The Second Joke

Here is a complaint you sometimes hear about entertainment media, like television shows or bands or what have you: “Their early stuff was great, but they changed. They moved away from the core elements that made us love them, and we don’t love this different stuff.”

Here is another complaint you sometimes hear about the same kinds of entertainment: “They were great when I first encountered them, but they just do the same stuff over and over. It’s getting tired at this point and I’m bored of them.”

Sort of a conflict, isn’t it? If you were someone who made media like that, I could understand getting a little frustrated. “What do you people even want?“

Well, I’ll tell you a secret. Let’s say you hear a really funny joke. Side-splitting, even! You say “That’s a solid joke,” and you slap the person who told it on the back, maybe even buy them a beer because of the great laugh you just got.

Now, what’s better – they tell you the exact same joke again, or they tell you a joke that has the same structure but maybe swaps around the names of the characters or the type of food they were eating?

That’s right – both are terrible!

The fact is, you just can’t repeat a joke. Anything that relies on emotional impact can’t have that same impact again. It’s just not the way our emotions work. The second joke is never as funny.

The right move – the one that’s hardest on the ego – is just to get your win and then move on. Take your victory and leave ’em cheering. When you want to do a totally new thing, unrelated to the old one, great! You’ll have an audience. Because you didn’t drive them away with the second joke.