WRITING HUMOR
“humor is a formula. hit two dimensions.”
The Lesson
The six dimensions of humor: Clever (unexpected solution), Naughty (bathroom/sex), Cute (animals/children), Recognizable ("I've been there"), Bizarre (things that don't belong together), Cruel (bad things happening to others). You need at least 2 dimensions for a joke to land. 3 is great, 4 is rare and hilarious. Calvin and Hobbes hit 4 dimensions consistently. Cute and bizarre built in, then add clever or recognizable. Also: keep sentences short and direct, use funny-sounding words (K and T sounds like "yank" instead of "pull"), and test with your body. If you don't physically react, neither will your audience.
Real-World Example
A startup's pitch deck tries to be memorable. Bad approach: dry bullet points. Good approach: Hit multiple dimensions. Make the problem RECOGNIZABLE ("We've all been in meetings where..."), add something BIZARRE ("What if your calendar could fire people?"), keep it CLEVER (unexpected solution), maybe even CUTE (a mascot). Two dimensions = forgettable. Three = memorable. Four = they'll fund you just to see what happens next.
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