My blog is a parenting / special needs blog. My goal is to help people find the upsides to situations that can really drag a person down. There are a couple of "Hot Button" topics I would like to write about but I am afraid it would be a problem if people are looking for humor and find serious. Is there a strategy to pulling something like that off?
There is no problem having both in a blog, just find a way to differentiate between them. Even on a serious blog people look for some light relief and on humorous blogs people want to see what the author really believes.
Just organize your pages well and make it clear that one section of your site is meant to be funny while the other is not. By the way, good point. You don't want people to think you're trying to make a joke out of something serious.
I think you can transition into humor very easily if you are talking about something that happens to people that is annoying is usually always funny. Like if you make a joke about a kid not going to the bathroom when you ask but then how they seem to find the worst time possible to ask to go to the bathroom or waiting to get into the car and strapped in and driving to say I need to go. If you also know of any products in your niche that are annoying for everyone to open or use etc. making jokes about those can really work good and then you can just use the words "but in all seriousness" or "back to what I was saying" Or "I digress" etc and then just transition into talking in a more serious tone. Also just don't make the jokes too wacky and funny just enough to just provoke a laugh in the persons head as they agree with the thing you say and the way you say it. if your site or the article that you want to be funny in doesn't involve really serious abuse or death I think adding humor will always be accepted if done subtle.