When Comedy Meets Craft: Why Animation Is a Comedian's Secret Weapon

What do JFK, a live audience, and a plasticine blue mascot have in common?*

Us. Obviously.

At Carse & Waterman, we recently swapped our usual corporate comms vibe for something a little more... conspiratorial. We joined forces with comedian Fin Taylor to animate the riotous finale of his Fin vs History Live tour — the stage version of his hit podcast for "people who like history but don’t care what actually happened."

And while it was a laugh (and yes, we did get T-shirts), it also got us thinking: why shouldn’t more comedians be using animation?

Company Director Gary Carse in his Fin v History JFK T-Shirt

Jokes land harder when the audience can see them. Animation lets comedians visualise absurd ideas, surreal scenarios, and historic rewrites in a way that turbo-charges the punchline. JFK being chased by a sentient bullet? Not a problem. Animation makes the impossible hilarious — and memorable.

Our team work day in, day out on making serious business messages simple, engaging, and sticky. The same skills we use to explain health and safety protocols or corporate values? Yep, those go into building award-winning comedy visuals too. It’s all about storytelling, timing, clarity, and charm.

Here's the real magic: the skills that make a comedic finale land perfectly in a theatre are the same ones we apply to help businesses connect with their audiences. Our clients benefit from the fact that we don’t just specialise in internal comms — we live and breathe storytelling that has to work under pressure, whether it’s on-stage or on-screen. Animation brings clarity, emotion, and engagement — whether you’re launching a new safety process or explaining a century-old conspiracy theory.

Our clients come to us because we don’t treat animation like a service — we treat it like a craft. One that adapts across sectors and tones, from corporate to comedic. We’re not just technically excellent; we’re narratively obsessed. We help brands visualise their ideas in ways that connect, stick, and sometimes... make people laugh until they cry.

Working with Fin Taylor was a blast, but it was also a brilliant reminder that great storytelling is universal. Whether it's a health campaign, a leadership message, or a historically inaccurate joke about JFK, animation can make it land with style.