Humour: the Canadian way

Humour is a funny little subject as its subjectivity makes it hard to define. Each and every person has their own views on what they find funny and what they don’t. What might make one people break out into hysterics may cause another to turn away in disgust.

As challenging as humour is to define, 85% of Canadians believe there is an identifiable Canadian sense of humour. I was reading an article entitile, The Comedy Network’s 2nd Annual April Fools Day poll reveals the state of humour in Canada, that uncovers some of our country’s views and values in relation to comedy.

Canadians consider themselves to be funny people. The typical Canadian sense of humour is dry, we tend to poke fun at ourselves, there is a mass audience for gross-out humour and of course, we have a tendency to make fun of Americans. Because humour is so widely accepted across our nation we see humour being used in a variety of ways to spread an assortment of messages.

Recently in class, we carried out a similar discussion about our views on humour and its varying degrees of appropriateness. The concept for the discussion was brought about through the examination of the Sleeve Sneeze campaign put on by Toronto Public Health. The campaign was created to assist the Canadian population with changing their sneeze culture to one that helps reduce the spread of germs.

Through our discussion we concluded that when used tactfully, humour can be a great tool to help spread a message. Perhaps we came to this conclusion because of our inherit nature as Canadians to enjoy a good joke, but mainly, we agreed that humour plays on different emotions and can in fact improve a brands message.

According to Ed Robinson, President and General Manager of The Comedy Network, “…humour is important to Canadians and our identity…it helps define who we are.” This statement is true on the individual level as well as the corporate, brand level. Understanding someone’s sense of humour can tell you a lot about that person, and the same is true for a brand. Exposing brand values through humour can help people relate to the brand as it assists in creating a mutual relationship.

There are upsides and downsides to using humour in a public relations campaign. The upsides include such benefits as; humour helps diffuse a negative situation, it gives your brand personality, it creates a buzz that gets people talking, humour can be attention grabbing and it helps make your campaign memorable as people remember stuff they think is funny.

The downside of using humour in a campaign is that humour is subjective, what is funny to one is not to another. Some may find your humour offensive or inappropriate and may in fact turn people off the brand. When creating a humourous campaign you should consider how the joke will hold up to translation into different cultures and languages to avoid awkward messages.

One of my classmates said it best when he stated, “using humour is a high risk, high reward scenario.” We continued to discuss that when using humour in a campaign, you should proceed with caution. It is advised to test the campaign first on a focus group to gauge reaction. Most of all, the humour used in a campaign should be supported by a real news angle, establishing it as a valid and smart take on the message.