But seriously…

You’ve made a joke. Or you think you’ve made a joke. Then, in an effort to pivot to something more serious, you say:

“But seriously…”

For example:

“I’m worried that I might be married to my job. I’m even getting into arguments with the printer.”

Then…

“But seriously, this workload is getting ridiculous. I need to talk to my boss about delegating some of my tasks.”

This is never a good idea. Not the joke itself or the attempt at the joke. Good for you for trying.

It’s the “But seriously…” that must go.

If your joke fails to produce a laugh—and this happens a lot because comedy is hard, people are monsters, and most jokes fail—your “But seriously…” makes you sound silly because, sadly, you sounded serious the whole time.

You weren’t funny.

It’s okay. You tried. Most people are too afraid to even try to be funny. But don’t follow your failure with ” But seriously…” because it only highlights your failure.

If your joke managed to produce a laugh, then your “But seriously…” stabs that laugh in the heart. Those two well-trodden, overused, meaningless words take your lovely little joke and murder it with mundanity and banality.

Just make the joke, hope for the best, and then pivot without any verbal detritus signaling your pivot.

Eliminating “But seriously…” won’t make your joke funny or funnier, but it will eliminate the unnecessary beacon alerting the audience to your attempt to be funny and allow you to be either funny or not-so-funny, absent the unnecessary verbal nonsense.

I know. It’s a small thing. But it only takes a few small things to make a big thing, so let’s eliminate as many small things as possible.