Nor me. Ever. :)

I would certainly agree with Dave & Roberta; humor in a direct response setting is a tough sell, though again, I would never rule it out entirely.

On the other hand, years ago I wrote a series of funny, self-effacing ads for a fly fishing shop. Customers kept wandering in and repeating the headlines to the staff.

Revenues spiked whenever an ad hit the street, but they really spiked when I combined the humorous headlines with a special offer.

I tend to draw two conclusions from that experience.

First, humor is simply one more creative technique, much like a fear appeal, storytelling, etc.

Second, humor alone doesn’t generate sales any more than a dramatic, benefit-oriented tactic does without all the usual “buy now” goodies (the sales foundation).

And frankly, I think marketing is re-orienting itself a bit, and that humor might play better when the goals are long-term brand engagement instead of an instant sale.

It’s certainly fodder for thought.

What’s also true is that humor is hard. Damned hard — the kind of thing that shouldn’t be attempted without a net.

Anyone who’s ever told a kickass, surefire, drop-dead joke at a party and received only stares in return should know that (not that it’s ever happened to me, mind you).

HOWEVER, in certain other media – like TV, viral video – it can work, but usually doesn’t. There are commercials I love but rarely can remember the name of the company/product being promoted. (Exception – the PC/Mac boys for Apple. Love the ads, always remember the company.)

On the other hand, I can remember company slogans from 20 or more years ago with ease. Not art or artful, but slam-bang advertising if you’re really looking to sell something. (My kids can sing the 2, count ‘em 2, Oscar Meyer jingles with glee. And when I think of it, I can’t recall another company with 2 beloved jingles for different but related products.)

Props to OM for not fiddling with pure gold.

It’s true: humor that doesn’t speak to the product is just another form of very, very expensive entertainment (mostly for the ad agency creatives). The thriller lizards are an excellent example.

Yet it’s hard to argue with the long-term success of the “less filling/tastes great” Bud Light brand ads, which dealt with product benefits in a humorous way.

And while only the folks with the data know for sure, I believe the Cleese spoof site helped put NTX balls on the radar, and in a way that spoke to their performance benefits.

Frankly, the problems with the NXTube.com site revolved around the technology (few of the videos posted on YouTube, no way to quickly send content to friends, no way to display the videos in another blog, etc) instead of the concept.

By contrast, look at the BlendTec blender videos. The concept is funny, the bargain-basement videos went viral, and while I can’t recite the number off the top of my head, I did read that the company sold a mountain of blenders.

Funny copy for the sake of being funny? Humor that doesn’t speak to the product? You’re right, that’s simply an exercise in creative megalomania.

Still, I think appropriate humor does sell, especially to an increasingly jaded audience.

I am a professional copywriter, but I really wanted to be a comedian. Therefore, a lot of my copy starts to turn funny, but I have learned that a savage self inflicted bite to my forearm gets me back on track.

You see, funny copy has been proven time and time again to amuse lots of folks, but sell nothing. The lizards dancing to ‘Thriller’ on the Super Bowl commercial were very funny, but I couldn’t tell you what they were selling if you put a blowtorch to my feet.

Copy that doesn’t sell is junk. If one wants to write funny stuff, find another line of work than copywriting. My clients don’t want to be made to laugh….except maybe on the way to the bank after my brilliant copy made them lots of dough.

Mother-in-laws, planes, race, sex, politics, and almost any other topic continues its use as probable fodder for any one who wants to make people laugh. Would comedians have created any funny jokes about Eliot Spitzer before his fall from grace? No. He was about as funny as a glass of tomato juice.

Even people as diverse as Woody Allen and Borat understand that disaster of any kind will prompt some form of hilarity whether it be lack of a love life or lack of reason.

I have worked many different places, and it seems that your values defines your type of humor – or the other way around. Therefor humor is an great way of targeting a group or type of character.

At the same time humor de-arms; it is a powerful weapon to make people let their guard down.

I think this is why humor is very common in the European arena, where the sale is often toned down. The socialistic tendencies in the European mindsets are not as open for sales propositions as the American (where it seems to me that capitalism and selling are held in very high esteem, indeed).

In Norwegian high schools, teachers educate pupils in cricital thinking of advertising. Which ironically leads to more manipulating advertising – not less, as we all need to penetrate the force field of skepticism.

Here, working in advertising is perceived as serving the beast of capitalism. And no one calls themselves “salesmen” anymore; they’re all “customer consultants”. A far more accepted term – until it’s cover is blown.

Still, your point is well taken; the question “what’s funny” could power a graduate-level philosophy class for a whole semester (without a resolution).

That’s why the lack of “do this” bullet points. You can learn to be funnier, but the best have an innate sense for it.