles and community building methodology to bust expectations

(15:28) The benign violation theory that gives these emails their magic

(19:19) The craziest job offer story that sounds too crazy to be true

(22:23) Why Nick's favorite email lists change so frequently

– Nikki 🦕

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