Can Someone Give Me Advice On How To Be Funnier

[Lifelover88]

What are the principles of being funny, any good books or videos that helped you?

Is there anyone here who can attest to having gone from being unfunny to funny who can help me?

[UpperMaster]

be around funny people. Absorb their sense of humor. Try making jokes. Fail 1000 times. And then you'll catch yourself spontaneously cracking a funny joke and it'll be worth it.

 

By no means am I master funny, but I've improved my sense of humor significantly. All because I kept trying, make so many jokes that weren't funny and learned from people much better than me. Enjoy it too.

[BipolarGrowth]

One thing that I think has helped me is becoming more authentic overall. Once you’re not afraid to make a joke immediately as it comes to you regardless of the epic fail which might occur, you have a chance of being perceived as funny if the joke lands. I’d say it’s a lot of repetition of saying jokes and getting feedback until the feel for what works most often becomes second nature. 
 

That’s my rough philosophizing about humor. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself funny, but I do try to be funny a lot, in a somewhat effortless way built into my default egoic programming. 

[Princess Arabia]

This might help.

[Yimpa]

Drop your pants and wiggle your ass.

Butt on a serious note, you can also go to live comedy clubs. Observe them closely.

Edited yesterday at 12:04 AM by Yimpa

[Raze]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUdvPO81jpw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjDfWlPf-UM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5oYAZMqp3U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uBB8HncsrU

 

Edited yesterday at 12:17 AM by Raze

[aurum]

Observe what makes things funny.

If something makes you genuinely laugh, pause and examine it. Notice the timing, the rhythm, the vocal tonality, body language, frame control, element of surprise, freedom of expression, playfulness, saying the quiet part out loud, sarcasm, self-deprecation etc etc etc.

Also notice when humor fails and what is NOT funny.

You could start with watching both good and bad standup comedy. Why do some comedians kill it and others flop?

The more you observe, the more you may be able to train your mind.

[Carl-Richard]

Firstly, get enough rest. Secondly, don't try to think of something funny to say, but rather when you think of something funny, say it. And if that's rare, then that's just how it is. Nobody is funny literally all the time. And you shouldn't feel pressure to be funny, because then, chances are, you won't be funny, because you're likely not having fun. Being funny is fundamentally about having fun.

If that doesn't do it, maybe try to understand what makes something funny. Probably the best theory of humor is incongruence: for example, saying something very unexpected, but not in a way that is completely irrelevant to the conversation or incredibly peculiar (which would rather inspire fear or confusion), but something which sort of makes sense. Theo Von does this almost every time he opens his mouth. He is an endless source of funny unexpected utterances.

 

Another theory of humor is that it's a way to express and release feelings of nervousness around a particular topic or situation. So you can try to talk about something that people are nervous about, e.g. a political situation, or something that is going wrong or might go wrong in the situation (for example, you're at a party and carrying a ton of drinks to deliver to your friends and you walk down a slippery patch of grass with another friend and you say "imagine if I slip now 😂"). Also, if you talk about something that people are nervous about but in a light and joking manner, that's a type of incongruence in itself which can be funny.

Edited 7 hours ago by Carl-Richard

[Princess Arabia]

1 hour ago, aurum said:

Observe what makes things funny.

If something makes you genuinely laugh, pause and examine it. Notice the timing, the rhythm, the vocal tonality, body language, frame control, element of surprise, freedom of expression, playfulness, saying the quiet part out loud, sarcasm, self-deprecation etc etc etc.

Also notice when humor fails and what is NOT funny.

You could start with watching both good and bad standup comedy. Why do some comedians kill it and others flop?

The more you observe, the more you may be able to train your mind.

Shit, he didn't ask how to analyze humor. By the time I did all that, I'll feel like a philosopher not a comedian. I'm laughing now without even trying.

Edited yesterday at 02:07 AM by Princess Arabia

[aurum]

11 minutes ago, Princess Arabia said:

 I'm laughing now without even trying.

See, it worked 

[Princess Arabia]

1 minute ago, aurum said:

See, it worked 

The irony.

[Yimpa]

2 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Another theory of humor is that it's a way to express and release feelings of nervousness around a particular topic or situation. So you can try to talk about something that people are nervous about, e.g. a political situation, or something that is going wrong or might go wrong in the situation (e.g. you're at a party and carrying a ton of drinks to deliver to your friends and you walk down a slippery piece of grass with another friend and you say "imagine if I slip now 😂"). Also, if you talk about something that people are nervous about but in a light and joking manner, that's a type of incongruence in itself which can be funny.

Ohhh yeah! I had a couple awkward / scary encounters with this local comedian, totally unplanned, and they finally expressed it by calling me out on how creepy I am (when in reality, I was the one who found them creepy!!)

58 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

A stand-up comedian used me as part of their set tonight… this has never happened before! I felt so violated, but in a good way 

Turns out I actually touched them first, and so they were inspired to share their spotlight with me

Istg I always attract weird energy.

[Hojo]

Get good at making comparisons to things that people wouldnt expect. Explore hypotheticals.

Make a fool out of yourself meaning dont take yourself seriously at all.

Say I am retarded and I do not care. There is nothing less funny that someone who has pride in their intelligence and use it as a way to feel better than other people. You can use it to make a point but there are key differences between using it as an attack and to make a point.

You can use it to attack people but it wont be funny.

Edited yesterday at 04:11 AM by Hojo

[Salvijus]

You're asking the wrong question. Ask instead how to be easy-going, wholesome and confident. I'll give you a clue. It's about how open your heart is. When the heart is open, playfulness becomes your natural quality. Your ability to connect with people increases dramaticly and communication flows effortlessly without any technique. If you want to master communication, you have to master communion and there's no communion unless your heart is open. 

Edited yesterday at 06:27 AM by Salvijus

[Ulax]

If you look up “yes and” comedy technique I think that can help.

Also, can experiment with focusing on self amusing, ie saying things that make you laugh. Rather than focusing on saying things to make others laugh

[Salvijus]

A practical list of things you can do to open your heart:

1. Sun salutations (Surya namaskar). A beautiful practice to open the heart. If done daily for about 6 months, the results will definitely be visible. 

2. Prayer. That's my number one advice. It's very direct when it comes to heart opening. 

3. Dancing. This one can be done by yourself at home. It helps to get out of your head into spontaneity of self expression. To shake off the constipation and rigidness that is blocking your flow and playfulness. Dancing and relationships have many things in common. 

4. And lastly meditation. A large part of communication is just expressing what you feel. Or commenting on what you feel. However most people don't have much self-awareness. Usually people don't even know how disconnected they are from their feelings. Especially men. That's a big problem. How are you going to express yourself, when you're not in touch with your feelings? It's like trying to improvize on a guitar while being tone deaf. You'll simply have no ability to translate anything inside to outside. So this one is fundamental. But without opening the heart meditation is insufficient. Opening the heart is even more important in that sense. 

Edited yesterday at 07:10 AM by Salvijus

[Consept]

Lots of answers here are great, I would add, work out what makes you laugh. The first step to being funny is genuinely being able to self-amuse. Watch different comedic styles and see what tickles you, say for example its observational humour, you can then come up with ideas based on what you see in your everyday life. Once you develop this the next step is just taking what makes you laugh internally to the outside world. So the observations you were making in your head say them to people and see what happens, if they laugh or not doesnt really matter because you find it funny and that in itself can be infectious. 

[AION]

Don´t try to be funny and you will be funny. Nothing worse than a clown. Most people I like who are funny are just charismatic, clever and have self esteem and funniness is just a byproduct.

[LastThursday]

There's loads of different types of humour. Some things that spring to mind are: physical slapstick, pulling faces, silly voices, observational, word play, irony and sarcasm, dressing up (clowns), mimes, re-enactment (plays and anecdotes), telling jokes, absurdity and weirdness. It's endless. You have a wide choice of finding something that suits you.

[Kid A]

I can confirm that Leo’s techniques work. 

Dedicate a year, or at least half a year, to doing his exercises every day and start looking for funniness everywhere—especially when you’re social.

I did this, and the results have been amazing!