Just came across an interesting bit on the BBC's Comedy Soup website. Comedy Soup is a BBC forum for user-generated content and aspiring comedians - it gives you raw material from BBC programming, tips for editing, advice on what makes something funny, and a place to upload your video, audio, animations, or whatever to share them with the world. Nice idea. Very 2.0, in a nice understatedly British way - if a US broadcaster did this it would be all "we want to make YOU the STAR!"
But what I found interesting is an interview with Rob Manuel, from the internet comedy troupe B3ta. There's no date on the page so not sure when it's from.
The interview is ostensibly on how to be funny, but I think it reads just as well as advice for making brand stuff these days. It's also good advice for blogging, and for life. Here are his basic section headings - but he goes into each one in detail with lots of examples and anecdotes.
- Trust your instincts
- Be funny or be interesting
- Don't ask for permission, just start doing stuff
- Don't set out to make War and Peace
- Six short ideas are better than one long idea
- Throw enough mud at the wall and some of it will stick
- Follow what's popular
- Talent imitates, genius steals (don't just copy stuff, figure out why something works)
- There are no new jokes, just new ways of telling them
Some particularly choice bits:
Frankly the world has changed. Take Flickr - the popular photo sharing website - for instance. They didn't wait for Fuji Film or Boots to commission them; they simply got to work and tried to create the best photo sharing website in the world. If they'd sat there pitching to companies, they'd still be pitching and we'd have never heard of them.
and
Be prolific and don't be afraid to make stuff that's rubbish. If you keep trying eventually you'll get there.
and
You don't have to do it all on your own. Maybe you know more about video and animation but get your funny mate in to help on the scripts. Or vice versa. Collaboration, that's the key.
and
You may say, "I am an insane maverick genius who doesn't give a stuff what's popular." Well, even if you hate it, looking at popular stuff and asking yourself, "why do people like this?" is instructive. And if you answer, "people are stupid", then you've failed the lesson and teacher wants you to read this bit again.
and
Throw away the bits that don't work. Do this ruthlessly. Your product will be a hundred times the better for it.
Totally worth the read.
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