Humor Skills

[stabory]

Hi,

does anybody has a recommendation for a good internet site or blog about how to develop humor skills and about the techniques that can be used (e.g. observational humor etc.)? Thanks a lot

[JimOfferman]

I don't think that humor skills can be learnt from a blog or a book. There is humor present in everyone of us, but you have to exercise it, like a muscle. If you want to get better at cracking jokes, crack more jokes. Also, try to find which 'niche' fits you best. I've found that offbeat remarks and self ridicule work best for me.

[Jim11]

I find the people with "humor skills" are the people who naturally see things as being funny, and choose to share their thoughts.

For example... somebody cuts you off on the road:
One person may get extremely angry (and reading humor blogs won't help this)
Another may find humor in the incident and make it a joke instead of a big deal.

I'm sure there are some good sites that can help you (I don't know them), but I'd also recommend just observing your thoughts in certain situations. When you think someone is annoying, agitating, angering, ridiculous, different, unusual, etc... change that thought, and find humor in it instead.

[cdn2wheeler]

I think that there are those who are naturally humorous and being sharp-witted is just a function of who they are. Robin Williams comes to mind. And while I don't think it's something that can be necessarily learned from a book, I know that the humour in Bill Bryson's books has given my particular brand of humour a gentler edge. Not because he writes about being funny, but he just writes funny stuff (I laughed out loud - and I mean full-on belly laughs, not just chortles or guffaws - while reading Notes from a Small Island). Read enough of that and some of that style is bound to incorporate into your own personality just through osmosis.

[Savage]

Absolutely! Check out John Kinde's blog at Humor Power

John is a very experienced humor speaker, fellow Toastmaster, and a local friend of mine. He's the kind of person that you'd never guess would be funny at first glance, but when he speaks he has everyone laughing hard.

John takes a very logical, analytical approach to humor, which I appreciate because I can readily apply his ideas. I've learned a lot from him over the past couple years.

John's blog is filled with how-to humor posts to improve your humor skills. He also has a free newsletter with even more tips. And you can find a massive list of additional humor resources on his site here:
Humor Power » Resources & Favorite Links

Oddly enough, I currently rank #1 on humor skills on Google, while John ranks #6:
humor skills - Google Search

So I sometimes tease him by saying, "According to Google I'm funnier than you."