Laugh & Learn? Tasteless Humor and Health Education
By Annabella Firpo | December 6, 2014
Recently I encountered two over-the-top ridiculous videos on the Internet that, at first glance, seemed to be mindless, tasteless humor. However, by the end of the videos, both had presented a serious message hidden under the slapstick and shallow comedy.
#1: Smart Is Better Than Dumb
The first video I saw was a message from Metro Trains Melbourne (Australia) about how to be safe around public transport vehicles.
In a catchy song titled “Dumb Ways to Die,” they give a list of absurd ways people could make bad decisions that eventually lead to death. They did this in order to emphasize their very simple but important safety rules.
A few examples of the dumb ways to die: set fire to your hair, poke a stick at a grizzly bear, keep a rattlesnake as a pet, sell both your kidneys on the Internet.
#2: You, Too, Can Be Ridiculous
The second video was a message conveying that it is not necessary for women to dress sexy on Halloween. The producers pursued this message by having men try on common women’s costumes such as “sexy nun” or “sexy ladybug.” This leads the men to realize just how ridiculous it is for women to dress in this manner. (Warning: This video contains cursing and some raunchy humor—probably NSFW.)
Begging the Question
These videos beg the question: does surrounding important information with silly and tasteless humor belittle the message at hand? Should educational material always be presented in a respectful and serious manner to emphasize its importance?
If the end goal of education is to encourage people to absorb information so they will remember and use it later when it’s relevant, I believe we should reach this goal by any means that work. Even if this includes half-naked men in ladybug wings!
I encountered a railroad track two days after watching “Dumb Ways to Die.” You want to know what I did? I practiced extreme caution, and then continued about my day humming the catchy song. I giggled to myself while I remembered how silly it was.
And you know what else? Next time someone offers to buy both my kidneys on the Internet, I will do the same thing!
Bringing It to the Real World: Anatomy Lab
I’m currently working part time as a Teaching Assistant in the Human Anatomy Lab at Cabrillo College. The anatomy classes are one of the more difficult classes offered at the school, due to the large amount of information the students are expected to learn. The TAs are encouraged to think of clever ways to help our students memorize the material. In the past, this has usually extended to the creation of short rhyming raps about muscle names or silly acronyms to help memorize the cranial nerves.
These two videos have inspired me to follow their canon for comedy in education. I would go about this by creating an animation in which a pair of aliens—one tall, thin and clumsy and the other husky, bossy and super-intelligent (because sometimes you need to stick with the classics)—use a shrink ray to explore the insides of the humans they've abducted. I’d insure the video would be filled to the brim with sass, raunchy humor, and, most important, unforgettable awkwardness.
By the way, Metro Australia is reporting a 30% decrease in the number of near misses on their rails since the introduction of the campaign. The video has over 90 million views on YouTube, and you can now download the Dumb Ways to Die game, along with animated gif wallpaper.
Annabella Firpo is ETR’s Office Assistant extraordinaire. She has been hard at work doing fabulous animations for a collaborative project with our innovation partner dfusion and is pursuing university studies in the medical sciences. She can be reached at anna.firpo@etr.org.
