Being funny

[sgregory]

It's so funny you mentioned Colbert because he is my favorite (living)comic right now (carlin is my fav). I noticed I have become more quick witted and come up with jokes not even trying after all these years of watching The Daily Show/Colbert for 4 years. It trains your brain to see conections with all these seemingly unrelated things and come up witha joke. It's amazing to me how their writers can do that and it's inspired me to become funnier.

So I suggest watch comedy a lot and find some good stand ups so you can watch many different people and develop your own style. Go out to local comedy bars on weekends with friends too, if you want. A huge tip, I'd say, is to get someone to be funny with. I'm lucky enough to live ina family where humor is much appreciated. Having people who you don't have to feel self conscious around to joke around with helps A LOT.

[Marco Polo]

Originally Posted by sgregory

It's so funny you mentioned Colbert because he is my favorite (living)comic right now

Yeah, Colbert is funny. I was surprised when I heard he was Catholic though. By the way who's your favorite unliving comic?

[MasterD]

One component of humor is the skill.

The other is social status/social value. If people think you are a dork, they won't like your humor. If they look up to you (not in the sense that they fear you, but in the sense that they respect you and like to be around you) they will be biologically inclined to like you humor more. From that position it is very easy to make people laugh.

[Marco Polo]

Originally Posted by MasterD

One component of humor is the skill.

The other is social status/social value. If people think you are a dork, they won't like your humor. If they look up to you (not in the sense that they fear you, but in the sense that they respect you and like to be around you) they will be biologically inclined to like you humor more. From that position it is very easy to make people laugh.

Yes, social status is a factor. Then again, that applies to pretty much anything you do or say - not just humor. I think it's partly connected to confirmation bias. If we know a person to be of low social status/unlikable/threatening, we set the bar higher for everything related to this person.

[cheech]

one of my new year's resolutions was to take an improv class (as part of a more general intention to work on social skills this year). had the second class yesterday (of five) and i'm loving it! so much fun, and really creative and spontaneous, i can totally see how it would generally loosen you up and relax you in conversation, as well as specifially improving your ability to be funny. the teacher leads us in with gentle, fun games as warm-ups, so i never feel as out of my depth as i was worried i might. and i was kept so busy improvising, and watching other people improvise, i barely had time to be scared. i'd strongly recommend it for anyone interested in improving their sense of humour, or anyone just looking for a really fun way to spend an evening!

[dice]

a couple rules:

people laugh when:
- they're uncomfortable
- something is apparently painful or embarrassing
- surprises, unexpectedness
- metaphors that are weird but make sense (sweating when i excersize is like flushing a dirty toilet etc etc)
- you describe a really sensitive, painful experience in an easygoing/laidback way like "haha well i fell in a puddle yesterday guys, my dad picked me up and bought me and icecrem, but then i fell again and he beat me. life isn't so bad for you, see?"
- you are DEAD honest

(my examples arent exactly stellar, but just to give you a better idea of what i mean)

groups of three are funny, eg. set up, set up, punchline. Like 'one of theses things is not like the other' (I went to the trailer park and i saw a trailer (setup), a bbq (set up), and at the firepit roasting a weiner(set up) was...Her Highness Queen Elizabeth (punch), in her pyjamas.)

unexpected outcomes (eg. an egg cracks and you expect a cute baby chick. but instead a headless roasted stuffed fully gormet prepared BBQ chicken, brown and glistening with grease comes out . (what came first? the egg or the potluck?) )

you could analyze how stand ups do this, just to open your mind to all the possible ways you could tell a joke.

never ever 'try' to be funny because that is super embarrassing when nobody laughs. just be totally genuine and people will enjoy you.

i took a standup class once in highschool and those were the basics covered. the main emphasis of the class was just "tell the truth". honesty is funny. if you feel like your flat and boring, BE really flat and boring, or if your really intense and serious i-have-a-blackbelt-karate kind of guy (and i knew a guy like this who was HYSTERICAL, a complete riot, but he never realized it), BE that guy and people will laugh and find you entertaining