Keeping it fun: performing the Learning Partners doggerel
It’s been three years since I posted the story of how I started building fun into a brand statement. I’ve recited the Learning Partners verses many times at networking events, but always meant to get a video version done.
And finally, I’ve done it!
Doggerel? What happened to the limerick?
At the time I wrote it, I thought of the verse in the rhythm and rhyming pattern of a limerick (A-A-B-B-A). But everybody (including me) expects a limerick to involve some debauchery and a guy from Nantucket, right?
Well, recently the term “doggerel” popped into my head. You might be familiar with it as a derogatory term for bad poetry.
But the word felt so perfect to me as a fun angle on the Old Dog Learning brand that I had to take a closer look.
And don’t you just love the English language?
Merriam-Webster defines doggerel as, “loosely styled and irregular in measure especially for burlesque or comic effect,” reserving to an “also” note the less complimentary, “marked by triviality or inferiority.” The entry goes on, however, to offer Stan Lee’s speech bubbles in Marvel comics as an example of doggerel. I’m fine with that!
Even better, according to Wikipedia, doggerel alternatively means “verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme” – which fits nicely with the limerick form.
The article then cites Ogden Nash as having “made a virtue of writing what appears to be doggerel but is actually clever and entertaining despite its apparent technical faults.” And it points to hip-hop lyrics as having “explored the artful possibilities of doggerel.”
One can only aspire.
Best of all, both entries confirm what I had hoped, that the word doggerel derives from dog!
Are you building fun into your brand statement?
In the original post, I put up a graphic with the Dale Carnegie quote,
“People rarely succeed unless they are having FUN in what they are doing.”
Perhaps building fun into your brand statement might help.
Love to hear from you in the comments: What do you think of my doggerel? What are you doing to build fun into your work?
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