The concept of “funny” is completely subjective. What one person considers funny may offend another, and while certain brands of comedy are almost universally hilarious—i.e. brides falling down at weddings, dogs acting like people—there aren’t any jokes that will garner a laugh from every crowd, every time. That is why the first rule one must learn in how to be funny is to know your audience.
Related articles about How to be funny
How to tell if a guy likes you
How to tell if a girl likes you
Telling a raunchy joke at the church picnic may not only earn you cold stares from those in attendance, you may also be asked to leave. Similarly, political humor doesn’t usually work at children’s birthday parties. Before you let go of that one-liner you’ve been saving for the right moment, ask yourself: are these the type of people who would get the punchline? If the answer is no or you are worried it may only earn a polite chuckle, save it for later. Which brings me to the next point, which is that timing is just as important as knowing your audience, if not more important. In fact, some would say timing is everything when it comes to true comedic genius.
This is the essence of situational comedy, which we absorb daily as sit-coms, and it usually involves someone expressing what everyone is thinking at a given moment. Knowing the right moment to share an anecdote is often the difference between folks who are considered the life of the party, and those who make people secretly roll their eyes when they arrive. The third important aspect of comedy is the delivery. We’ve all seen the comedian or coworker who doesn’t have the high-brow Seinfeld comedy in his repertoire, but the way he tells the story makes us laugh every time. Delivery has a lot to do with timing, but it also has to do with two other things: committing to the joke, and being natural while telling it. Committing to the joke is simply telling it as if you think it’s funny.
Don’t mumble the punchline or the funny bit without conviction, deliver it with gusto! If you’re going the dry humor route, think about adding a dramatic pause between the straight segment—the “non-funny” part—and the ironic statement that follows to punctuate the difference. If you’re recanting something that happened, only do the voices if you’re good at impressions, otherwise the listener will feel like they’re being held hostage by a crazy person. Being natural is as it sounds, simply taking the aspects of your personality that people have historically found funny and embellishing them for comedic effect. This is seen in self-deprecating humor that involves a person making fun of himself, like an unusually short person expressing how hard it is to see over tall people at the movies. Attempting to mimic someone else’s sense of humor rarely works, as it becomes obvious to the audience when you try too hard.
And that’s really all there is to it; but remember, humor is subjective, and you’re not going to make everybody laugh all the time. Have fun!
