Would you mind sharing any prompting or tuning in terms of 'funniness'? Aside from commanding it to 'write like the Onion', did you do anything else to judge the relative hilarity of the headlines and articles?
Thanks for asking! The headline generation is actually a two-step process that I found works better than a single prompt. I think this is my real "secret sauce" that I found success with:
1. First, I ask GPT to generate 5 different headlines using specific Onion-style techniques I found in satire writing guidelines:
- Highlighting an unspoken truth
- Expressing raw honesty of a character
- Treating a grand event in a mundane manner (or vice versa)
- Delivering critique through absurdity
Here's the actual prompt I use:
"Craft 5 satirical, humorous headlines for the given article, employing techniques such as highlighting an unspoken truth, expressing raw honesty of a character, treating a grand event in a mundane manner (or vice versa), or delivering a critique, inspired by The Onion's distinctive style. If the article allows for it, maintain a positive and light-hearted tone."
2. Then I have a second prompt that acts as a "comedy judge" to pick the best one:
"Pretend that you are a world class comedian. Choose the funniest satirical article headline out of these headlines."
It's hit or miss - some headlines are pretty bland, but occasionally it produces gems that make me laugh out loud. I'm collecting the ones that work really well with the plan to fine-tune a model specifically for my type of humor.
For the article content itself, I use Jon Stewart as the style guide because I found his approach of "truth through comedy" tends to work well with keeping the actual news facts intact while adding humor.
I'm really interested in exploring different comedic styles and personalities. I think having different "voices" (like a John Oliver version vs a Stephen Colbert version) could be cool. Would love to hear if you have any other ideas for improving the humor generation!
I appreciate the detailed response. TBH I've really only been using LLMs for mundane corporate tasks so I don't have a ton of experience on the "less-definitive" creative side of genAI.
Using the writing guidelines seems like a good way to get into the 'comedic' prediction space of LLMs that more basic prompts like 'tell me a joke' might not open up. Neat.
