– Trish Cowan, Copy Writer
“Every act of communication is an act of translation.” —Gregory Rabassa
I ran across this video on TED.com. This guy, Chris Bliss, talked about how great comedy tells the truth. Changes conversations. Gets people thinking differently about things—even subjects they thought they knew where they stood on. Comedy helps tear down walls. All while laughing at ourselves, or at someone else, stirring our brains with assorted truisms.
So every set of words is open to interpretation, correct? How many times have all of us said, “No—that’s not how I meant it!”? Been interpreted and misinterpreted. Adds a little pressure to the ad copywriter, doesn’t it, not to be taken the wrong way, especially at the possible expense of the client?
Mr. Bliss also said people who regularly watch “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” are more up-to-date and better informed than people who watch the evening news. Why? Because Stewart deals with the truth. And nothing but the truth.
Whoops. Gotta go. Time for “The Daily Show.” Wouldn’t want to be uninformed around the coffee pot tomorrow morning …