May 12, 2006
Copyright © 2006 by Bill Dueease
The Daily
Show did a satire on life coaching that aired on March 21, 2006.
It was funny in most spots and exposed some of the peculiarities and
vulnerable aspects of the life coaching industry. I appreciate that
the show respected life coaching enough to poke fun at it with some
very effective and witty humor, without demeaning life coaching. I will
try to give you a flavor of the show by describing parts of it to you.
I will also try to point describe ways to improve the humor and effectiveness
of future shows.
“Life Coaching is all the rage, but not in an angry way” was
the title of a special “Trendspotting” segment by Demetri
Martin.
The show started with a copy of an article by USA Today that says,
“Life coaching is all the rage.” Demetri asked a supposed
a life coach (I am not sure if she really was a coach) to explain life
coaching. She stated that life coaches are partners’ people hire
to help them stay focused and create a vision of where they want to
go. She quoted prices between $275 and $525 a month for her packages.
In fact, Jay Leno got on the Life Coaching bashing program the same
night on another channel by telling a joke about a life coach just being
a paid friend. (I wonder if they had the same writers.)
Demetri asked her “how does one become a coach?” She claimed
there was a stringent process and gave Coach U as her source, with the
camera showing a snapshot of Coach U’s web page. Demetri claimed,
“She’s right” He said, “All you need is a computer,
Internet access, and hands.” He emphasized that all you really
need are hands, fast, beautiful hands. Demetri then explained, “a
life coach is really an expensive friend, with limited credentials,
and hands” (with strong emphasis on hands).
Demetri asked to watch a coaching session. She said coaching was normally
confidential but if he was really quiet like a fly on the wall, he could
watch. Then a coaching scene appeared with the coach sitting in one
chair and a supposed coaching client (I am not sure if she was a client)
in the other with Demetri shown behind them making very loud noises
opening a LIFE cereal box. His noises became so loud that they disturbed
the session.
Then Demetri interviewed the supposed coaching client by asking her
to complete two sentences.
1. “Put me in……” the client answered “Now!”
2. “Start this sentence with ………” The client
answered with a blank stare.
He also asked her to explain “the differences in her life since
she had a life coach” and her response was “I am now a life
coach” Demetri exclaimed: Holy “*?/&%$#!?” “The
Coachee has become a Coach. This trend is a scorcher!” Could this
be the seed for a follow up Trendspotters segment? I believe it would
be an excellent choice.
Then the show moved to John Stewart, the show’s host who asked
Demetri about how someone at home could know if they need a coach. Demetri’s
response was, in my opinion, the funniest and most pointed part of the
show.
Initially, Demetri said there was no real way to know, and then he explained
that he came up with a formula, which he claimed "is currently
the only tool that can be used."
Demetri presented “an easy to do at home formula to calculate a
need for a life coach entitled "L.O.S.E.R.” This stood
for “Life Of Satisfaction Expectation Ratio.” The formula
went like this:
(Age when moved out of home) x (Age lost virginity) +
(Square root of monthly income) divided by (Number of cats
you have) + 1
John then asked him "what score from the formula would indicate
a person was ready" and Demetri answered "There is no answer
per se, but if you copied the formula down you need one."
I am happy that The Daily Show thinks enough of the life coaching process
to produce such a satirical poke at life coaching. Any public discussion
and awareness of life coaching is good, and the funnier the better.
I believe the segment missed some other funny and pointed opportunities
that can be used on a follow up show. Allow me to assist future Hollywood
writers to provide more material for even funnier pokes at life coaching.
Demetri touched on the unusual way life coaches are normally trained
with the Internet and computer, but missed the real opportunity to poke
fun at the over 215 for profit schools that aggressively sell the concept
that anyone can become a life coach by purchasing their training
He could have shown people who are prospective life coaches with targets
on their backs to show how coaching schools, and other coaching services
will pursue them. Picture the scene at the grocery store with a whole
section for life coaching schools with people hawking their schools
like at carnivals. Imagine the poor house wife (with a target on her
back) having to run the gauntlet of hawking life coaching schools to
get to the milk section.
And the L.O.S.E.R. formula was excellent. Yet, it could have been expanded
even further. The general public’s perspective of who would benefit
from life coaching was clearly represented by the confusing, non-conclusive,
and rambling formula. It said in other words, that the general public
doesn’t have a clue and that the coaching industry apparently doesn’t
either about who needs a life coach. It also implied that people would
just know when they are ready. How very true.
His comment about a life coach being an expensive friend, with limited
credentials, and hands was a humorous way of exposing the fact that
anyone can consider himself or herself to be a life coach. John Stewart
could have also asked Demetri “How do people know if they can become
a life coach?” Demetri could have responded, “There is no
real easy way (unless you have money to spend on coach training) He
could have then provided the same exact same L.O.S.E.R. formula as the
tool to calculate this answer, as a way to emphasize how anyone can
call themselves a life coach.
He can poke fun at one of the other very unique attributes of life coaching;
Hollywood is still unaware that life coaching is best conducted over
the phone, not in person. (I guess the Starting Over Show and the need
for both client and coach to be in the same scene for film to work,
forces Hollywood to impose face to face coaching on us all) They could
refer to future newspaper headlines reporting continued deep declines
in rush hour traffic due to more and more people staying home to become
life coaches. They could also show future headlines reporting how the
over 112,500 (for profit) coaching schools have produced enough life
coaches (people calling themselves life coaches) for every adult to
have their own exclusive life coach in the US.
He could also present a scene of people waiting in line at a 7-11 convenience
store with a sign reading “purchase life coaching while you
wait” directing people to several phones (white courtesy phones
would be even funnier) where they can purchase coaching minutes with
a coach on the other end.
He could show headlines reporting; “The US Army is Fighting
its Most Difficult Battle in History” because of a purported
lawsuit by Life Coaches R Us suing The Army over the exclusive use of
the slogan “BE ALL YOU CAN BE.”
There is so much about life coaching that is different and humorous
that The Daily Show, Jay Leno, and others will have exceptional material
to use for future humorous shows. I can only hope they take the time
to look for it. Maybe the trend of coachees becoming coaches will encourage
further research by Demetri to do another show about the real life coaching
process and industry.
We welcome your opinions and comments.
Bill Dueease
Editor
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