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December 2, 2005
Quixtar Joke Building
By QBlog in Quixtar
Google Book Search is pretty darn cool. If you haven't tried it, I recommend poking around to see what you can find.
Last week I did a search for "Quixtar" and found So, You're a Comedian, Tell Me a Joke by Tim Hentzell. There's an interesting explanation of joke creation on page 25.
This is where I would like to stop and give you a little sales pitch on the wonderful world of Amway. Actually they are called Quixtar. You can go to their website and order many quality products. No, I don't mean selling soap and vitamins, but using the concept that is used in the "business" to write comedy.
The Quixtar (another plug for them) approach to writing a joke is the same way an IBO explains how you will make money. You take a circle and you get three circles under the first circle and the circles under that get three more circles and son and so on.
You want to be the circle at the top. If it is viewed in a certain way it might, I am saying might, look like a pyramid. Now how does that apply to writing a joke?
Hentzell goes on to explain the process of thinking broad and narrowing it down. Think of a car. Then a Nissan. Then list three types of Nissans. Then think of three characteristics of one of those types, etc.
The aspect of this that intrigues me is how Quixtar is slowly entering our lexicon and how that entry is inextricably tied to Amway.
Comments
Thanks for the comments on Quixtar. When I originally written the article I did use Amway style of writing then a friend told me about Quixtar and I put them together to make my point about writing comedy. Thanks for using the Google search to find this obscure reference to Quixtar and as with my book the name Quixtar was used 4 times (referred as a call back).
It is indeed inextricably tied to Amway, and in this regard, this is closely related to one of the previous questions, "The OCS debate". Amway is undoubtedly a Multi-Level Marketing business opportunity. Quixtar is a web page in front of it. Therefore, Quixtar is a MLM business opportunity with a web page in front of it. Ok, to make it perhaps more palatable for our friends on the other side of the argument, Quixtar is an Order Consolidation Site for a Multi-Level Marketing business opportunity - OCS for MLM. Whatever... The point is that Amway owners and leadership decided to have a facelift back in 1999, and seized upon the great Internet revolution to change its name, presence, and image. Did it work? Well, personally, I don't think so. And the biggest reason for that, in my opinion, was that they did not humble themselves to the fact that the Internet is a great equalized, available to all, not just a select few, and as such it has made it possible for places like QBlog, Scott Larsen's site, and other blogs to exist and tell the truth about what Quixtar is (and more importantly, isn't). When AmQuix finally realized the threat, it was too late. There is no question in my mind that they are threatened by what is happening here - why else would there be lawsuits, Google bombs, and whatever efforts to shut or quiet us down?! So on Sept 1, 1999, they thought they could flip the switch and shout "Amway is dead - long live Quixtar!" making people forget bad things that were Amway and disguise under a new shingle. But it didn't happen that way, and folks like QBlog, Scott, and several others, whether motivated by boredom, vendetta, journalistic ethics, or a desire for truth, they deserve the credit.
Posted by: BB | December 2, 2005 11:20 PM