Get Them With Silly Jokes Then Teach Them Science

My strategy with my blog and YouTube channel has now been the one mentioned in the post’s title for a while: I try to pull viewers and readers in with silly, sometimes witty, sometimes crass humor, and THEN once folks are paying attention I am teaching them marine and evolutionary biology. I’m trying that in two slightly different ways: Some videos and blog posts are just plainly attempts at entertainment, but hopefully pull viewers into my channels, where they then see other popular science biology content. In some videos and blog posts the humor and the science communication are combined into one.

Humor is Dionysian; Not taking everything at face value is a sign of a mature mind. It’s under-used in a lot of social-media subcultures. Humor in the best case enthralls, excites, and hence makes it more likely that the audience will remember the factual content which follows. Am I succeeding at this? You be the judge.

Angelo

Here we go: Angelo is hilarious. He is also very flamboyant. So is the flamboyant cuttlefish, Metasepia pfefferi. What does flamboyant Angelo have to say about the flamboyant cuttlefish?

 

Devil Fish Devil Voice

How many underwater videos are there which are narrated with a death metal voice? At least one. Also, many thanks to The John Belushi of the Coral Reef for staring in this one:

 

Crab Love

The spider crab is camouflaged to look like a piece of Halimeda algae. Very interesting case of co-evolution, not easy to spot during a dive. Doesn’t mean that I can’t put words in the mouth of the crab: