Developing a Sense of Humor

5% inspiration and 95% perspiration

…or so I’ve heard. I need to work on this too.

Like another said, you may never be good enough to stand up on stage, but with work, things get better. I should work on this myself. I find I crack myself up reading stuff at work, then people ask “what’s so funny?” Invariably it’s a small, quirky, nerdy/random thing. It’s never funny trying to describe it… I want to come up with some quick one-liners to use or jokes to make people laugh (and distract them from my nerdiness).

exaggerate. I find alot of things people find funny is a result of exaggeration to the point of absurdity.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
“LOL” is not a real world response…but damn it I almost said it one day out loud.
[/quote]

LOL and LULz and LOLLERs and ROFFLES are real words in my office environment. Same with ORLY and YARLY. What a bunch of twits. (lol)

I’ve found my humour is lost on a lot of people. I think it comes down to levels of seriousness and being relaxed. People who are too serious all the time seem to have trouble with humour but sometimes as I get to know people better and they relax a bit my humour is less misunderstood.

[quote]SmilingPolitely wrote:
Read.

A lot of humor is making quick connections. The greater your knowledge base, the better your chances of pulling ideas together. Plus, you need to have a good vocabulary.

When all else fails, point to the fattest person in the room and make mooing noises. Works every time!
[/quote]

^ this^ I agree with this. I do read a lot and do make connections(would like to obviously make more though). I think for myself a lot has to do with having the confidence to put yourself out there when you do think of something.

The other thing for me is that my sense of humor is very dark/bizarre - For example some of the stuff I find funny are Coen brothers films - situations involving bizarre circumstances that lead to misfortune(death…). I often find myself laughing at stuff that is inappropriate to laugh at or that people just plainly don’t find funny.

Like I said - I have found that being around funny people has improved my humor to some degree. I plan on continuing this and trying to further immerse myself in comedy.

Anybody have any success stories, instances where you have significantly improved your humor ? What did you do?

[quote]SmilingPolitely wrote:
Read.

A lot of humor is making quick connections. The greater your knowledge base, the better your chances of pulling ideas together. Plus, you need to have a good vocabulary.

When all else fails, point to the fattest person in the room and make mooing noises. Works every time!
[/quote]

This is what you’re looking for. You don’t have to be a standup comedian with bits and sets to be funny. Just making people laugh during a conversation is enough.

The more you know and the faster you think on your feet, the funnier you’ll be.

[quote]tmay11 wrote:
I think for myself a lot has to do with having the confidence to put yourself out there when you do think of something.
[/quote]

Confidence is key. You can’t be afraid to bomb. A line without some balls behind it will usually flop.

[quote]debraD wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
“LOL” is not a real world response…but damn it I almost said it one day out loud.
[/quote]

LOL and LULz and LOLLERs and ROFFLES are real words in my office environment. Same with ORLY and YARLY. What a bunch of twits. (lol)

I’ve found my humour is lost on a lot of people. I think it comes down to levels of seriousness and being relaxed. People who are too serious all the time seem to have trouble with humour but sometimes as I get to know people better and they relax a bit my humour is less misunderstood.
[/quote]

As humourous as you are Deb, I need to ask you about a serious issue.

Not having an Avi for some time is affecting the T-men of this site, me included, to be able to think straight, now our suggestion is to rectify this issue immediately (by adding the Avi back not in helping us think straight).

Please.

I think Professor X is a little off with the gifs not being funny. Though I don’t really go for the threads that turn into a back and forth with many gifs posted that don’t make too much sense to me.

I think the worst thing is when someone uses some key word then someone else links to a youtube clip of that word or something close to it being used or referred to on the fucking Family Guy

That’s much lazier.

[quote]tmay11 wrote:
Does anyone here thinks it’s possible to actually actively work on and improve your sense of humor? I would like to develop better “wit”. I work in customer service and work with some people that are fairly witty and good at coming up with quick comments on the spot that make customers laugh.

I have been trying to do this and think that I have, to a small degree, become a little bit more witty. I think what has helped is just being around the others (listening) and always trying to come up with something myself.

To me it seems like for such an important life skill it rarely(if ever) gets talked about in this way.

Thoughts? How does one become funnier?[/quote]

Some good advice so far…for your job, just keep listening to the others…not sure what kind of customer service you are in, but I’m betting 95% of your interactions will be the same as one you’ve had before…you’ll be able to use your ‘set jokes’.

I think you are born funny or not funny, sense of humor has to be learned. I forget where I read this, but some comedian kept getting called into his kid’s class because the kid’s teacher was upset the kid kept making inappropriate jokes…the comedian finally realized he had to teach his kid how to be appropriately funny…it’s a different kind of ‘learning’ than starting from zero and trying to be funny, but it’s still learning…

There’s a fairly decent movie (if memory serves) with Tom Hanks and Sally Field (I think) where she wants to be a comedian and he helps her get funny…kinda guy now that I think of it, but could be worth your time if you haven’t seen it. As usual, there is a tension-filled scene where the leading lady has to fight to resist Tom Hank’s sex appeal, but besides that it’s OK.

Once you learn to relax and listen you can find comedy in almost anything. This is something most people learn or don’t learn at home growing up, then later develop there timing when they get to school and or the playground. Because kids will slam your azz if you come out with a wack joke so it helps to be around a good mixture of people from the start. If you did not have the luck of that growing up you just have to work a bit harder now.

Comedy is Pain & Truth, Observation mixed with a good dose of fearless. Some of the funniest things I have every heard (Pryor, Rock, Carlin), things that put me to the point of tears laughing sound really bad if you sit back and just say it to yourself.

You can’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Not just with people that laugh at anything (because sometimes people will laugh and be thinking ok shut up and go away). Mix it up hang with diferent groups or types of people. See what they are laughing at. I was shocked that some of those guys from the redneck comedy tour or country comedy tour or whatever they called themselves had some damn funny lines.

A good sense of humor is a great thing to have, hell my family went thru some tough stuff and the ability to laugh thru the worst of times can change your whole view of any situation, good luck.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

My humor in life is sarcastic and heavy handed. [/quote]

Oh none of us would EVER have guessed that :slight_smile:

[quote]ethanwest wrote:

[quote]DixiesFinest wrote:

[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Oh come on X, you “almost” said it? You probably were telling your patients that you saw some funny shit online and that you “rode to work on my LOLlerskates” or some shit.

NTTAWWT

[/quote]

LOLlerskates…I am def using that in real life now[/quote]

I prefer LOLlercoaster. [/quote]

I prefer Ben ROFLesberger.

Here’s a good way to get started:

WARM UP:
Knock Knock Jokes: 2 x 10
Why’d The Chicken Cross The Road 2 x10

WORKOUT ONE (M/W/F):

Over Head Puns: 3 x 8
Behind The Back Sexual Innuendos: 4 x 6
Double Entendres: 3 x 12

Cool down with some jokes about lawyers or doctor bills or golf jokes.

I think this is somewhat possible.

You should expose yourself to a lot of ‘funny’; reading and watching. Reading funny stuff or watching standups and TV shows are a good start. Do not limit yourself to one type of humor either, this would be the biggest mistake - consume a variety. You may not enjoy all of it, but being exposed to the whole spectrum will lead to a more mature sense of humor. I’m not going to give specific examples but basically get out of your comfort zone.

Hanging around people with a good sense of humor is also another great investment of time.

Like everything else in life (and BB I guess) once you invest enough time in something, it will pay off. Sooner than later you’ll have a nice ‘base’ or ‘arsenal’. You will start to see things in a certain way and learn to appreciate the humor in them. Assuming you have basic social skills and a minimum level of self confidence, the humor/the jokes will start to come naturally.

If you are a ‘serious’ person and your exposure to humor is 20 minutes of the Simpsons a week, the humor will never come.

(I could really push the BB analogy here more if I wanted to… You probably get the idea.)

[quote]theceka wrote:
I think this is somewhat possible.

You should expose yourself to a lot of ‘funny’; reading and watching. Reading funny stuff or watching standups and TV shows are a good start. Do not limit yourself to one type of humor either, this would be the biggest mistake - consume a variety. You may not enjoy all of it, but being exposed to the whole spectrum will lead to a more mature sense of humor. I’m not going to give specific examples but basically get out of your comfort zone.

Hanging around people with a good sense of humor is also another great investment of time.

Like everything else in life (and BB I guess) once you invest enough time in something, it will pay off. Sooner than later you’ll have a nice ‘base’ or ‘arsenal’. You will start to see things in a certain way and learn to appreciate the humor in them. Assuming you have basic social skills and a minimum level of self confidence, the humor/the jokes will start to come naturally.

If you are a ‘serious’ person and your exposure to humor is 20 minutes of the Simpsons a week, the humor will never come.

(I could really push the BB analogy here more if I wanted to… You probably get the idea.)[/quote]

this is true… in real life you become images of the persons that you spend the most time with. and over time your personality will look like them more and more. so if you spend a lot of time watching stand up… watching comedys(friends had the highest paid comedy writing team ever) and so on your humor will eventually start becoming like the ones on tv…

[quote]blunt wrote:

[quote]theceka wrote:
I think this is somewhat possible.

You should expose yourself to a lot of ‘funny’; reading and watching. Reading funny stuff or watching standups and TV shows are a good start. Do not limit yourself to one type of humor either, this would be the biggest mistake - consume a variety. You may not enjoy all of it, but being exposed to the whole spectrum will lead to a more mature sense of humor. I’m not going to give specific examples but basically get out of your comfort zone.

Hanging around people with a good sense of humor is also another great investment of time.

Like everything else in life (and BB I guess) once you invest enough time in something, it will pay off. Sooner than later you’ll have a nice ‘base’ or ‘arsenal’. You will start to see things in a certain way and learn to appreciate the humor in them. Assuming you have basic social skills and a minimum level of self confidence, the humor/the jokes will start to come naturally.

If you are a ‘serious’ person and your exposure to humor is 20 minutes of the Simpsons a week, the humor will never come.

(I could really push the BB analogy here more if I wanted to… You probably get the idea.)[/quote]

this is true… in real life you become images of the persons that you spend the most time with. and over time your personality will look like them more and more. so if you spend a lot of time watching stand up… watching comedys(friends had the highest paid comedy writing team ever) and so on your humor will eventually start becoming like the ones on tv… [/quote]

Exactly, if you immerse yourself in a funny environment, some of it will eventually rub off on you. Watch funny films and tv and read funny books. Try Always sunny in Philadelphia, Father Ted etc. The important thing is to find what you find funny and build on that. It’s a skill that can be improved like any other, although you have to have a nugget of humour to start with. Nearly everyone has a bit of a sense of humour.

[quote]ethanwest wrote:

[quote]DixiesFinest wrote:

[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Oh come on X, you “almost” said it? You probably were telling your patients that you saw some funny shit online and that you “rode to work on my LOLlerskates” or some shit.

NTTAWWT

[/quote]

LOLlerskates…I am def using that in real life now[/quote]

I prefer LOLlercoaster. [/quote]
ROFLcopter works just as well

[quote]Nards wrote:
I think Professor X is a little off with the gifs not being funny. Though I don’t really go for the threads that turn into a back and forth with many gifs posted that don’t make too much sense to me.

I think the worst thing is when someone uses some key word then someone else links to a youtube clip of that word or something close to it being used or referred to on the fucking Family Guy

That’s much lazier.[/quote]
I don’t think X was saying that the GIFs aren’t funny, just that the use of them doesn’t make someone funny. For example, if I just posted a GIF or Conan knocking out a horse, it’s funny to watch, but doesn’t mean I’m funny. If I told jokes or did shit that was funny (other than posting something I didn’t create) then I would be funny. I think.

[quote]inkaddict wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
I think Professor X is a little off with the gifs not being funny. Though I don’t really go for the threads that turn into a back and forth with many gifs posted that don’t make too much sense to me.

I think the worst thing is when someone uses some key word then someone else links to a youtube clip of that word or something close to it being used or referred to on the fucking Family Guy

That’s much lazier.[/quote]
I don’t think X was saying that the GIFs aren’t funny, just that the use of them doesn’t make someone funny. For example, if I just posted a GIF or Conan knocking out a horse, it’s funny to watch, but doesn’t mean I’m funny. If I told jokes or did shit that was funny (other than posting something I didn’t create) then I would be funny. I think.[/quote]

LMFAO

[quote]Nards wrote:
Here’s a good way to get started:

WARM UP:
Knock Knock Jokes: 2 x 10
Why’d The Chicken Cross The Road 2 x10

WORKOUT ONE (M/W/F):

Over Head Puns: 3 x 8
Behind The Back Sexual Innuendos: 4 x 6
Double Entendres: 3 x 12

Cool down with some jokes about lawyers or doctor bills or golf jokes.

[/quote]

I chuckled

[quote]inkaddict wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
I think Professor X is a little off with the gifs not being funny. Though I don’t really go for the threads that turn into a back and forth with many gifs posted that don’t make too much sense to me.

I think the worst thing is when someone uses some key word then someone else links to a youtube clip of that word or something close to it being used or referred to on the fucking Family Guy

That’s much lazier.[/quote]
I don’t think X was saying that the GIFs aren’t funny, just that the use of them doesn’t make someone funny. For example, if I just posted a GIF or Conan knocking out a horse, it’s funny to watch, but doesn’t mean I’m funny. If I told jokes or did shit that was funny (other than posting something I didn’t create) then I would be funny. I think.[/quote]

Exactly. It shows ZERO originality to take someone else’s funny picture or video and use it in a thread as if you made it. Yes, I have used family Vids and that still isn’t original on my part. The motivational posters I put up are usually made by me though.

I am honestly not sure how anyone could have taken that statement any other way unless they just wanted to bitch about something.