Cartoon

DEFINITION OF A JOKE: “A joke conveys information in a funny way.”

Content of the Joke: Most creative courses want you to believe that it will be easy to achieve your goal, so you buy them. But the truth is, a course can’t take the steps and the work it takes to create something for you.

In a funny way: I would say so, yes.

MECHANISM OF A JOKE: “A joke adds information in a way that triggers a sudden cognitive shift.”

The information that triggers the cognitive shift are the words “Step 2: Draw the rest of the f***ing Owl” which plays with your assumption that after Step 1 there would be a lot more steps to come.

THE FORMULA: “Disappoint an assumption by fulfilling a second assumption in a surprising and satisfying way.”

Assumption: The original assumptions hinges on the title “How to draw an Owl” and “Step 1: Draw a Circle”. Now we assume that this will be a step by step guide on how to draw an owl.

A second assumption is fulfilled: Yes. The idea that a drawing guide can only be two steps long gets fulfilled

Surprising: Yes. Adding a swearword is a nice touch because it breaks with our assumption that every step by step guide is encouraging.

Satisfying: Yes. Because it fulfills all three conditions (Humorous, Harmless, Compatible)

Humorous: Yes. Because

1) Behavior (The tendency to laugh or to grin): Yes.
2) Cognitive (Something is intellectually perceived as “funny”): Yes.
3) Emotional (The positive feeling of amusement): Yes.

Harmless: Yes. No real persons are hurt.

Harmless according to the Benign Violation Theory: Yes. It still is a step by step guide, albeit a very bad one.
Is it still in a way compatible with the original assumption: Is it compatible and if so, how?

Unexpected Change that turns out to be benign: Yes. Not as many steps as we would assume is necessary to draw an owl. But none of use actually wanted to draw an owl.