Humour is Ninety-Nine Percent Delivery (It's the Other One Percent That Can Kill You).

We’re all selling something, even when it’s humor. Selling humor is akin to selling budgies. Not everybody is interested in budgies. Humor works pretty much the same way. You really have to know your audience, and how to sell to them. As comedian, Buddy Hackett, once said, “Ninety-nine percent of humour is in the delivery. It’s the one percent that can kill you.”

For a comedian, humour is a gift. For an audience, it’s a distraction. Humour began as a distraction, used originally in the court of kings. Jesters ruled while the king drank and ate. Comedy clubs aren’t much different today.

It’s also interesting what people find funny. A comedian stands on stage with his pants around his knees. The crowd applauds. Another comedian tries it and the audience boos. There’s no sympathy for plagiarism in comedy.

Humour can be droll, witty, sarcastic or even mean. We hate to think we laugh at mean humour, but we do. Black humour is the same. We might even say, “That’s sick,” but we still find it funny.

Charlie Chaplin spent his whole career making people laugh at his own expense. He didn’t mind at all. “I remain just one thing and one thing only,” he said, “and that is a clown.” He did a lot better than most clowns.

The hardest humour to do is advertising humour. If you think standing on stage is nerve-wracking, try presenting comedy to a client. Most clients enjoy humor about as much as they do budgies. They definitely fall into the category of “the one percent that can kill you.”

In my early years at J. Walter Thompson, I did a spot for the Ford E-Series Van called “Cattle Drive.” It showed a husband and wife arguing over whether they should take the van on the trail. As it turns out, their cattle drive amounts to a cow in the back, and the wife just wants her heifer to be comfortable. “Why do I listen to my wife?” the guy says, as the wife stands up. “She’s bigger than me, that’s why.” The wife is about a foot taller.

Now, Ford was (and probably still is) the toughest client in the industry. Why did they let me do a funny spot? Because the cow fit so well in the interior (okay, we got a small cow). The lesson from this? Comedy is only funny to a client when it’s still selling product. Do humour for humor’s sake and essentially you’re dead.

When I say it’s interesting what people find funny, it’s even more interesting what clients find funny. I was in a presentation once where the account director said, “Take it away, Robert,” and I said, “I will, as long as I don’t get distracted by anything shiny.” One client laughed hysterically. The others put their hands under the table. I didn’t see their hands for the rest of the presentation.

The most bizarre moment of my career was a meeting with a pharmaceutical client. I was called in to watch a film they’d just put together. In the film, a patient was shown before and after taking Parkinson’s therapy. The before part was shockingly sad. The poor man was crashing into stuff. Out of nowhere, the client starts laughing hysterically. I couldn’t believe it. She laughed through the whole thing. I was shaking when I came out of there.

The real trick to humor is staying on theme. Geico Insurance does great advertising. Every spot uses humor to deliver one message: “Fifteen minutes can save you fifteen percent on your car insurance.” The campaign was developed by The Martin Agency and they know their stuff. Each time you think they’re straying, they pull it right back to the main message again.

Giving the impression you’re straying is the great art of humor. You’re always wondering where the comedian will emerge. I saw a foreign spot the other day where a young man asks his girlfriend for a handjob. He says, “It’s like getting ketchup out of a bottle.” She finally reaches over and starts smacking the end with the palm of her hand. Physical humor is also known as slapstick.

The funniest commercial I ever saw goes back to the 60s. It was for a new soap and the presenter was John Wayne. He’s just standing there, holding this bar of soap, saying how it’s a great product. At the end, he looks at the camera and says, “Now, what the heck is soap?”

There are punch lines and situation comedy and slapstick, all of which can be used effectively if you stay on point. John Wayne stayed on point. Sure, I guess he could have been selling any soap. The point is, he made it work for that particular soap. I’ll bet guys—and women—bought it in droves.

Humor really is ninety-nine percent delivery. Even presenting the concept to the client is ninety-nine percent delivery. I’ve seen humor bomb in the boardroom simply because the copywriter didn’t have the timing down. Like any comedian, you can’t just go in there and rely on the material. Practice in front of the mirror. Try it out on everyone in the agency. Make sure you’ve got the timing right and you might just get the spot through.

Another mistake agencies make is sending people into the presentation who aren’t crazy about humor themselves. I’ve pitched humor where none of the account people laughed. Very bad move. Laughter is infectious. So is lack of laughter. If your own people aren’t on board, nothing is going to happen.

The thing to keep in mind is that everyone wants to laugh. It feels good. To say “The client just didn’t get it,” is like a comedian saying “It was just a lousy audience.” Robins Williams said there are no lousy audiences, only lousy comedians. Same goes for presenting humor to clients.

Just remember that it’s mostly delivery. Actually, it’s almost all delivery. Figure that out and you’re left with the other one percent. I have no advice for reaching those people. They just don’t like humor.

They probably don’t like budgies, either.