Are there any techniques you can use while brainstorming to find humor to include in an article?
Answer
1) Pick any one item and take it to an extreme.
"Organizing is good."
- Okay, can I alphabetize my spices? (bad example. I actually do that.)
- Uh, can I sort my vegetable drawer by size and then by color?
- How about putting the living room furniture in rainbow order?
- Where do I file the cat, under P for Pet, F for Felix domesticus, or O for Ollie (his name)?
2) Slip in some judicious puns. For example, if you're comparing shredders, you might write that you don't want to get snippy, but Brand X is really a cut above, and anyone who doesn't think so simply isn't all that sharp. (Caveat scriptor: your mileage may vary.)
3) Take a metaphor and run it off a cliff of absurdity.
"Okay, so imagine that your desk is an elephant, and you're going to eat it one bite at a time. So first you start with a foot, represented by a desk drawer. The file folders are the toes, and the tabs are the toenails. Any punched-out holes, lost post-its, orphaned notes, or faded fax cover sheets would be elephant toejam. That's probably kind of nasty-smelling, but don't worry; just crumple the whole thing up and make a toejam football out of it, and throw it into the nearest wastebasket."
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