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This article was co-authored by Kendall Payne. Kendall Payne is a Writer, Director, and Stand-up Comedian based in Brooklyn, New York. Kendall specializes in directing, writing, and producing comedic short films. Her films have screened at Indie Short Fest, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, Channel 101 NY, and 8 Ball TV. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 3,201,147 times.
Humor can help you connect with other people and make unpleasant situations a little more bearable. Being funny might seem like it takes a lot of work, but it’s actually not that hard once you tap into your inner sense of humor. Even if you don’t think you’re naturally funny, there are things you can do to make yourself and other people laugh. Learn a little about what makes you laugh.
Learn to laugh in boring or unfunny circumstances. It’s good to know that the less funny a place is, the easier it becomes to add the element of humorous surprise. It might be easier to get people to laugh in an office workplace than to get people to laugh in a comedy club. This is why The Office, the originally a BBC 2 show that was remade by NBC, uses an office as its setting: it’s about as boring as it gets. We’re not used to looking at an office as a funny place, so when it is funny, it’s especially funny.
Learn to appreciate witty wordplay and puns. We sometimes find things humorous when there’s a gap between our words and our meanings. Witty wordplay is more intentional: “A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion. Or this one, where the words “hockey” and “fight” are switched: “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out.
There’s perhaps nothing in comedy more widely cited but more thoroughly misunderstood than irony. Irony occurs when there is a gap between our expectations of a statement, situation, or image and the actual experience of it. So one day while I was watching my health, someone stole my money. This joke messes with one of our fundamental expectations: that grandparents are nice, friendly people who are utterly harmless, and that the advice they offer should be sincere.
The joke is funny because, in it, we are presented with a grandparent who is rascally, thievish, and double-crossing. Trust in your inner sense of humor. Being funny doesn’t come in a “one-size-fits-all” package. What makes you funny is unique to you and the way you observe the world.
Remember the most embarrassing moments in your life so far, the monumental stuff-ups, the times you refused to make changes, the breakdowns in communications that you played a major part in, and maybe even the time you tried to be funny around your friends and only crickets chirped. Nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free, evidence-based mental health and wellness resources. Telling other people about very embarrassing moments in your life is a great way to get them to laugh. Take a page from famous improv comic Colin Mochrie, who said: “He had the kind of face only a mother could love, if that mother was blind in one eye and had that kind of milky film over the other but still, he was my identical twin. Tell self-depreciating jokes rather than making jokes at the expense of others. More people will be more willing to laugh. Rodney Dangerfield made fun of both his sanity and his looks with this one: “I went to the psychiatrist, and he says ‘You’re crazy.
I tell him I want a second opinion. He says, ‘Okay, you’re ugly too! Redd Foxx had this to say about his silly devotion to drugs and alcohol: “I feel sorry for people who don’t drink or do drugs. Because someday they’re going to be in a hospital bed, dying, and they won’t know why. A great joke from Henry Youngman: “I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother. Different things make different people laugh. Learn which is which, and deliver your jokes and anecdotes so that they apply to many different categories of humor and emotion at once.