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Paul Arden taught us that one of the most effective tactics in advertising is to think the opposite. Unfortunately, he didn’t talk much about what takes to pull it off successfully.

In this respect, I find the lessons of comedy instructive. Comedy is built upon a foundation of doing the opposite of what people expect.

This is not to suggest that Steve Martin’s humor is cheap. He’s pictured here to illustrate what it would look like having an arrow in your head.

Stick an arrow in your head. Right away, you probably look foolish. People will laugh. The joke is on you, but at least you’ve got their attention. This kind of humor is cheap, but it works. All it takes is a little bit of courage.

Then there’s another kind of humor. Humor that is not merely absurd, but actually changes one’s perspective. It’s risky, but if it is successful, the comedian causes the audience to join him in thinking the opposite.

A recent example of this is Norm MacDonald’s set at the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget:

Click on the picture to be taken to a page with the full video. I can’t embed the clip for some reason and this is the only version online that has the full, uncut set.

In this clip, MacDonald invokes the opposite of roast: being deliberately un-funny and G-rated. It’s awful, but he endures. As a result, he ends up having the best routine of the night.

Some people don’t quite get it. The jokes aren’t the point; the whole routine is the joke. In a delightfully subversive (practically meta) twist, MacDonald is roasting the roast.

Channeling Arden:

Do the opposite. Keep doing it. Do it for a long time. People will still laugh at you, but then they will get uncomfortable. The joke is on them. Eventually, people will stop laughing and start moving in your direction. This takes a heroic level of courage.