How often do you come across a formula for hope? In 2018, Scott Adams, the Creator of Dilbert, persuasion expert, and trained hypnotist, received epic-hate for suggesting he had a formula for humor.
The next day he posted his “2 of 6 Rule of Humor.” It’s a literal formula for creating jokes, gags, humor, etc.
A very persuasive skill.
While Mr. Adams’ 2015 prediction that Trump would win in a landslide upset many people, that was nothing compared to the visceral hate he received for suggesting that jokes could be created formulaically.
It’s possible Mr. Adams saved the world in 2018, and no one will even notice.
I’ve been watching the pre-production of a disaster film, emanating from Minnesota, for the last 50 years. Mr. Adam’s joke formula filled me with some confidence that we might be able to avoid this film altogether.
On Memorial Day, 2020 the world got a teaser for what happens when ideas spread that are completely resistant to facts, logic, reason, or ethics. They are not, however, resistant to humor.
According to Adams, a professional joke writer, at least a third of Americans do not even understand how jokes work. “Jokes,” he says “are funny when they contain at least two of these six attributes in the correct combinations:”
- Naughty
- Clever
- Cute
- Bizarre
- Mean
- Recognizable
Humor is funny that way.
The visceral hate he received for releasing that formula doesn’t surprise me. Humor makes everyone, including men, more persuasive. Laughter produces brain-altering, feel-good chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins.
Humor is also enlightening. Humor is persuasive. Men like it and women select for it. This formula gives unprecedented power to men to shape the perception of those around them, and increase their group esteem.
Other than violence, nothing makes men more attractive or persuasive than humor and the feel-good drugs produced by it.
Organizing the building blocks of humor is going to allow engineering types to improve their humor and increase their persuasiveness by showing them how to systematize humor.
Giving men this power may make some people uncomfortable.
Speaking of people feeling uncomfortable… In the same video, Scott references the “Uncanny Valley,” a gross emotional reaction that people have to low-resolution or distorted images of people or robots that look like people. The “Uncanny Valley” is a visual response, similar to the audio response of hearing a voice recording played backwards.
It’s viscerally disturbing to see or hear subhuman depictions of humans. Contempt, disgust, and outrage are conspicuous features of our social media landscape. Put plainly, we’re in a feedback loop that humor can interrupt.
My early writings explore the grossness of men as a behavior set, in great detail. My later writings are about media and politics causing stress. All of my writings are about how disgust, division, and contempt are used to distort our perceptions of men, women, and minorities.
Social media are systems for spreading human contempt, disgust, bias, and division.
Humor + grossness + the 2/6 Rule can be used as a system for enlightenment.
