Today I’m preparing for our annual Sitcom Room, where people get the unique opportunity to find out what it’s like to be part of a TV sitcom writing team. One truism all great comedy writers seem to agree on:
“Never sacrifice a character for a joke.”
No matter how funny the joke, if it doesn’t fit the character, dump the joke.
You can — and should — apply that rule to your radio commercial copywriting: Never sacrifice the commercial for a joke.
The relevant question is not, “Is this joke funny?”
The question to ask is, “Does this joke enhance the impact of the sales message?”
If the answer is no, take it out of that spot and file it away to use some other time in some other message.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Amen to that. And why is it that on Fridays at 4 pm is when I get requests to “write a funny ad” for a client that wants to start on Monday? I make my living trying to help client’s businesses succeed with good advertising… not writing jokes.
And besides, I stink at writing “funny”. “Odd”, “quirky”. THOSE I can manage… but better earlier in the day than when I’m already trying to wrap up the “emergencies” for the other six AE’s I write for.
Just getting into reading your Blogs Dan, and I like ’em as much, if not more, than your Advertising letter.
Thanks for the education [ongoing] and the laughs.
Jim Thomas
WCLO/WJVL
Janesville, WI