Humour can be an incredibly powerful force. It can help you get a serious message across in a friendly way; make people see an issue differently; or just make people warm to you and your brand. However you do need to take care when using it. When you’re talking to people face to face it’s much easier to judge their reaction and know whether or not your joke went down well. But if you write something funny you don’t know your readers’ reaction unless you get a complaint. Which is something you definitely don’t want to provoke.
When I was at the ice hotel in Swedish Lapland at New Year, we had a briefing on how to survive the night at -5C. As the guests gathered in the ice cold lobby two young Swedish women were waiting for us. They were talking in Swedish and suddenly one of them turned to us and said “We are discussing who takes the survivors and who takes the non-survivors.” Quick as a flash her colleague said, “I’ll take the survivors. Follow, me.” Guests immediately started to file out of the lobby after her – and pretty soon there were very few of us left. At which point the first Swedish woman said, “Wait! Some of you will have to stay with me because the rooms are too small to fit all of you in.”
Luckily her misunderstood joke was easily overcome and the few of us who had waited probably had a better time of the briefing as there were fewer of us crammed in the small ice rooms. But it goes to show that humour is relative and you need to make sure your words will come across as you intended and not be misconstrued. So do think carefully when you use humour. Used well it can be extremely persuasive.
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