How to Be Funny

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This article was co-written by Kendall Payne. Kendall Payne is an author, director, and comedian based in Brooklyn, New York. Kendall specializes in directing, writing and producing comedy shorts. Her films have been shown on Short Fest, Brooklyn Comedy Cplective, Channel 101 NY and 8 Ball TV. She also writes and serves as a content director for Netflix and writes marketing scripts for Between Two Ferns: The Movie, Astronomy Club, Wine Country, Bash Brothers, Stand Up Specials and more. Kendall runs the comedy show. on the internet at Caveat called Extremely Online and a comedy show for @sshpes called Sugarp!ss at Easy Lover. She studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and New York University Tisch under the Screenwriting Skills Certification Program.

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Being really funny and encouraging everyone to share in laughter can help you become famous and successful. Humor gives you interesting experiences in life, brings joy to the people you meet, and humor is also said to help you find a job. A survey conducted on 737 CEOs found that 98% of them would rather hire people with a sense of humor than those without. ^{[1] X Research Source} Shake off your seriousness and replace it with humour. Let’s learn Step 1.

Table of Contents

Developing Sense of Humor

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Identify things that can make you laugh. Laughter is a completely unconscious state. Although we can try not to laugh (we can’t always succeed), it’s hard for us to laugh whenever we want to, and if we try to do this , we will turn the smile into “smug”. ^{[2] X Research Source} Fortunately, laughter is contagious (our ability to laugh increases 30 times in the presence of others), and in social contexts, when others are laugh, we will laugh easily too. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Studies have shown that there are three things that make us laugh the most: feeling superior to others when they appear to be “sillier” than us; the difference between the outcome we expect and the actual result we get from something; or when we are relieved of the burden of anxiety. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

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Learn to laugh in boring or unhappy situations. You should know that the most boring place is the place that usually contains the most unexpected humorous elements. It’s easier to make fun of others at the office than at a comedy club. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Here’s why the NBC TV show The Office uses an office setting for laughs: it’s really boring. The actors even did the paperwork. What could be more boring than that?! We don’t often see the office as a place of laughter, so once we turn the office into a funny place, it will be extremely funny.

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Learn to appreciate puns and witty puns. Often, comedy comes from confusion in language (accidentally) or puns (intentionally). Sometimes the misunderstanding between the words we use and the real meaning we mean will be the factor that amuses us.

“Spoken words” is a language error used to reveal what you are really thinking rather than their “meaning”, and is often used in “sensitive” matters.
Witty puns are often more clearly intended. For example, in the following Vietnamese sentence: “The horse kicks the stone horse, the stone horse does not kick the horse”. Or in this sentence, when the synonyms of “white skin” and “white skin” are brought up to play with words: “white skin pats white skin”.

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Recognize the value of sarcasm. Perhaps there is no measure in comedy that can be used as widely but is so misunderstood as satire. Irony occurs when our expectations of a certain statement, situation, or image differ from our actual experience of the statement.

Comedian Jackie Mason illustrated the irony in the following joke: “My grandfather used to say, ‘Don’t watch your money; watch your health.’ So one day I was watching my health. my health, someone stole my wallet. The culprit is my grandfather and no one else.”
This joke contradicts our basic expectations: that grandparents are nice, friendly people that they are completely harmless, and that the advice they give is sincere advice. . This joke is funny because it portrays grandparents as crooks, thieves, and cheaters.

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Trust your sense of humor. Everyone’s sense of humor is different. What makes you funny is entirely unique to you and depends on how you see the world around you. Believe you have a sense of humour; when we are babies we start laughing when we are 4 months old entertainment for yourself and for those around you. Humor is in you – you just have to find a way to show it!

Humor Personality Development

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Don’t be too strict with yourself . Remember the most embarrassing moments of your life, the big mistakes, the moments when you didn’t want to make a change, the communication breakdowns where you were the cause, and even the moments when you didn’t want to make a change. You try to be funny around your friends and it doesn’t get the desired results. These moments can be quite funny.

Telling people about the most embarrassing time of your life is a great way to bring laughter. For example, Cpin Mochrie once wrote in a page of his famous improv comic book: “He has a face that only a mother could love, if she were blind in one eye. and the other eye is cloudy… but he’s my twin.”

READ More: How to Be Brave

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Put yourself under the spotlight. It is often better to use your own simple stories to make fun of others than to make fun of others. And you will make more people laugh. Rodney Dangerfield once made fun of his wits and looks when he said, “I went to a psychiatrist, and he said ‘You’re crazy.’ I told him that I wanted to hear another opinion. And he said, ‘Okay, you’re as bad as a ghost!'”

Redd Foxx once said this when discussing his time with drug and alcohol addiction: “I feel sorry for people who don’t drink or don’t use drugs. Because someday when they do lying on their beds and dying, they won’t understand why they’re like this.”
A famous joke by Henry Youngman: “I was born very ugly, and the doctor had to slap my mother”.

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Learn about the audience you want to make fun of. Everyone’s funny factor is different. Many people find sensational trends to bring laughter to them; many others like sarcasm. Get to know your audience, and choose to use jokes that fit a variety of humor and emotions at the same time.

Not everyone knows what it feels like to be in a helicopter or to be a billionaire or to have a baby. But most people will know the feeling of running fast, fantasizing about money, and falling deeply in love with someone. So make your jokes closer to the audience by using basic philosophies in life but can bring deep emotions to the listener.
When you’re with a group of people you don’t know well, listen to what they’re talking about and what makes them laugh. Are they people who like witty jokes? Do they like comedy or do they just like to be amused through their actions? The better you know someone, the easier it is to make fun of them.

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Trick the mind. Trick the mind is what we mentioned in the previous section, it is a way to create surprises. This happens when you make a difference between the expected and actual results. Jokes often make full use of this element, they try to fool your attention like magicians often do. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

For example: “What diseases do doctors give up?” Answer – “It’s a disease… broken arm.” This quote is amusing to the audience because you have to understand it in two ways, and your brain will create temporary confusion because the brain cannot associate the statement with ordinary experience.
You might consider Groucho Marx’s short joke, “Apart from a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. In a dog, it’s too dark to read” or Rodney Dangerfield’s quote, ” My wife picked me up at the door last night in pajamas, but actually, she just got home.”

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Take the opportunity to laugh. Choosing the right timing is really important because if you give your brain too much time to adapt to a situation or joke, the funny moment will quickly fade away. Perhaps this is also why people don’t find it funny when they hear a joke they’ve heard before, because the brain can perceive the similarity of experiences and cognitive abilities. The level of humor will decrease. You should be quick to respond and continue to laugh while the funny moment has not worn off.

Short jokes, or reciprocal jokes can be quite amusing. When someone says something that’s not funny at all, and you respond with another and make their statement funny. The timing of your response to their statement is very important. For example, a friend of yours is thinking about hair, and for some reason he says: “Is it strange that hair only grows on our heads and on our privates while other places don’t? ?” While that friend didn’t expect to get an answer to this question, you said, “Look at you again.”
If you choose an inappropriate moment, continue with your joke. The worst thing you can do when it comes to being funny is to try to be funny when you’ve lost your chance. Don’t worry, you’ll have more opportunities to laugh in the future.

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Identify inappropriate times for you to be funny. Be careful to avoid making fun of others or making jokes for fun at funerals or weddings, at places of worship (or religious events), and in any other situation where your sense of humour can be dangerous. could be misinterpreted as harassment or discrimination, or if your humor could cause physical harm to others, for example during physical pranks.

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Pay attention to observation. Jerry Seinfeld and many other comedians have made millions of dollars developing the idea of humor through the basic style of comedy known as a form of “observational” humor. about the daily events and activities of people around. While being knowledgeable can increase a sense of humour, there is no substitute for the ability to perceive humor. In fact, many people fail to notice the element of humor in their surroundings. Look for humor in everyday situations, and notice things that others cannot see. Often, the humorous events that are present in front of our eyes that we often do not notice are the events that have the most impact.

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Memorize a few short jokes. Short jokes will “score” with everyone. Dorothy Parker excels at her use of short jokes; for example, when they told her that Calvin Copidge had passed away, she replied, “How would they know?”.

You will need quick wits and a willingness to make short jokes and learn from others that will inspire you. You can think like Calvin Copidge; when a woman approached him and said, “Mr. Copidge, a friend told me you never say more than three words and I bet that friend”. Copidge replied, “You lost.”

Stay Inspiration

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Learn from people with a sense of humour. You can broaden your horizons by listening to other funny people. Whether they are professional comedians, your parents, your children, or your boss, learning from the funny people in your life is the key to becoming a comedian. Take note of the funny sayings or actions they show. And seek inspiration from them. Even if all you do is build your own sense of humor based on collecting individual humor points, you’ll quickly improve your ability to be amusing. Regularly gathering ideas from others will help you develop skills that you can use to make people laugh.

In recent years, comedy has made waves on radio shows. You can search for comedy radio shows featuring Tran Thanh, Hoai Linh… online and their programming often includes humorous interviews, jokes, and stories. which you can download to mobile devices. Listen to them while sitting on the bus and you will be able to confuse everyone around when suddenly laughing loudly with your headset.

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Watch comedy shows. There are tons of funny TV shows and movies to choose from. For example, British comedies are often witty and often talk about cultural issues, while American comedies are often presented in the form of antics, or humorous acts. and often revolve around themes of sex or race. Exploring both genres will help you understand the humor of different cultures.

Watch improv comedy. All good comedians are good improvisers, but comedians choose improv for a living, and the experience they give audiences can be actually quite funny. Try to attend as many improv shows as possible – you’ll get the chance to laugh a lot and see how they turn ambiguous, ambiguous situations into pretty funny ones.

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Gain practical knowledge so you can turn them into a source of laughter. It’s easy to find funny moments in an environment you know well – your attitude at work, your excellent understanding of 17th century poetry, your familiar experience with fishing trips. bad fish, etc. Whatever the sources you use, they should be close to the audience, that is to say, your ability to succinctly present a 17th-century poem will not make an impression. What to imagine for the audience if they never knew about them!

Expand your horizons so you can capture your audience’s interests no matter who your audience is. For example, if you can find humor between physics and Paris Hilton, you’re on the right track. The link between two completely opposite subjects can bring laughter to the audience if done properly.
Use your intelligence. In other words, humor is simply showing people that you are smart enough to be able to find shades of humor that others may not notice. Comics often use this way. For example, comics often refer to the hygiene habits of monks, or the reproductive habits of chimpanzees, and relate them naturally to things in life that are recognizable to anyone. and understand their meaning.

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Read, read, read. Look for humorous material, and absorb it like you’d absorb your mother’s teachings. Chemists can become what they are now because they constantly read and practice about chemistry; Sportsbook writers get to where they are today because they read and write a lot about sports; You will become a funnier person if you don’t stop reading and practicing jokes.

Read books written by James Thurber, PG Wodehouse, Stephen Fry, Kaz Cooke, Sarah Silverman, Woody Allen, Bill Bryson, Bill Watterson, Douglas Adams, etc. famous writers; they can be great sources of humorous material!)
Read comics. You can memorize some good jokes. Hopefully reading funny jokes will inspire you so you can start creating your own jokes and wit. When reading books, keep in mind the elements that make them funny stories. Similarly, try to figure out why some jokes don’t make the audience laugh. Just because you wrote it yourself doesn’t mean it’s good; it is difficult to give objective opinions when reading works written by oneself; so you should seek feedback from people who don’t know you well (so they won’t be able to flatter you).

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Be an active listener and do your best to learn about comedy. Listen carefully to others, really listen, and understand what they say. There is nothing more humbling than admitting that you can always learn from others to be more humorous. When you are busy focusing on others more than yourself, you become more aware of how humor can affect others. It will also help you improve your observation and ability to relate to the little joys in life – making your sense of humor more believable and empathetic.

Advice

Regularly refresh jokes. Talking about a certain topic too much will quickly get boring; Learn to switch to new themes to keep your humor fresh!
If you stop talking for too long, even the funniest quote can lose its amusing effect. For example, if someone tells you something and you come up with a witty response after two hours, you’d better keep it to yourself. Your answers will no longer be funny, and you will look like a retard or a fool.
Hand gestures will also make you laugh. Facial expressions are also important.
Humor also depends a lot on the culture. For example, something that’s funny in America might turn out to be strange in France. Always remember this, and look for popular stories that can be amusing everywhere.
Avoid using statements that you know will make people feel uncomfortable. One common form is gossip, for example, if you’re a man and you say “One Direction: downhill”. This is a pun using the name of the famous British-Irish boy band One Direction and the meaning of the phrase one direction (same direction) to make fun, but this way of saying will surely make many girls angry at you.
During a test, if someone in class looks at you from a distance, make a bad face when the teacher isn’t paying attention. Depending on their personality, this will make them laugh.
Avoid laughing at your own jokes. Not only does this make you look like you’re trying your best to be funny, it also ruins the funny moment and no one will want to laugh. Avoid bringing “canned smiles” to the audience.
Practice your sense of humour. Things will get better with practice but it’s important to practice in a low-risk environment first and once your sense of humour has improved you can move on. to a wider audience. Friends and family will be the most forgiving of your mistakes, while your employees will be quite frightened if you suddenly turn into a funny person, and a large audience will expect you do well from the first step. Working out with people you trust and who can give you positive feedback is a good place to start.
Practice story recall. You will probably notice that many comedians will often tell a joke and then repeat it in one way or another, and often the story is repeated a second time which will make the audience laugh a lot. more (or laugh louder) for the first time. This technique is called story recall, and you can also use this technique. If you observe the audience laughing at one of your jokes, subtly repeat it again next time. And you should remember that there is a general rule for this technique that is not to repeat a joke more than 3 times.
Remember to perform funny actions without using words when possible, such as a funny dance move, or making a funny sound.
Gender is also an influencing factor. Men are more likely to tell jokes, jokes, and disparages (hostile humor), and they are more likely to use improv comedy, while women are more likely to tell stories, often with self-deprecating attitudes. , inspired by the reactions of other women. Interestingly, the roles of both will be reversed when you put men and women together – men will reduce their level of teasing while women will start targeting men for them. teased, and their self-deprecating personalities diminished in the process!
Remember to always be yourself. If you are not yourself, all your characterizations become false. Don’t mind what other people say about you such as you are stupid, stupid, naive, etc. Cherish yourself and it will help to bring laughter to everyone.

Warning

Look closely to see if the current environment is suitable for you to tell jokes. Avoid focusing on teasing one person too much, spread the attention to the entire audience.
Be careful when using images of sacred cows for laughs, in the religious as well as political spheres. Everything around can be used to make fun of but sometimes, if in someone’s eyes you’ve “beyond” the limit, they will cause you trouble.

Things you need

Books, DVDs, funny TV channels
Tickets for comedy movies and comedy performances
Humorous personality

Steps