How to play with words

Twist a list to add humor to your message

Long ago, on an episode of “The Colbert Report,” Stephen Colbert compared:

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and the Toyota Camry

He was using a wordplay technique called “twist a list.” Think of it as the “One of these things is not like the others” approach.

You can use it, too.

• Set up your list with two or more serious items that conceptually go together: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, for instance.
• Add a funny final item that’s not like the others: the Toyota Camry, in this case.

Comedians twist a list to add humor to their routines. Now you can use this approach in your own copy.

List twisting in action

Professional speaker Mary Fisher uses this approach in her keynote, “Humor in the Workplace. She asked the audience to:

Please raise your hand if you feel you have a touch of Humor Deficit Disorder.

Raise your hand if you have to live with someone who has Humor Deficit Disorder.

Raise your hand if you have to work with someone who has Humor Deficit Disorder.

Raise your hand if you have to work with someone who has it, but you can’t raise your hand because he’s sitting next to you now.

In “Kinky Boots,” Lola calls out to:

Ladies and gentlemen … and those who have yet to make up your minds.”

David Dixon won Salon’s Haiku Error Messages challenge with this verse:

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

In Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn paints a quick snapshot of a character with this twisted list:

Her bookshelves are stocked with coffee-table crap: The Irish in America. Mizzou Football: A History in Pictures. We Remember 9/11. Something Dumb with Kittens.

Scott Beckett, copy editor for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, twisted this list to earn an American Copy Editors Society (ACES) headline contest award:

Going once, going twice, going to be confused

Critics of state’s foreclosure auction process call for more accountability, while lenders say the system protects homebuyers

Twist a familiar list.

You can also twist a familiar list for a funny result. William Shakespeare, for instance, wrote:

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Now twist it: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some ….” How would you finish that sentence?

How to play with words

Twisting a list is one of a wide variety of word games you can play to turn plain words and phrases into double entendres, puns and other plays on words. How can you make your messages more engaging by playing with your words?