When Your Prose Should Ditch the Clown Costume

Humor is a wonderful manipulative tool. Just make sure that it doesn't violate decorum.

For years, I wrote a blog in the guise of my alter ego, Figaro, dealing with the many delights of figures and rhetoric. I’d originally hoped to name the blog “Figures of Speech,” but some geek had beaten me to it. So Figarospeech it had to be.

I miss Figaro, that cheeky nerd. But many of the questions from “figarists” remain relevant. Including the one below.

While I’m merely me these days, I’d love to get your questions: about figures and tropes, political shenanigans, memorable phrases in movies and music, and how to manipulate your loved ones. You can simply put your question in a comment on one of my posts, or message me through Substack.

Dear Figaro,
I am in Composition 300 at Colorado State University. I need to know what your belief is about humor in blogs—specifically personal profiles, and in Argument papers. I believe that if your audience involves people and/or their kids, then showing that you can see the funny side of things makes people more likely to remember you and care what you say—without sacrificing clarity or ethos, of course. My composition professor doesn't seem to believe that, and I feel as if I am being unfairly discriminated against because I am trying to have a certain tone and creativity, especially in my personal profile on the blog that we are required to have. What are your thoughts please? And do you have any advice in this matter?

Thanks, Amie

Dear Amie,

I've been exploiting my family for humor for years. In this case, though, I side with your humorless prof.

Let's look at your problem this way. Would you wear the same clothing in class that you would in a Boulder nightclub? Maybe you would; I have no idea what people wear in Boulder nightclubs, or even whether Boulder has nightclubs. (Let me know; I'm going there in a month.)

In any case, we're talking decorum—the proper style for your audience. A blog is like a nightclub. (Figarospeech is more like a really quiet bar, but bear with me.) An argument paper, on the other hand, is like speaking in front of the Supreme Court. A blog tends to be informal. The Supreme Court is...well, just look at those people.

In the case of your particular blog, the essential reader is one person: the prof. Which makes your blog an exclusive nightclub limited to Supreme Court justices. Where have you gone, Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Writing style and clothing style both need to practice decorum, fitting in with the audience. And who determines that style? The audience. If your audience is your composition prof, and your composition prof thinks humor about your family is too informal, then he's right.

If rhetoric had a motto, it would be this:

It’s not about you.

Persuasion lies in the attitudes, beliefs, and expectations of your audience.

Fig.