Yeah, about my hot date… I’ll get to that in a second.
First, here’s a scene from the animated TV show The Simpsons. The scene illustrates a valuable/funny point about influence. But hold on.
I grew up watching The Simpsons. If you didn’t, that’s no problem. You don’t need to like The Simpsons or even to have ever seen a single episode to get what this scene is about, or to understand the underlying point.
Scene:
Moe the bartender is being interrogated by the police for shooting the local billionaire, Mr. Burns.
Moe is hooked up to a lie detector machine. He’s asked if he ever held a grudge against Mr. Burns. He answers no. But the lie detector machine HONKS to indicate he’s lying.
“All right,” Moe says. “Maybe I did. But I didn’t shoot him!” Sure enough, the lie detector machine DINGS to confirm Moe’s statement as true.
“Checks out,” says the cop. “Ok sir, you’re free to go.”
So far, so conventional. But then, Moe executes the following rapid-fire descent into humiliation, to the sounds of the lie detector machine:
“Good,” he says. “Cause I got a hot date tonight!” HONK
“A date.” HONK
“Dinner with Fred.” HONK
“Dinner alone.” HONK
“Watching TV alone!” HONK
“All right!!!” Moe says. “I’m gonna sit at home and ogle the ladies in the Victoria’s Secret catalogue!” HONK
Moe hangs his head. “Sears catalogue.” DING
“Now would you unhook this already please! I don’t deserve this kind of shabby treatment!” HONK
That’s the end of the scene. Maybe you found it funny even in my transcript above. But if you didn’t, trust me that it’s funny in the original version.
The question is… why?
Is it just funny to find out Moe is a loser? That’s part of it. But would it have been as funny if the scene simply went:
“Good. Cause I got a hot date tonight!” HONK
[Moe hangs head] “Actually, I’m gonna sit at home and ogle the ladies in the Sears catalogue.” DING
My contention is no. That wouldn’t be nearly as funny. Which brings me to the following valuable point that I promised you:
“We build interest by adding more: more movement, more color, more sound, more light, more people, more intensity, more concentration, more excitement. In short, anything whatever that the spectators regard as increasing will also increase their interest.”
That comes from a book about magic and showmanship. In other words, the above advice about adding more is how expert magicians build the audience’s interest.
But it works the same for comedy.
And in fact, it works the same for copywriting.
Stack a bunch of moderately interesting, or funny, or insightful stuff on top of each other… and the effect is multiplicative, not additive.
And with that punchline, we conclude today’s episode. DING
But if by any chance you want more simple tips on building interest and desire in your readers, you can find that here: