Funny


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Hey!

I’ve been telling everyone (including you and my husband) to watch Furious on Hulu.

It’s about a female FBI agent, traumatized by a history of abuse, tracking down a female serial killer who was trafficked as a child.

It’s blatantly Epstein-coded. Deals in the darkest subject matter.

It’s also hilarious.

I literally laugh out loud at parts I overhear from the other room, where Steven’s watching episodes I’ve already seen. (Because I’m a rabid binger and he smugly paces himself.)

Meanwhile, a Shrimper whose email I reviewed this week (a private email makeover she scored when she bought my stellar email copywriting course Inbox Hero) is afraid to be funny in her emails, because — get this — she specializes in ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) built to house aging parents.

She said,

“[My subscribers are] deciding where their aging parent lives and whether to spend $300K doing it. How much humor is too much humor when the stakes are that real?”

This is one of the most frequent questions I get about emails.

“My people are dealing with [aging parents/trauma/hospice/a loved one with cancer/a loved one with dementia/a loved one with erectile dysfunction/endometriosis/fibromyalgia/menopause/flood damage/parent loss/pet loss/hair loss — and I don’t see how to be funny without being inappropriate.”

Furious is about sex trafficking. Hardly a topic that lends itself to yuk-yuks. And yet, I repeat, it’s hilarious.

The humor is in the characters and their very human moments, like doodles in the margins of a funeral hymn book.

It’s Alice, played by Emmy Rossum, so afraid to take a shower (for a patently unfunny reason) that she reeks of BO. It’s FBI agent Nora (played by a spectacular Quincy Tyler Bernstine) being booed for her drunken karaoke cover of Meat Loaf and yelling “Suck my d*ck.” It’s Steve Way’s disabled character Alden in his motorized wheelchair, scooting away from his arresting officers as they try to fingerprint and question him.

Whenever a Shrimper wonders how they can possibly be funny in their emails or anywhere in their field of work, I tell them the following:

1 - You don’t have to be funny, especially not “ha-ha” funny, but humor does build connection and provide relief. So if you have a sense of humor in real life, you should use it in your business.

2 - There’s a humorous side to everything, no matter how grave or tragic.*

So, you help people with cancer? Think of all the wrong things people say when they’re trying to help: the “Everything happens for a reason,” the alternative cures gleaned from TikTok, the neighbor who diagnoses you in the elevator.

You coach people through infertility treatment? They’ve got the officemate asking when they’re “finally” having kids, the Instagram ads for maternity wear that plague them for a year, and people asking when they’re due because they’re so puffy from the goddamn hormones.

You guide people building ADUs for aging parents? Between the nonstop complaints and demands, the depressing design of hospital equipment and grab bars, and the dad who falls over the ottoman at 2am after insisting he doesn’t need a nightlight, that's a comedy goldmine.

All that said, no matter how funny your emails are, funny alone doesn’t pay the bills.

Selling does. That’s where Email Cash Cow comes in.

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🐮 9 story types that act like “selling salts” for your reader’s brain 🔆🧠

🐮 22 non-sleazy profit boosters to pump up clicks and (joyful) sales in any email

🐮 The “ick”-busting belief shift that will make selling in email feel natural and — I swear — fun
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Email Cash Cow is the difference between “LOL great email” and “LOL great email — just bought!”

And guess what? It’s 50% off until midnight ET tonight.

Grab it here with code FINGERNAIL50**.

That code expires soon. No joke.

xoLaura

PS - *Granted, this advice comes from someone who wrote an email after her dad died with the subject line “Can you say 'ballsack' at a funeral?” But damn that email was a hit.

PPS - **That code is a reference to Wednesday’s email. If you missed it, you can read it here.

Love Shrimp Mail? Forward this to a friend so they can get in on the action and sign up below.

Thank you for reading and sharing,
Laura

Laura Belgray (Talking Shrimp)

"Yours are the only emails I actually open and read" - a regular reply in my inbox since 2009...and I'll bet in yours, too, once you subscribe and learn by pure, lazy osmosis to become the most compelling writer around. That said, no promises on improving your moral character.

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