You would be SO proud of me. Last weekend I went to a party where I barely knew anyone and I actually had a good time.
Not even a whiff of hangxiety (!!)
Hangxiety: that damp sense of panic after socializing when you wonder
“Shit. Was I normal or embarrassingly annoying?”
The 3-hour solo drive to Seattle almost gave my introvert brain an excuse to bail but I’m so glad I went because it was one of the most memorable parties I’ve been to.
By the end of the night, I learned a truth I keep coming back to:
Sometimes, the dumbest thing you say is what makes people feel like they belong.
When I got to the party it was a small gathering for my friend Brooke and her partner Travis celebrating both of their birthdays with a handful of others. Naturally, the room split into the usual girl/guy divide.
After giving Brooke her gift, I settled in with the gals, swapping stories about how we’d all met her.
And you know me, I’m usually hesitant to jump into conversations, just cause feels rude to barge in like that. Even with a welcoming crowd, there’s always that lil bit of sticky anxiety.
Eventually, the guys left to pick up some pizza. A while after they headed out Brooke’s friend Susan had to say her goodbyes—she was off to an ecstatic dance festival (which yes is just as eccentric as it sounds).
Before leaving, she joked that when the guys came back, we should act like she’d vanished into thin air. We continued the bit saying that we could look around in disbelief, picking up couch cushions and opening drawers, emptying our pockets as if to say
“Oop no Susans here.”
We were cracking up just imagining how stupid that would be.
Susan left, and some time passed. We were already back in deep conversation when the guys came back with the pizza 🍕
We all grab slices and just as we sit down Travis says
”Hey, where’s Susan?”
Without missing a beat, Brooke shoots out of her seat and lifts a couch cushion.
“Susan?”
Bursting with laughter everyone joins in on the bit.
Looking in closets. Drawers. Cabinets.
In less than a minute we were all around the room looking for Susan in the most unexpected of places. By the end, we were all doubled over, pockets outturned, pizza getting cold.
I’d never met most of them, but belly laughing like that over something so simple, something so dumb, made me feel like I belonged. Like I wasn’t just crashing a party.
Dumb funny brings people together.
I think it works like that because it hits you like a reset button.
It’s the type of laughter that feels physical. Primal.
And maybe even a little shameful.
The kind of humor that shouldn’t work but somehow still does. And I don’t think we should let the stupidity fool us.
It’s not low effort or random.
It’s accessible and intentional.
Accessible communication brings people together. And I think we all could benefit from being a bit more dumb.
Dumb good marketing
Being a marketer is like constantly trying to throw a party people want to be at all night, buy the t shirt from and join a cult for.
Marketing teams are responsible for setting the scene, hanging the balloons, picking the playlist, and ultimately are in charge of what us professionals call *~vibes~*.
I mean would you want to go to party surrounded by people who treat you like they’re way smarter than you? Probably not. They’d seem like assholes if you ask me.
Like okay okay we get it, you went to Harvard. Go start a mediocre podcast, build a rocket or something. Sheesh.
So to me it makes sense that dumb ideas bring people together, it puts all us dummies on the same playing field.
My point is that dumb ideas can be smart if they’re dumb on purpose.
For joy. For accessibility. For the bit.
And if you’ve ever had a group chat filled with out-of-context memes and random one-liners that make absolutely zero sense to anyone else 🎊 congrats!
You’ve already been doing dumb marketing too.
You’ve already tapped into that special little flavor of creative safety.
Where it’s okay to try something that might not land and where “bad ideas” are just good ones waiting to find a better outfit.
It got me thinking, how do we make and market things in a way that feels like a good group chat? Helpful, supportive, knows all the inside jokes.
Because when I look around, the ideas that stick aren’t always the most polished. They’re the ones that feel a little dumb in the best way. The ones that make you smile because you feel like you’re in on it. Like:
Branding
Mailchimp: Sounds silly for an email marketing software but it’s playful, unforgettable, and widely beloved. Their brand guidelines say “Our name began as a metaphor: a playful chimp who delivers your mail. Today, our company does more than email. And our name means so much more to our customers.”
Dumb Starbucks: A parody art project by Nathan Fielder that launched his off beat comedy into the mainstream where today his show The Rehearsal is one of the most watched shows on HBO Max. Or Max. Or whatever-the-fuck they’re calling it this week.
Liquid Death’s original pitch deck: Leaned fully into the absurdity of “Murder Your Thirst” for canned water. I couldn’t find a photo of it but their whole brand hinges on dumb funny ideas taken dead seriously. Did you see the shake weight spoof ad they did or the kegs for pregs campaign from a few months ago? Too good.
Taglines
Skittles: “Taste the Rainbow”: What acid trip were these writers on when they thought of those weird ass ads, remember those? But I guess that’s the point. “Tasting a rainbow” doesn’t make perfect sense, it just feels right. And now it's cultural canon.
Cards Against Humanity “A party game for horrible people”: It dared people to self-identify as “horrible” for fun, and that dumb joke made it a hit.
Ad Campaigns
Zendesk Alternative: A fake indie punk band created to poke fun at how everyone searches for “Zendesk alternative” when shopping for support software. Bold, self-aware, and a playful way to turn a competitive keyword into free brand awareness. It honestly rocked 🤘
Expensify TH!$: Who expects a B2B fintech brand to drop a rap video? 2 Chainz buys gold toilets and scans receipts with Expensify. It was so cool, viewers could scan them to enter a sweepstakes. Delightfully absurd, funny, and interactive. A shorter version aired at the 2019 Superbowl.
Overthinking isn’t a marketing strategy
In marketing (and life) we’re often told to optimize every detail.
Track the microseconds someone spends on your ad.
Map every click to a KPI.
Make it complex, because complex must mean strategic, right?
But more doesn’t always mean better.
Sometimes clarity beats clever.
Sometimes dumb funny beats detailed targeting.
Sometimes the thing that sticks isn’t the CTA, it’s the unexpected delight.
Not because it’s silly. Because just like being human it’s unpredictably good.
Like 2 Chainz using Expensify to log his golden toilet purchase.
Sometimes complex isn’t always better, and it leaves me wondering where do the best ideas really start?
Probably not in a spreadsheet.
Probably not in a funnel.
But more likely in a moment of unexpected play.
The kind of moment you almost don’t share because it’s “too dumb.”
Until it isn’t.
Just like that party story, I almost didn’t share it because it felt too small to matter. But those small, goofy moments are often how ideas evolve—from a throwaway bit to something unforgettable.
And it usually goes something like this:
The Megaphone Effect
How small ideas get louder, clearer, and harder to forget.
A good idea doesn’t always look smart at first. Sometimes it starts as a half-baked joke you nearly kept to yourself.
The Throwaway:
A random idea or phrase with no intended value.
“It started as a joke…”
The Callback:
You repeat it once. Then again. Now it’s a thing.
“Wait, we keep saying that.”
The Bit:
The joke gets legs. Lore. Maybe a costume.
“It has a name and personality now.”
The Integration:
It becomes part of your language and how you show up.
“This is us.” (not the Emmy-winning sob-fest TV drama)
The Signal:
People quote it back. They speak your nonsense fluently.
“Our people get it.”
The Remix:
Once the signal is out in the world, it gets picked up, adapted, repeated, recontextualized. Someone else adds to the bit. They wear the shirt. They quote the joke with a friend.
The Icon:
Everyone knows you for it. It brings people together.
It evolves from my thing to a shared thing.
That’s how dumb funny becomes culture.
That’s how it becomes a shared memory.
That’s how shared memory becomes identity.
And that’s how you create ideas people want to share.
I know this because it happened to me long before I ever thought about brands or marketing.
The movie that formed my personality (for better or worse)
The movie Step Brothers unlocked something for me as a kid.
Not just because it made me laugh, but because it was one of the first times I saw grown adults being completely bizarre on purpose.
Building bunk beds at midnight. Yelling about velociraptors. Screaming,
“It’s the fucking Catalina Wine Mixer”
like it mattered, until somehow it did.
That’s why I say the smartest people I know are dumb. They use their intelligence to create brilliantly dumb, joyful things.
The crew of weirdos who produced that perfectly silly masterpiece changed the way I think about communication.
I remember watching that movie and thinking:
You’re allowed to be this ridiculous?
You’re allowed to fully commit to the bit?
You’re allowed to be funny in a way that makes zero sense to your parents?
Quoting this movie with my friends made me feel braver.
It made me funnier.
It gave me permission to get louder, weirder, more playful in how I wrote, how I joked, and how I showed up in the world.
Dumb funny didn’t just make me laugh.
It helped me find my voice.
Not just because it was memorable, but because it made new ideas accessible.
What’s the movie, show, or pop culture moment you quoted so often it became part of you? Let me know! It’s so interesting what sticks in our brains and becomes a part of us.
Being dumb makes great work
Sometimes it’s the weird nonsense that builds trust.
Because you can’t be dumb funny with people who make you feel small.
It’s like certain people give off a signal or vibe that makes you feel safe enough to goof off around them.
And that safety and trust is where all the good stuff starts.
That’s how we build real connection—so people feel confident to join in, spread the word, and make it their own.
In praise of the delightfully unhinged
I love a low-stakes joke.
A ridiculous phrase.
Sometimes even a bit that goes too far makes me want to raise a glass to all the dumb ideas that give us space to play and figure shit out.
To the one-liner that became a lifestyle,
To the inside joke with outside impact,
To the typo that was added to your personal glossary,
To the fucking Catalina Wine Mixer 🥂
Okay I gotta get going to Whole Foods before the peaches are gone.
I swear if I get there again and they're out I'm going to flip a table of local honey—no matter how sticky it makes me!! Did that land? Either way, thanks for playing.
Talk to ya soon, byeee!
Other dumb smart stuff
Friendship: Speaking of things that made me belly laugh recently, I’m obsessed with the new movie with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd called “Friendship”. It was a memorable contrast of complex adult relationship dynamics and absurd hilarity. I had no idea where the film was going the entire time and I enjoyed every minute of it. Especially the scene at Subway.
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