Partially Serious Comments on How to Be Funny
- Introduction
- Timing Is Everything (And You’re Probably Already Late)
- Punch Up, Punch Sideways, Dance a Little, Never Punch Down – In fact, Trip Over Your Own Feet
- Tell the Joke Then Shut Up. Or Tell Another Joke
- 20 Different Ways to Be Funny Cheat Sheet
Introduction
I am not a comedian. I am an arm chair connoisseur of life. This distinction matters. You see, comedians get paid to be funny, whereas I, at least in my own mind, simply am funny. Naturally, effortlessly, hell, sometimes people even laugh at me and I don’t realize it (I presume).
Humor, is one of the most powerful tools in anyone’s influence toolkit. People who make us laugh are rated as more trustworthy, more intelligent, and more attractive. (I am citing “studies” here the way most people cites studies, confidently and without proper attribution). The point stands: funny people are persuasive people. So without further ado here are 3 brief notes on being funny and a link to a cheat sheet.
Timing Is Everything (And You’re Probably Already Late)
The classic advice is that comedy is all about timing. This is true and completely useless. Telling someone to “have good timing” is like telling a salesman that all they have to do is sell more. It’s true, accurate, possibly a tautology and completely bloody useless.
Here’s the best universal tip I can offer about timing (which means you’ll probably run into every exception to this rule and may want to consider ignoring it.
Pause before the punchline, not after. It is natural to rush through a joke because you are nervous, don’t. Also, here’s a general tip about pauses….
If you are pausing for effect glance away from the person’s eyes, re-establish eye contact and continue. If you are pausing because you want a response look the person in the eye as you complete whatever you are saying. It’s a subtle subconscious signal to the other person about what is expected of them.
Punch Up, Punch Sideways, Dance a Little, Never Punch Down – In fact, Trip Over Your Own Feet
There’s an old rule in comedy: punch up, not down. This is great advice but if you can do it consider making yourself the punchline in some of your humour. Self-deprecating humor is extraordinarily effective because it signals confidence and creates a sense of safety in the subject. If done properly, sharing something just embarrassing enough, but not off putting, it can also help to quickly build trust.
Tell the Joke Then Shut Up. Or Tell Another Joke
There are few things as disheartening as preparing an incredible zinger, thinking about it for days, rehearsing it in your head all through a party and finally at the perfect moment… nobody laughs. The amateur move, the natural move, the human move is to explain the joke. Don’t.
Resist. Avoid. Patience. Yes it seems like the person or people you are speaking to either didn’t hear or didn’t process your nugget but don’t dissect it. They say never beat a dead horse. I think that’s terrible, one should never beat any horse but don’t beat a dead joke either.
This is called restraint. Nobody likes having to do it very much but it will pay dividends in the laughing department.
20 Different Ways to Be Funny Cheat Sheet
Now go forth and be funny. And oh… if you need a jump start here is a cheat sheet with 20 different ways to be funny.
