Copywriters of the world, hear my words: If you need to explain the joke, then it’s a sucky joke to start with and explaining it further just makes you look like a ‘tard. That’s right, by doing this, you’ve suddenly became that annoying kid on the playground who thinks he’s a lot funnier than he is and sets about giving you the background of his comedy genius when he doesn’t get a laugh. That’s you, ass.

Here’s the Honda ad in question…

Honda Radio Spot – Holidays

For starters, the “Helpful Honda People” concept is officially effed out. Hell, it probably was months ago, but I wasn’t here to point it out, so I’ll let that slide.

Secondly, this is why you suck…

Yeah, it was fine until a squirrel mistook me for a tree and ran up my leg.

Ah, what happened?

Well, you know how squirrels hide their nuts and try to find them?

Oh.

What was it? Was the spot too short and you needed a few more words near the end? I mean, you could have just let the legal guy slow down a bit to fill in the gap, but no, you had to go and explain the joke.

Because dude, I gotta tell ya, we got it after you mentioned “squirrel” and “pant leg”. The juxtaposition of “nuts” and “balls” simply isn’t that much of a leap. Matter of fact, most of us got it back in middle school, and you’re talking to a guy who went to a campus where they used the word “huevos” more than “nuts.”

I have a feeling that the copywriter isn’t to blame on this one though. I only worked with a traditional agency for awhile, but I’ve heard plenty of stories of when the client, the account manager, or the head of research says in a meeting, “do you think people get the reference to balls here? I mean, I get it… don’t get me wrong, funny stuff, man. But I’m worried that the customer is going to get confused.”

Oh, they’re going to get confused alright, by the fact that someone got paid to hurl that crap onto the air. Like the man said so many years ago, people aren’t idiots. If they can’t pull together that you’re talking about a squirrel mistaking your balls for real nuts, then you’ve just failed as a comedy writer and need to go back to writing copy for the mortuary client.

J.

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