A serious note on being funny

Humor is serious stuff. It exposes hypocrisy, punctures egos, and reduces rigid prejudices into laughable ideas. Humor is cathartic when it brings us to laugh at ourselves; within the safety of a joke, we’re able to address shame, fears, and pain that would otherwise haunt us.

I thought a lot about the relationship between humans and humor when, recently, the local standup comedian Nathasha Edissooriya got arrested for making a joke involving religious characters. In a country where freedom of expression is openly obstructed, media routinely censored, activists harassed, and journalists imprisoned, Nathasha’s arrest shouldn’t have surprised anyone. But, the incident dominated the public psyche for weeks, and freedom of expression became a topic fiercely debated all over local media and social circles. Why, though? Why did arresting a comedian trigger so much shock? Why does harming a humorist almost always create shockwaves?

I find humans reserve a sacred space for humor—whether consciously or not. People holding humor in a sacred sense can be seen in cultural and historical contexts from rituals, comedic or trickster deities, sacred texts, and taboos, to healing practices. The jester could get away for joking about uncomfortable truths to the king or queen where others would get executed for it. We laugh at comedians' banter about race, sex, religion, and politics—the very same topics that get family and friends at each other's throats within minutes. Even in Nathasha’s case, I think what shocked most of us was that it publicly penalized the comedic act that society had long maintained as relatively free of judgment.

Humor builds relatability into stories. In our experience, humor brings more engagement to stories and makes them more shareable. The feel-good happiness of humor is naturally contagious, and we find people tend to mimic this practice even online, with stories carrying humorous aspects being the most widely consumed and shared.

When it comes to commercial storytelling, we carefully weigh out a brand’s identity before we consider a humorous story. Humor is certainly a significant part of identity. Inside jokes in close-knit groups and senses of humor that are very specific to cultures and communities show just how intrinsic humor is to identity. But, it’s not for everyone.

I recently saw a think tank highly respected for being insightful, accurate and informative publishing a series of off-brand Tik-Toks and Reels. The stories were obviously tagging onto a trend of funny dancing. But, it was damaging to the brand. I watched their user interaction long enough to notice that this reduced engagement. As part of their audience, I was well aware that the great quality of the think tank’s insights and information hasn’t changed in any way; but, I found myself trusting them a little less. It was an emotional response in spite of my better judgment to not gauge an entity only by their social media presence. I see this happen to brands that simply appropriate humor without interpreting their message to naturally bring out humor from it. If that think tank used wit in a way that highlighted their intellect, for example, it would’ve been perfectly on-brand while still being funny.

A client brand with a fun sense of humor is ApiHappi—the Sri Lankan bean bag makers. When we do commissioned stories for them, I work closely with their founders to bring in the brand’s characteristic sense of humor between sass and sarcasm (I have to mention that being good friends with them lends an unfair advantage here). But, channeling the Humorist isn’t just about being funny; two other Humorist brands we worked with reflect this archetype very differently, through their inherent sense of joy: Arlene Dubo Studio—a Canada-based artist whose vivid works and approach to life both reflect a joyful sense of play and Shanti Faiia—yogi, meditation guru and healer from the UK, whose work involves cultivating happiness and lightness.

At the heart of humour, no matter how dark or sardonic, is a glow of joy. Humour discards the hopelessness of life with a joyful outlook. This sense of joy at the root of humour is infectious. It's also essential. We need humour to survive this absurd world. To find out if humor is a strong part of your brand identity through a Humorist archetype, or a viewpoint adopted when appropriate as hāsyam rasa, drop us a message. Our storytelling tools are designed to help people tell stories that strengthen their brands. Curious about how our Brand Articulation Framework can help your personal or business brand? You can read more about it here.

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GIF shenanigans

Welcome back to another designer's soup. We recorded this edition at the PW studio in Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka. Below I'll be discussing the GIF. Particularly three attributes: its potential to evoke strong emotions, opportunities to strengthen common ties within a group, and add meaning to a message.

Welcome to another designer's soup; on this episode, we are talking about GIFs.

I'm going to refer to it as a GIF (...as opposed to a JIF).

They take an emotion that you're trying to communicate and it can stretch it, exaggerate it, and make it more complex. It allows for more sophisticated forms of communication with just one image; if you're like me, and think in imagery, you might find (writing) time-consuming or even difficult to articulate in words.

An image like this (GIF example) allows us to communicate strong feelings without having to use any words. When you consider visuals or messaging in terms of evocative emotion, (GIFs) can add a layer, and sophistication (like the gift does in this case) by contextualizing and reinforcing the meaning of the message.

GIFs also reference other stories. They are in fact a citation or simply a clip from an existing story. They are a form of meme; by definition an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users. Because of its viral quality, it can also illustrate popular ideas and trends. (for example...) When you open up WhatsApp or any messaging application with built-in GIFs; look at what GIFs are trending. Usually, these are the GIFs that appear first when the tool is selected. These trending GIFs illustrate the general emotional state or the ideas that are most popular at that time. So if you use a popular GIF, you are referencing a popular thought. And I think that connects you with others. When shared, they can demonstrate similar views, shared perceptions, and common interests. They become symbols of a stronger connection within a group. If your objective is to grow loyalty within a group, for example, if a business is attempting to connect with a customer segment, an appropriate GIF can tap into a general idea of a group of people.

A third attribute of the GIF is its scope for meaning. I've used GIFs to inform a client that we (PW Studio) haven't received their payment. As a text-based message, there are often misinterpretations and in my case, it can be difficult to draft a syntax in a way that is appropriate. Finding the right words and tone of voice that is on brand with my business's way of articulating, while also being sensitive to the client or customer is time-consuming for me.

A lot of how we communicate involves body language, eye contact, or other facial features; we pick up on these signals when we're talking face-to-face with someone either subconsciously or consciously. If someone is sitting a certain way or leaning forward, we have a tendency to lean back or we might lean forward in order to create more intimacy. These are helpful signs are not present in a conversation that entirely text-based; GIFs supplement this dialogue through these three attributes: emotional tone, commonality, and contextual meaning.

Food thought…

Alain Parizeau

Director, Public Works

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How to disappear

Artistic voice is probably the only thing we creators treasure more than the tools of our craft or access points to our muse. Artistic voice is very connected to our creative egos. But, when it comes to making brand stories, the creator’s artistic voice is not always a good idea. It could compromise quality and make the story less responsive to the audience.

When I first started writing for different brands about ten years ago, I had clients whose brand voices more-or-less aligned with my writer’s voice. Looking back, now I also think that they clearly hired me as a writer because they ‘liked’ my artistic voice, whether it was right for their brand or not. But, when they started recommending me to others, I started getting clients whose brands didn’t quite speak like me. I remember back then, getting the first client whose brand had a specific sense of humor; my mind went uh-oh.

This is when Public Works had to create a disappearing trick. We had to avoid subjectivity and defaulting into our personal artistic voices when producing commissioned stories. The challenge was to figure out how to make our artistic personalities temporarily disappear, leaving behind our expertise in making stories. This is how we ended up creating our Brand Articulation Framework.

The Brand Articulation Framework is a document used as a tool to unify ideas concerning a business's values, identity, and personality. Although best created through a workshop with the brand custodians, we also created a more economical interview-based document version so that more clients could afford it. It basically aligns all decision-makers of a project. The Brand Articulation Framework documents a brand’s desires, values, key personality traits, strategies and audience. It’s a work tool that sets the narrative voice and even themes for our stories for clients. It gathers and streamlines consensus as to ‘who’ a brand persona is, using near-universal symbols and emotional spectrums. This makes the brand persona easily translatable to creative productions from writing, photography, and films to interiors and customer experiences.

Public Works Brand Articulation Framework is a tool that helps us keep stories true to clients’ brand personas consistent while creating. It allows us to quiet our personal egos as creatives, and incorporate the persona of the brand we’re currently creating for, along with our expertise. It retains the intended persona, and gives the story its form through our skills in creating stories.

The Brand Articulation Framework is such a fundamental part of our storytelling now, and we’ve nicknamed them BAFs. Now, I begin each commissioned story with the BAF, making room for the brand persona and making a part of myself disappear for the time being. It works like magic.

BAFs are not just for writing; it’s a tool that can be used by all kinds of creators from designers, visual artists, interior designers, and filmmakers to content creators. Alain, my other half in life and at Public Works, also uses the BAF similarly when creating stories; his process involves mood boards, brand playlists which lends to constructing more abstract narratives using visuals.

We also use BAFs to help business founders to view the brand as a persona external to their own personality despite natural parallels. This removed room for subjective feedback based on personal preferences and moods, allowing the brand to maintain a consistent face and voice in the public eye. It was a win-win from all directions.

After we incorporated BAFs into our storytelling process, the stories were always written from the voice that was clearly identified and outlined with the involvement of the business founders. Our clients like it because hearing their stories being told from a voice they’ve only fleetingly heard in their head before is something of a trip. Even beyond working with us, our clients use BAFs as a guide to create briefs for other creatives and remind themselves of the motives and values that their brand stands for. We are sometimes commissioned by clients to brief and help new creatives joining their team to use the framework effectively.

Although the outcomes of this process seem ‘uncanny’ in our stories as some of our clients say, there’s nothing magical about it. It’s really a very rational and straightforward process that drives the BAF and how it enables us to map and maintain a brand’s persona through stories. Seeing life through the magician lens often enough, I find this concrete rationality quite magical in the same vein that chemistry is magical. This is why the Brand Articulation Framework becomes a neat disappearing trick for all creators making stories for brands.

Curious about how our Brand Articulation Framework can help your personal or business brand? You can read more about it here.

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