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 describe ways to improve the humor and effectiveness of future shows.

Synopsis of the show on life coaching:

“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 whether 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. Then Demetri paraphrased her by stating, “a life coach is really like a friend, who charges.”

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 whether she was a client or not) 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.

The show closes with a bang!

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."


My response and suggestions to improve future shows

I am happy that The Daily Show thinks enough of the life coaching process to produce such a satirical poke at life coaching. I believe any public discussion and awareness of life coaching is good, and the funnier the better.

But, I believe the segment was not near as funny or pointed as it could have been. When Jay Leno and the Daily show both come up with the same tired joke about life coaches being paid friends, you have to wonder if their writers need coaching to help them uncover some real creativity, as opposed to copycatting each other.

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.

They missed the chance to poke fun at one of the other very unique attributes of life coaching; they and Hollywood are still clueless about how life coaching is 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 have referred to future headlines reporting continued deep declines in rush hour traffic volumes due to more and more people staying home to become life coaches. They could have also shown future headlines reporting there are enough life coaches (people calling themselves life coaches) for every adult to have their own exclusive life coach in the US.

He could have also presented 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 the coach on the other end.

They could have shown headlines reporting “The US Army is fighting its most difficult battle in history” because of a purported lawsuit by Life Coaches R Us suing in Federal Court 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. They will undoubtedly produce better shows by poking fun at the true aspects of life coaching, than by making fun of aspects of life coaching that were made up to suit their scripts.