Monday 9 December 2013

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How to Use Humor in the Workplace

Edited by Iholland95, Felixa, BR, Chris and 1 other

Using humor in the workplace can be an ideal way to relieve stress, improve morale, and build stronger relationships and team camaraderie between co-workers. Although humor is often encouraged within companies and businesses, there are ways to use humor that will demonstrate your ability to maintain professionalism in the office no matter what the situation. Continue reading this article to learn how you can use humor in the workplace tastefully to lighten stressful situations without offending your co-workers.

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1
Apply humor to situations instead of people. This will allow co-workers to relate and bond with one another over shared experiences; whereas jokes about a certain individual can offend or insult that particular person and make you appear unprofessional.
2
Use humor that your audience can appreciate. This practice can ensure that your jokes will be happily and humorously received without offending anyone.
- Use humor around co-workers you feel comfortable with, or tailor your jokes to accommodate and entertain a certain audience. For example, if there have been rumors that a certain department in your company will soon be downsized, you may not want to make downsizing jokes in front of people who work in that particular department.
- Take note of your co-worker's moods before joking or using humor with them; as sadness, anger, and other negative moods may cause them to receive your joke with less humor than usual or cause them to feel offended.
3
Use humor related strictly to the job. Some topics and jokes that are not relevant to work may offend your co-workers.
- Make jokes about topics such as difficult customers, company goals, competitors, specific company products, and other topics related to your job.
- Refrain from joking about topics considered to be sensitive or offensive by many individuals and companies; such as politics, religion, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
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Use humor to ease tension in difficult situations. In some cases, humor can potentially diffuse an argument between co-workers and instantly cause employees to relax.
- Make a joke during a meeting if co-workers are upset or argumentative, or if negative news about the company has recently been announced.
5
Use positive humor instead of negative humor. Positive humor can increase productivity and morale among co-workers; whereas negative humor will usually have negative effects on productivity and lower the morale of employees.

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Edit Tips

Install a bulletin board in the office specifically for displaying humorous jokes and anecdotes, or hang up daily joke-of-the-day calendars to use humor in the workplace without taking an extensive amount of time away from the job.
Maintain an indifferent attitude if co-workers use humor with you as the topic. This can help demonstrate your professionalism and ability to deal with criticism; however, you may want to inform the individual in private that their jokes about you are offensive if their jokes about you become a repeating habit.
Joke about individuals only if it favors or compliments the individual. For example, if a co-worker has recently lost a lot of weight, refer to their weight loss success in a joke related to company "downsizing," such as "As you can see, this employee understands a lot about downsizing."

How to Be Funny

Getting Started What Makes Something Funny?Expanding Your Material The Benefits of Being Funny Putting It All Together Sample Jokes

Edited by Wpendy, biuealien, Versageek, Nicole Willson and 180 others

Being funny is not about mocking others or being disrespectful. It's about being genuinely humorous and encouraging people to share a laugh together. Having a good sense of humor has many benefits. It helps you see the lighter side of life, it brings happiness to everyone you meet, and it's been recognized as an important part of getting a job. A survey of 737 CEOs found that 98 percent of them favored hiring someone with a sense of humor over someone who didn't.^[1] Shrug off your stern self and tickle your funny bone with the following fun steps!

EditPart 1 of 5: Getting Started

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Trust in your inner sense of humor. Being funny doesn't come in a "one-size-fits-all" package. What makes you funny is unique to you and the way you observe the world. Trust that you do have a funny bone; as babies we laugh from 4 months of age, and all children express humor naturally from kindergarten age, using humor to entertain themselves and others.^[2] So know that it's already in you – you just need to bring it out!
- Find the things that make you laugh. They will probably make others laugh as well. And if they don't, you can't win them all, can you? Search for books, movies, shows, photos, stories, words, poems, people, incidents, follies, catastrophes, etc., that you've found funny. Keep a note of them.
- Do funny things and enjoy the things that make you laugh. Read a comic strip, share jokes with the kids, give in to "silly things" just because, and laugh as often as you can. Developing a sense of humor means laughing as much as it does being able to get others to laugh.
- Find out why things make you laugh. So you want to be funny? Well, then, you're going to have to do a little studying. When you see or hear something funny, ask yourself, "Why do I think this is funny?" Why do we think a picture of our boss dressed up as a baby is funny? What's so side-splitting about an alien smoking a cigarette in a cowboy hat? The more you dive into the reasoning, the likelier you are to be able to turn similar jokes going forward.
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Learn a little about what makes us laugh. Laughter itself is unconscious – while it is possible for us to keep ourselves from laughing (not always successfully), it is very hard for us to produce laughter on demand, and doing so will usually seem "forced."^[3]^[4] Fortunately, laughter is very contagious (we're about 30 times more likely to laugh in the presence of others),^[5] and in a social context, it's easy to start laughing when others are laughing.^[6]
- Three things make us laugh the most: a sense of superiority over someone else behaving "dumber" than us; a difference between our expectation of something and the actual result; or welcome relief from an anxiety.
- Think about expectations vs. actual result, or its fancy definition, cognitive incongruity. We expect something because it's normal or everyday to expect it, and we're surprised when our expectation turns out to be completely wrong. This surprise is basically the reason we laugh.^[7]
  - Comedian Jackie Mason illustrates the point: "My grandfather always said, 'Don't watch your money; watch your health.' So one day while I was watching my health, someone stole my money. It was my grandfather."
  - This joke messes with one of our fundamental expectations: that grandparents are nice, friendly people who are utterly harmless. The joke is funny because, in it, we are presented with a grandparent who is rascally, thievish, and double-crossing.
- Different things make different people laugh. Some people find that sensationalism causes them to laugh; others find that satire does the trick. Learn which is which, and deliver your jokes and anecdotes so that they apply to many different categories of humor and emotion at once.
  - Not everyone knows what it's like to ride in a helicopter or be a millionaire or have a baby. But most people know what it's like to go fast, fantasize about money, and love another person deeply. So make your jokes cover more ground by utilizing really basic, but profound, human emotions.

EditPart 2 of 5: What Makes Something Funny?

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Mislead the mind. Misleading the mind is what we referred to earlier as surprise, or cognitive incongruity. This is when you create a difference between what someone expects to happen and what actually happens. Verbal jokes use this element to the greatest level possible, trying to misdirect your attention in the same that magic tricks do.^[8]
- Basically, this technique relies on cognitive processing errors, turning assumptions upside down, and word confusion. All of this happens quickly and unconsciously, and humor becomes your brain's "graceful" way of coping with the mixed signals; if you "get" the joke, you'll be laughing.
  - For example: "What happens to liars when they die?" Answer - "They lie still." This joke works because you have to interpret the joke in two ways, and the brain is temporarily confused by its inability to draw on usual experience.^[9]
- The aim is to keep what's coming up a total surprise, and then to totally turn around our assumptions about what's going to happen.^[10]
  - Consider Groucho Marx's clever one-liner, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read," or Rodney Dangerfield's line, "My wife met me at the door the other night in a sexy negligee. Unfortunately, she was just coming home."
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Go to boring or unfunny places. It's good to know that the less funny a place is, the easier it becomes to add the element of humorous surprise. On the flip side, it's far harder to have the element of surprise where humor is expected — a stand-up comedy joint, for example.^[11]
- This, again, has to do with expectation: We expect boring places to have little or no laughter in them, and we go to a comedy club in order to laugh. So it's easier to get people to laugh about an office workplace than it is to get people to laugh in a comedy club.
- This is why The Office, the NBC show, uses an office as its setting: it's about as boring as it gets. (For goodness sake, they process paper. How boring is that?!) We're not used to looking at an office as a funny place, so when it is funny, it's especially funny.
- Remember Christopher Guest's mockumentary Best In Show? The movie is about dog owners who compete in a dog competition. Guest shows us how all the dog owners display every emotion known to man, and how they are a microcosm of our larger society. The part that makes the movie funny is that it's about a dog competition. If you're looking for laughs, going to a dog competition is about the last place you'd look to go.
- Serious situations are much like serious places. A lot of our humor derives from very serious events and situations in our daily lives. This famous witticism by Winston Churchill proves the point. An MP asks him during a session of parliament: "Mr. Churchill, must you fall asleep while I'm speaking?" Churchill responds, "No, it's purely voluntary."
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Strike while the iron is hot. Good timing is really important, because if you give the brain too much time to work out a situation or joke, the funny moment will pass by. This is probably why jokes people have heard before don't work, as recognition dulls the humor because the brain is already primed by experience.^[12] React quickly and strike while the humorous moment exists.
- One liners, or comebacks, can be good fun. Someone says something that, by itself, isn't funny. And you whip back with something that makes what they said really funny. Timing is crucial here. Your humorous statement needs to come out quickly and fully-formed.
  - For example, your friend is thinking about hair, for some reason, and he says: "Isn't it weird that we only have hair on our heads and in our pubic areas?" The friend is not really even expecting a response. You say: "Speak for yourself."
- Funny comebacks don't always have to be laugh-out-loud, either. Witty comebacks impress the audience long after the moment has left, causing them to smile in amusement.
  - Take this exchange between famous writers William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, for example. Faulkner says about Hemingway's simple writing style: "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Hemingway shoots back: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
- If the timing is all wrong, don't mess with the joke. The worst you can do as a funny person is try to deliver a joke after your window of opportunity has passed. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of opportunities to crack through the silence with your whip of a wit.
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Learn other comedy basics. We've explored the expectation v. results idea, along with unfunny places/situations and comedic timing, but there are a few comedy essentials that you should know to round out your education.
- Witty wordplay and puns. A lot of the time, comedy comes from linguistic confusion (unintentional) or linguistic playfulness (intentional).
  - Freudian slips are linguistic errors that are believed to expose what you were really thinking rather than what you "meant" to say, and are often of a sexual nature.
  - Witty wordplay is more intentional: "A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion." Or this one, where the words "hockey" and "fight" are switched: "I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out."
- Change someone's status. Changing a person's status, or the status of something long held to be true, can be very funny. For example, having a CEO of a company ask the receptionist for advice on how to run the company.
  - Or, as Stephen Colbert did, taking a tried and true saying such as "Be the change you want to see in the world" and telling people "[P]lease don’t do that. Some of us like it the way it is. Personally, things are going great for me right now.”^[13]
- Know your audience. Have a reasonable idea of what those around you find funny. When you're in a group of people you don't know, for example, just listen to what subjects they're talking about and what's making them laugh. Are they the witty banter type? The slapstick, or physical comedy type? The better you know someone, the easier it will be to make them laugh.

EditPart 3 of 5: Expanding Your Material

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Broaden your factual knowledge or joke material. It is much easier to find funny moments in material you know well – your workplace attitudes, your amazing knowledge of 17th century poetry, your familiarity with fishing trips that went wrong, etc. Whatever the material, though, it also needs to resonate with your audience, meaning that your concise ability to deconstruct a 17th century poem might not hit its mark with somebody not familiar with the piece!
- Broaden your horizons so that you are tuned-in regardless of who you're speaking to. If you can find the humor in physics and Paris Hilton, for example, you're well on your way. Drawing an interesting parallel between two wildly different subjects can be very funny, if done well.
- Work your smarts. In a way, being funny is simply showing that you are intelligent enough to find the humorous nuances that others miss. Comics do this routine all the time. They point out the hygienic customs of the clergy, for example, or the breeding practices of chimpanzees, relating it effortlessly back to something the average person knows and understands.
- Be observant. While knowing a lot can increase your capacity for humor, there's no substitute for seeing a lot. In fact, many very knowledgeable people fail to see the humor in things. Look for the humor in everyday situations, and see what others don't. Often, the unnoticed humor that is standing right in front of our eyes has the most impact.
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Learn from funny people. You can expand your reach a good deal by listening to other funny people. Whether they're professional comedians, your parents, your kids, or your boss, learning from the funny people in your life is a key step to being funny yourself. Keep a note of some of the funnier things these people say or do. And find what you admire most in these people. Even if all you do is cobble together your own funny plan based on one admired trait from each person, you'll be improving your sense of funny tremendously. Immersing yourself like this will help you develop a toolbox of techniques you can use to be funny:
- Hang out with funny people. Their humor will rub off on you. You'll get plenty of opportunities to reel off jokes in supportive environment. If your jokes don't work on your friends, you can discard them and look for other ones that might.
- Watch funny shows. There are many, many TV shows and movies packed with excellent comedy. The British, for example, have a very dry, witty sense of humor that concerns itself primarily with cultural matters, whereas Americans have more of a slapstick, physical humor that often involves issues of sex and race. Getting a good helping of both will help you understand different cultural attitudes towards humor.
- Watch improvisers. All good comedians are improvisers, but comedians choose to improvise for a living and the experience can be hilarious. Attend an improv show and take part in it as much as you can – you'll laugh a lot and observe exactly how they take vague, unknown scenarios and turn them into something instantly funny.
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Read, read, read. Get your hands on anything and everything that is funny, and consume it like your mom told you not to. Chemists become chemists by reading and practicing chemistry; sports writers become sports writers by reading and writing about sports; you're going to become a funnier person by reading and practicing jokes.
- There are many excellent authors writing funny literature. Do a search online for lists of humorous authors, or check out the authors in the humor section in book stores.
  - Read works by people like James Thurber, P.G. Wodehouse, Stephen Fry, Kaz Cooke, Sarah Silverman, Woody Allen, Bill Bryson, Bill Watterson, Douglas Adams, etc. (Don't forget children's books by good authors; they can be a terrific source for good humor!)
- Read joke books. It won't hurt to have a few good jokes memorized. Hopefully, reading good jokes might inspire you to start making up your own jokes and witticisms. When reading them, try to pick apart the elements that make them good jokes. Equally, try to work out why some jokes do not work. Just because you wrote it doesn't mean that it's good; it can be hard to stare at our own work objectively, so get feedback from someone who doesn't know you well (that way they won't sugarcoat the news, whatever it is).
- Read one-liners. One liners can steal the show. Dorothy Parker was brilliant with one-liners; for example, when told that Calvin Coolidge had died, she replied: "How can they tell?"
  - You'll need quick wit and readiness for delivering good one-liners but studying other people's can inspire your own. Or think of Calvin Coolidge himself; a woman came to him and said: "Mr. Coolidge, I made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." Coolidge replied, "You lose."

EditPart 4 of 5: The Benefits of Being Funny

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Focus on the benefits of being funny. From a motivational point of view, as you travel along the path to becoming funnier, it is helpful to understand the extensive benefits of being a funny person. There are benefits both for the comedian and the audience:
- Humor can energize you and leave you feeling a lot more alert. Laughing works our stomach muscles and leaves us with that light, blissed-out feeling. It can be like a "mind-break" without having to travel.
- Humor can reduce anxiety. Using humor before an exam, test, or presentation is the ideal way to defuse tension and reduce anxiety levels. A well-timed joke, especially in the beginning, can turn an awkward situation into an opportunity for social bonding.
- Laughter can relieve pain. Numerous studies point to the ability of laughter to relieve serious pain and illness for defined periods of time.^[14] Being funny when you visit a friend in hospital can be a breath of fresh air for them.
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Use humor to break down barriers between people. Laughter itself is considered to be a "universal language".^[15] Steve Allen said that humor acts as a "social lubricant and humanizing agent,"^[16] giving it an important place during even the most serious of times. During both World Wars, for example, comedians and cartoonists worked to maintain morale among both troops and citizens.
- Being funny can help people to learn. Whenever you're in a position to teach people, using humor can be a fantastic tool for easing the learning process. Relieving anxiety in a classroom or workplace so that those learning are more receptive to what is being taught is an age-old tradition that works.^[17]
- Being funny can boost creativity. David M Ogilvy recognized this when he said: "The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible." Consider the case of Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize-winning physicist, who was a lifelong prankster and wit, even while he was working on the Manhattan Project.
- Being funny can make you seem a lot less scary. Have you ever experienced a moment where you've frightened a small child but you've quickly turned the situation around by telling a joke, or making fun of your scary height or appearance? This is a natural reaction when we want to make ourselves seem less frightening to others.
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Rise up the corporate ladder with humor. Peter Ustinov made a very insightful comment that "comedy is simply a funny way of being serious." In fact, if you're recognized as being both a good worker and funny, you'll be the person others want to spend time around. Being funny at work can help build teams and relieve workplace stress. In addition, funny people tend to be creative thinkers, intent on keeping an open mind about work challenges, as well as seeking new ways to fix them.^[18]
- Give a thought to being a funny leader. A leader who loosens up allows the team to loosen up too. If you're in a leadership or management role, set a tone that encourages good humor around the workplace and encourages fun to be a part of workplace life. Find out from your employees what their idea of fun is and start to build relationships of trust based on allowing fun into the workplace.
- Consider creating fun ways of tackling hard problems. Taking difficult work situations and turning them into funny ones might seem frivolous, but it can be an amazing way to turn around a bad situation.
  - For example, a team suffering from low morale can be uplifted by humor, which is what happened when a Pennsylvanian bank started a "Worst Customer of the Week" award, complete with champagne prize rewarded to the employee who told the worst tale of customer behavior each week. The result was that every teller started going out of their way to serve the most difficult customers.^[19] Who would have thought?!

EditPart 5 of 5: Putting It All Together

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Be prepared to put your own shortcomings in the spotlight. Good comedians tend to use themselves as the principal target for humor, because they know their own faults so well. On the other hand, it's a way for them to show others the warts-and-all side of their personality, instantly connecting with our own warts-and-all side.
- George Bernard Shaw summed it up well: "When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth." We all spend so much time trying to be better people, often smothering unpleasant truths about ourselves, that humor becomes a way of releasing the tension.
- Don't take yourself so seriously. Remember the most embarrassing moments in your life so far, the monumental stuff-ups, the times you refused to make changes, the breakdowns in communications that you played a major part in, and maybe even the time you tried to be funny around your friends and only crickets chirped.
- Telling other people about very embarrassing moments in your life is a great way to get them to laugh. Take a page from famous improv comic Colin Mochrie, who said: "He had the kind of face only a mother could love, if that mother was blind in one eye and had that kind of milky film over the other... but still, he was my identical twin."
- Be able to point out things about yourself that others might be too scared to mention. For example, if you're really tall, or have bad teeth, or maybe could stand to lose a few pounds, make a joke about it. It'll give people a warm invitation to laugh at you, because you're capable of laughing at yourself.
  - If you happen to be older, deliver something like this point fun at stereotypes about old people: "People call me at 9 PM and ask, 'Did I wake you?'"
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Be self-deprecating and humble. These traits can make you appear approachable and when you're being funny, it shows other people that you're like them, you've been through the same trials they have, and that you're a regular person. Just make sure to make light of the right things, and not come off as self-destructive or insecure, as these can be more pitiable and pathetic than funny. Deep psychological personal issues can draw attention away from the humor and towards the individual^[20]
- Here are some great self-deprecating jokes to give you a feel for the many flavors of making fun of yourself.
  - Rodney Dangerfield made fun of both his sanity and his looks with this one: "I went to the psychiatrist, and he says 'You're crazy.' I tell him I want a second opinion. He says, 'Okay, you're ugly too!'"
  - Redd Foxx had this to say about his silly devotion to drugs and alcohol: "I feel sorry for people who don’t drink or do drugs. Because someday they’re going to be in a hospital bed, dying, and they won’t know why."
  - And, finally, one from Henry Youngman: "I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother."
- Be an active listener (and therefore lifelong learner). Listen carefully to others, really hear them, and understand what they're about. There's nothing more humble than admitting that you can always learn to be funnier from other people. When you're busy focused on people other than yourself, you'll get a better sense of how to help others through humor. It will also enable you to observe and relate the small joys of life too – making your funny self more believable and empathetic.
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Know when not to be funny. Steve Allen noted that anything could be dealt with humorously, including religion, death, cancer, oppression, etc., but he stressed that this doesn't make it socially appropriate to do so.^[21]
- Getting the balance right is important when you're trying to be funny; there are times when being humorous about something solemn or tragic will fall flat and insult people. Rely on your common sense and the feedback that your least favorite member of the family is starting to glare at you with deep malice.
- Do the "how would I feel?" test. Will Rogers once said: "Everything is funny as long as it is happening to Somebody Else." Would it be so funny if you were the target of the humor? This is not mooted by the fact that all good humorists should be able to laugh at themselves – know the difference between good, healthy humor and poor taste, or hurtful insults.
- Be especially careful about cracking jokes or pulling pranks in the following situations: workplace, funerals and weddings, places of worship (or religious events), whenever your humor could be mistaken for harassment or discrimination, or if your humor might physically harm somebody (for example, a prank).
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Spring back. Every well-rounded, self-confident funny person knows how to take a failed funny – forgive yourself. Sometimes a joke will fall flat, or an observation that cracks you up will just make others groan. Don't be discouraged.
- Learn from your comedic errors, and keep trying. Even the highest paid comedians don't always get a laugh, and no one expects anybody to be funny all the time. If you feel like you're temporarily off your game, don't force it!

EditSample Jokes

Wordplay Examples

Sample Brain Teasers

Self Deprecating Humor Examples

Edit Video

Using skill, practice, and timing, you can learn to tell a joke well.

Edit Tips

Gender matters. Men tend to tell more jokes, tease and disparage (hostile humor), and enjoy slapstick humor, whereas women tend to prefer telling a story, usually in a self-deprecating manner, that elicits a response of group solidarity from other females. ^[22] Interestingly, the roles reverse when you stick men and women together – men tend to tone down the teasing while women turn it up and target it at men, losing much of their self-deprecation in the process!^[23]
Remember to include non-verbal funny cues, such as doing a funny dance, or making a funny noise, where these are appropriate.
Hand gestures help and can even make things funnier. Facial expressions are very important too.
If you wait too long, even very funny comments will lose their impact. For example, if someone says something to you and you think of a witty comeback two hours later, you're probably better off just keeping it to yourself. It won't be funny anymore, and you'll look slow, and possibly daft.
Practice callbacks. You may have noticed that many comedians will tell a joke and then bring it back in one version or another, usually getting as big a laugh (or bigger) on the second time than on the first. This is called a callback, and you can use this technique, too. If you come up with a joke or observation that gets a big laugh, subtly bring it back a little later. As a general rule, though, don't try to call something back more than 3 times.
What is funny has cultural overlays. Something funny in the USA may be perplexing in France, for example. Keep this in mind, and try to find universally shared funny stories.
Don't laugh at your own jokes until everyone else is laughing. It will not only make it seem you're trying too hard to be funny, but it can also spoil the funny moment and nobody else will feel inclined to laugh. Avoid "canned laughter" for individuals.
If someone from across the room starts looking at you while a test is happening, then throw a funny face while the teacher is not looking. This should make them laugh depending on their personality.
Keep it fresh. Staying on one subject can grow tiresome quickly; learn to flip to new topics to keep your humor fresh during an occasion of repartee!
Practice being funny. Everything improves with practice but it's important to practice in a low-risk environment first and to build up your funnier self to wider audiences as you improve. Your family and friends will be most forgiving, while your staff will be apprehensive if you're suddenly shape-shifting into a funnier person, and a large audience will expect you to be good from the start. Practicing with people you trust and who can give you constructive feedback is a good way to start.

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Edit Warnings

Some people will always take themselves overly seriously – while they're riper for being a source of humor than anyone else, on the whole, it pays to not over-target them. All the same, don't let their arrogance, insecurities, or stubborn attachment to solemnity bring you down. Recognize that terribly serious people can be very difficult to work and live with, and keep a good distance from them if your humor is rubbing them the wrong way.
Be sure to consider if the enviroment where you tell the joke is appropriate before you begin.
Be very careful with being funny about sacred cows, from religion to politics. Everything can be funny but sometimes if you go "too far" in someone else's eyes, they'll call you on it.

Edit Things You'll Need

Humorous books, DVDs, TV channels
Theater tickets for comedies and improvisation performances
A humourous personality

How to Avoid Laughing at Your Own Jokes

Edited by Wes Platt, Jonlandrum, mikki, Ben Rubenstein and 32 others

Ever spoiled a joke by laughing? Can't get through your punchline without rolling on the floor? Then read on! Laughing, although fun, can not only have the effect of being a socially crippling ability, but also one that could lead to great things. A person can tell a lot about another based on how they laugh, not just on what they say. Follow these steps and you are almost guaranteed a chuckle, although getting a laugh may require more practice.

Edit Steps

1
Find a joke that makes you laugh, and make sure that it is easy to understand if you want to tell it to younger people.
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Tell the joke repeatedly to people who won't get it. (little brothers or sisters and cats both work really well!)
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Don't act like you've practiced the joke! You should know it well, but don't recite it.
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Think about something not funny. (like how your English teacher gave you a C for a 80.8%)
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Practice in front of a mirror or your friends, as this will switch focus from the punchline to your delivery.
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When you're alone, just walk around the house repeating it as though you're talking in a normal conversation, to make the words seem natural. You will have said it enough times to not think of it as "the funniest joke ever".

Edit Tips

Even though a joke is supposed to be funny, treat it instead like you're telling about your last (fairly boring) trip to the grocery store. The more nonchalant you tell it, the funnier it will be to your unsuspecting audience.
Don't build up the joke too much, make it as unexpected and natural as possible.
Also, try not to have any kind of expression so that when you get to the Punch Line, your audience is unexpected. It makes them laugh harder!
If you're doing an impression, act it out and keep your mind focused on the impression.
If you say it to yourself over and over again, it may help you to not laugh. This is similar to saying the same joke over and over to friends.
If you're telling jokes at a party or at a bar and you've got a dry sense of humor, you can almost certainly start to take a sip of your drink as the joke settles on your listeners. You come off looking centered and in control and even as if you're reloading for the next quip.
If you tell it to yourself a lot you might think it is not very funny, therefore you won't laugh when you tell it. This will make it funnier, though it may make you like the joke less and thus tell it less often.
Think about the people around you. It's easier to tell a joke to people you know than around strangers (such as trying to impress people at a party).
Don't use a joke that's too long or you'll lose interest.

Edit Warnings

Sometimes a joke is just INCREDIBLY funny and all you can do is make sure you don't laugh until you get the whole thing said and understood - because no one understands what you're saying when you laugh. You're allowed to join in if your listeners are rolling about on the floor, it's laughing alone because people didn't hear or understand you that's not the best.

HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH WITH A CHILDISH JOKE TOPIC --- BY. MWL. JAPHET MASATU.

How to Make People Laugh With a Childish Joke Topic

Edited by Yetsame, Sockpuppet, Mac Libureet, Brandywine and 8 others

So say you're an amateur comedian, and you are on a comedic roll. When you run out of jokes. Ugh. So you remember some funnies you might have said in 1st grade. But that is all "make poo in toilet ha ha ha" jokes. But say that's all you have. Well it could work. Here is how.

Edit Steps

1
Pick a style. For instance expressive. So if you are going to say that a donkey was puking everywhere, say it with emphasis on certain words.
2
Make sure joke fits with act. You don't want to talk about a scary hobo when all of a sudden you make your joke.
3
Give joke a classic edge. Some original personality. You don't want to make a dumb face and say "I go pee pee in pant pant" but rather if it is on scary hobo topic say, "Then the man starts talking about how he was just wetting himself. He offered...me some."
4
Don't keep on that topic. A simple short statement will do. For example, if some group tells you to ask someone ugly out, you could say, "But who knows how soggy her pants will become". Remember to leave it at one statement.
5
Wrap up your act with your own brand of mature comedy. Not mature as in adult.

Edit Tips

You want every one laughing. Don't start talking about stuff that nobody likes.

Edit Warnings

Make sure your jokes aren't sexual/racist.
Your childish h

HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH AT SCHOOL --- BY. JAPHET MASATU.

How to Make People Laugh at School

Edited by Teresa, Maluniu, Lillian May, Thomas and 18 others

Want to be a fun, outgoing person to be around? Well, you're at the right place.

Edit Steps

1
Never be afraid of what others are thinking. If they aren't laughing then they aren't outgoing. Only worry about how you feel. Whats the worst that they can think?
2
Always be random. Never be able to be read like a book. Make sure people never know what you're going to do next.
3
Try some of the following steps:
4
When talking too loudly and you get sent in the middle room, write notes on a book when the teacher's not looking. Hold it up to the window at your friends. Make faces. Turn the heater up to 30 (or in USA, 90) on a hot day or down to 0 (32 in USA) on a cold day.
5
In the library, grab random books and hold them upside down. Do the evil "search" eyes. Or do the mission impossible theme song.
6
Play dares.
7
Talk backwards to teachers. This one is funny to everyone. Lean over your table and tap the teachers back then pretend to work.
8
Constantly pretend to cough. This works well with everyone!

Edit Tips

Try not to laugh while your telling the joke, as this will mess it up.
Don't make fun of other guys at school as it could be rude to do so.
Don't repeat the same joke as it steals the laughter out of the audience.
Don't be shy to talk backwards at teachers.
Never be afraid to joke. Telling a joke with nervousness or shyness can spoil the laughter.
To make your joke interesting, use actions and expressions while cracking the joke.

FUNNY SHORT STORIES BY. MWL. JAPHET MASATU.

Funny Short Stories

The child and his mother:

A curious child asked his mother: “Mommy, why are some of your hairs turning grey?”
The mother tried to use this occasion to teach her child: “It is because of you, dear. Every bad action of yours will turn one of my hairs grey!”
The child replied innocently: “Now I know why grandmother has only grey hairs on her head.”

Wrong email address:

A couple going on vacation but his wife was on a business trip so he went to the destination first and his wife would meet him the next day.
When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.
Unfortunately, when typing her address, he mistyped a letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before.
When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
P.S. Sure is hot down here.

Will’s experience at the airport:

After his return from Rome, Will couldn’t find his luggage in the airport baggage area. He went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that his bags hadn’t shown up on the carousel.
She smiled and told him not to worry because they were trained professionals and he was in good hands.
Then she asked Will, “Has your plane arrived yet?”

Clever kids:

A police officer found a perfect hiding place for watching for speeding motorists.
One day, the officer was amazed when everyone was under the speed limit, so he investigated and found the problem.
A 10 years old boy was standing on the side of the road with a huge hand painted sign which said “Radar Trap Ahead.”
A little more investigative work led the officer to the boy’s accomplice: another boy about 100 yards beyond the radar trap with a sign reading “TIPS” and a bucket at his feet full of change.

Mouthology:

A Professor was traveling by boat. On his way he asked the sailor:
“Do you know Biology, Ecology, Zoology, Geography, physiology?
The sailor said no to all his questions.
Professor: What the hell do you know on earth. You will die of illiteracy.
After a while the boat started sinking. The Sailor asked the Professor, do you know swiminology & escapology from sharkology?
The professor said no.
Sailor: “Well, sharkology & crocodilogy will eat your assology, headology & you will dieology because of your mouthology.

Captain:

A navy captain is alerted by his First Mate that there is a pirate ship coming towards his position. He asks a sailor to get him his red shirt.
The captain was asked, “Why do you need a red shirt?”
The Captain replies, “So that when I bleed, you guys don’t notice and aren’s discouraged.” They fight off the pirates eventually.
The very next day, the Captain is alerted that 50 pirate ships are coming towards their boat. He yells, “Get me my brown pants!”

Elephant:

The class teacher asks students to name an animal that begins with an “E”. One boy says, “Elephant.”
Then the teacher asks for an animal that begins with a “T”. The same boy says, “Two elephants.”
The teacher sends the boy out of the class for bad behavior. After that she asks for an animal beginning with “M”.
The boy shouts from the other side of the wall: “Maybe an elephant!”

Do you know any short but very funny stories? Please share below

Hospital window

by Stephen on September 13, 2008 · 188 comments

in Moral stories

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.
Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.
As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.
Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by th! e window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed.
One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window
The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Helpless love

by Stephen on September 13, 2008 · 250 comments

in Moral stories

Once upon a time all feelings and emotions went to a coastal island for a vacation. According to their nature, each was having a good time. Suddenly, a warning of an impending storm was announced and everyone was advised to evacuate the island.
The announcement caused sudden panic. All rushed to their boats. Even damaged boats were quickly repaired and commissioned for duty.
Yet, Love did not wish to flee quickly. There was so much to do. But as the clouds darkened, Love realised it was time to leave. Alas, there were no boats to spare. Love looked around with hope.
Just then Prosperity passed by in a luxurious boat. Love shouted, “Prosperity, could you please take me in your boat?”
“No,” replied Prosperity, “my boat is full of precious possessions, gold and silver. There is no place for you.”
A little later Vanity came by in a beautiful boat. Again Love shouted, “Could you help me, Vanity? I am stranded and need a lift. Please take me with you.”
Vanity responded haughtily, “No, I cannot take you with me. My boat will get soiled with your muddy feet.”
Sorrow passed by after some time. Again, Love asked for help. But it was to no avail. “No, I cannot take you with me. I am so sad. I want to be by myself.”
When Happiness passed by a few minutes later, Love again called for help. But Happiness was so happy that it did not look around, hardly concerned about anyone.
Love was growing restless and dejected. Just then somebody called out, “Come Love, I will take you with me.” Love did not know who was being so magnanimous, but jumped on to the boat, greatly relieved that she would reach a safe place.
On getting off the boat, Love met Knowledge. Puzzled, Love inquired, “Knowledge, do you know who so generously gave me a lift just when no one else wished to help?”
Knowledge smiled, “Oh, that was Time.”
“And why would Time stop to pick me and take me to safety?” Love wondered.
Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and replied, “Because only Time knows your true greatness and what you are capable of. Only Love can bring peace and great happiness in this world.”
“The important message is that when we are prosperous, we overlook love. When we feel important, we forget love. Even in happiness and sorrow we forget love. Only with time do we realize the importance of love. Why wait that long? Why not make love a part of your life today?”

The story of a blind girl

by Stephen on September 13, 2008 · 592 comments

in Moral stories

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She said that if she could only see the world, she would marry her boyfriend.
One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and then she could see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, “now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”
The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind too, and refused to marry him. Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her saying:
“Just take care of my eyes dear.”

This is how human brain changes when the status changed. Only few remember what life was before, and who’s always been there even in the most painful situations.
Life Is A Gift
Today before you think of saying an unkind word–
think of someone who can’t speak.
Before you complain about the taste of your food–
think of someone who has nothing to eat.
Before you complain about your husband or wife–
think of someone who is crying out to God for a companion.
Today before you complain about life–
think of someone who went too early to heaven.
Before you complain about your children–
think of someone who desires children but they’re barren.
Before you argue about your dirty house, someone didn’t clean or sweep–
think of the people who are living in the streets.
Before whining about the distance you drive–
think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.
And when you are tired and complain about your job–
think of the unemployed, the disabled and those who wished they had your job.
But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another–
remember that not one of us are without sin and we all answer to one maker.
And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down–
put a smile on your face and thank God you’re alive and still around.

Life is a gift – Live it, Enjoy it, Celebrate it, and Fulfill it.

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Hello World!

by Stephen on September 13, 2008 · 35 comments

in Moral stories

Hello, World!
Born on September 13, 2008 out of a desire to help motivating fellow friends.

Beginning today I will no longer worry about yesterday. It is in the past and the past will never change. Only I can change by choosing to do so.

Beginning today I will no longer worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will always be there, waiting for me to make the most of it. But I cannot make the most of tomorrow without first making the most of today.

Beginning today I will look in the mirror and I will see a person worthy of my respect and admiration. This capable person looking back at me is someone I enjoy spending time with and someone I would like to get to know better.

Beginning today I will cherish each moment of my life. I value this gift bestowed upon me in this world and I will unselfishly share this gift with others. I will use this gift to enhance the lives of others.

Beginning today I will take life one day at a time, one step at a time. Discouragement will not be allowed to taint my positive self-image, my desire to succeed or my capacity to love.

Beginning today I will open my mind and my heart. I will welcome new experiences. I will meet new people. I will not expect perfection from myself nor anyone else: perfection does not exist in an imperfect world. But I will applaud the attempt to overcome human foibles.

Beginning today I will learn something new; I will try something different; I will savor all the various flavors life has to offer. I will change what I can and the rest I will let go. I will strive to become the best me I can possibly be.

Moral Stories

Inspirational Stories - Motivational Stories ... by AcademicTips.org

The little boy

by Stephen on September 13, 2008 · 461 comments

in Moral stories

Sally jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room. She said: “How is my little boy? Is he going to be all right? When can I see him?”
The surgeon said, “I’m sorry. We did all we could, but your boy didn’t make it.”
Sally said, “Why do little children get cancer? Doesn’t God care any more? Where were you, God, when my son needed you?”
The surgeon asked, “Would you like some time alone with your son? One of the nurses will be out in a few minutes, before he’s transported to the university.”
Sally asked the nurse to stay with her while she said good-bye to son. She ran her fingers lovingly through his thick red curly hair.
“Would you like a lock of his hair?” the nurse asked.
Sally nodded yes. The nurse cut a lock of the boy’s hair, put it in a plastic bag and handed it to Sally. The mother said, “It was Jimmy’s idea to donate his body to the university for study. He said it might help somebody else. “I said no at first, but Jimmy said, ‘Mom, I won’t be using it after I die. Maybe it will help some other little boy spend one more day with his Mom.” She went on, “My Jimmy had a heart of gold. Always thinking of someone else. Always wanting to help others if he could.”
Sally walked out of Children’s mercy Hospital for the last time, after spending most of the last six months there. She put the bag with Jimmy’s belongings on the seat beside her in the car. The drive home was difficult. It was even harder to enter the empty house. She carried Jimmy’s belongings, and the plastic bag with the lock of his hair to her son’s room. She started placing the model cars and other personal things back in his room exactly where he had always kept them. She laid down across his bed and, hugging his pillow, cried herself to sleep.
It was around midnight when Sally awoke. Laying beside her on the bed was a folded letter. The letter said:
“Dear Mom,
I know you’re going to miss me; but don’t think that I will ever forget you, or stop loving you, just ’cause I’m not around to say I LOVE YOU. I will always love you, Mom, even more with each day. Someday we will see each other again. Until then, if you want to adopt a little boy so you won’t be so lonely, that’s okay with me. He can have my room and old stuff to play with. But, if you decide to get a girl instead, she probably wouldn’t like the same things us boys do. You’ll have to buy her dolls and stuff girls like, you know. Don’t be sad thinking about me. This really is a neat place. Grandma and Grandpa met me as soon as I got here and showed me around some, but it will take a long time to see everything. The angels are so cool. I love to watch them fly. And, you know what? Jesus doesn’t look like any of his pictures. Yet, when I saw Him, I knew it was Him. Jesus himself took me to see GOD! And guess what, Mom? I got to sit on God’s knee and talk to Him, like I was somebody important. That’s when I told Him that I wanted to write you a letter, to tell you good-bye and everything. But I already knew that wasn’t allowed. Well, you know what Mom? God handed me some paper and His own personal pen to write you this letter. I think Gabriel is the name of the angel who is going to drop this letter off to you. God said for me to give you the answer to one of the questions you asked Him ‘Where was He when I needed him?’ “God said He was in the same place with me, as when His son Jesus was on the cross. He was right there, as He always is with all His children.
Oh, by the way, Mom, no one else can see what I’ve written except you. To everyone else this is just a blank piece of paper. Isn’t that cool? I have to give God His pen back now. He needs it to write some more names in the Book of Life. Tonight I get to sit at the table with Jesus for supper. I’m, sure the food will be great.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I don’t hurt anymore. The cancer is all gone. I’m glad because I couldn’t stand that pain anymore and God couldn’t stand to see me hurt so much, either. That’s when He sent The Angel of Mercy to come get me. The Angel said I was a Special Delivery! How about that?
Signed with Love from: God, Jesus & Me.”

Author Unknown
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