Who doesn’t like to be funny? Who doesn’t like the image of a crowd surrounding them, laughing with them, catering a lot of attention to them and waiting for their every word to split into a chuckle of laughter. We have always maintained humor as an extraordinary talent capable of steering a conversation into a desired direction or even changing the tone and note of the crowd surrounding you. Humor without doubt is one of the most powerful tools in communication and there is no wonder that these comedians are paid so high!
1) WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE FUNNY?
Well, like always, we start with the one basic question as – WHY DO YOU WANT TO DO IT? What is it that you are trying to achieve from this? Do you want to be the centre of attraction? Do you want to steer the conversation from an utterly boring one to a sensation? Do you want to send in a subtle message through humour and make people think without imposing them to? Or do you just want to have fun? What is the real purpose behind this?
2) THE UNTOLD REASONS
“Well of course I love to be the centre of attraction, I love people looking at me in anticipation to burst into laughter, I love the feeling of a loud chuckle because of every word I say”
Is this one of the reasons why you want to be funny? Well! If that is the case, you might want to ask yourself a couple more questions
3) TO WHAT EXTENT ARE YOU WILLING TO GO TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH
Well! If you are trying to be the comedian, I am sure that the answer is to every extent possible. That’s the spirit, and it is the way to go, Kudos! But if you are looking at being a smart conversationalist and are looking at using humor in a regular social set up, I am sure you are looking at a simple reason as to lighten the conversation or steer the conversation into a different mode or break the ice and make the other person feel comfortable. In other words, you are looking at reasons more subtle to make people laugh and it is a great way of bringing control into the conversation.
4) HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE FUNNY?
You got to define who you are going to be. You got to know what you are aiming at, either a Charile Chaplin or a stand up comedian, both of them have their own styles and their own type of audience as well. It depends on what message you want to send to the people, whether you are a clown or whether you are someone who is known to have a good sense of humor and the office meetings with you are fun and enjoyable.
5) WHO DO YOU MAKE YOUR JOKE ON?
Well if you are looking at humor as something to improve the level of your conversation and you are being a smart communicator, it certainly becomes important as to what your subject is going to be. More often than not it is easy to find a simpleton on whom we can base the jokes on. Even though the natural instinct is to make fun of that person and it does sound funny at the start, do note that it opens a possibility of a judgement against you. If you are making fun of the weak and less capable, it doesn’t send across a great image of you. Know that if you are taking the way of humor for your conversation, it comes along with a few strings attached as well.
6) JOKES ON YOURSELF?
The safest way to show your great sense of humor is the conversations which are neutral and safe and the ones which don’t open you up to a wider range of judgements. However if you are thinking of taking it a notch ahead and use the demeaning ones, make sure that you use it on yourself. Make fun of yourself, your actions, your mistakes. It doesn’t show how weak you are, on the contrary it shows that you have the ability to laugh at your own mistakes and you have outgrown them. And when you talk freely about your flaws it makes the connection that much easier.
Everyone can make fun of a simpleton, but to make fun of yourself takes some real guts!
7) THE TONE!
Humor, singing, stage show everything looks at one commonality in communication, the variation in your tone. If you are going at it in the same note, it is very easy to get people to sleep. That was never your intention, find a way if you can modulate your tone, esp when you are using it for humor, it produces a fantastic impact on the listener
8) KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Pick your moment, pick your words and pick your audience as well. You cannot go to a political meeting and make fun of a stupid policy and tell them how it has hurt people. You got to be a little clever, know your audience
9) RUMORS!
Again, it seems like a very easy thing to do – to spread rumors about someone for the sake of a laughter or two. But mind you, it does come back to bite you in the wrong place and when it does, it does bite very hard. Steer away from negative humor as much as possible, the ones on caste, politics, race, color are a serious no no. You don’t want to be known as a person with bad humor, you need to establish some class into it.
10) MIMICKING SOMEONE WHO IS NOT AROUND
You have got a great talent, you can mimick people and that is a fantastic thing to use in a communication. But please don’t use it to make fun of others when they are not with you. I had a friend who constantly did that and it didn’t matter much when he did it in front of me, but when he did it behind my back, I was filled with such hatred that even today, I think before I communicate with him. You don’t want to be that guy, it is in fact a cheaper sense of humor and you should steer away from it.
11) THE CHANGE OF SUBJECT!
If you find your audience hooked to a particular subject, the natural tendency is to stick to something which has worked well and you feel like going on in the same route since you have hit a success point there. But make sure that you mix and match, a great sense of humor doesn’t naturally happen if you are focused on only one area!
12) MAKING FUN OF PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
If you make fun of someone’s behavior, it is ok, people don’t usually get very sensitive about that. But if you make fun of something integral to a person like his looks, his character or his abilities, then you are headed for some trouble. It is good to be funny but it is better to know your limits lest you want to make a sworn enemy out of him
13) MAKING FUN OF EVERYONE ELSE EXCEPT YOU!
I have met a few people who are undoubtedly funny but after a few minutes with them, you feel that you are amidst a highly egoistic person. There is not much wrong with their sense of humor, they are funny alright but they don’t know that while trying to be so, they are bringing others down just to elevate their importance and it works in a horribly wrong and opposite way. If you are making fun of someone else, be a BIGGER man and make fun of yourself too. Infact do more of that and you earn better respect than mere laughter.
I agree that it is not the easiest thing to think about every little word you say, and I strongly discourage the same too. It is impossible to think before you speak any word and rightly so, humor like anything else has to be natural and has to follow its own course or it doesn’t make much sense or difference to the listener
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Thank you Richa :). He he he :D, that’s one way to go ;) :) ,,
He he, thank you, I was seriously fed up of some people taking humor to be granted. Well what better way does a writer need to answer? ;)
Thank you Anita :). Touche, being funny is indeed serious stuff!! :)
I am happy to read about offbeat topics on your blog ! :) I often find people who try to be funny doing all those things you mentioned here on this blog post :/ And to top it all they don’t even consider it rude or offensive to crack a joke on somebody else hurting their sentiments. Worst are those who mimic others and joke about physical appearances. :| . Really after reading so many disasters at how and where one could end up when trying to be funny I find myself knocking off even the idea of being funny ever! :P Somehow this blog post just scared me off :P :D Rest assured a joke on oneself is a wiser move ;) loved the post !
Thank you Najm :). We thought that it was about time that we started bringing in more variety to the topics and adding more value. Hoping to come up with more interesting stuff with time to come :).
Thank you :) . I agree, there are those unscrupulous ones who don’t even consider rude, in fact they have the audacity to say that people should not be taking it seriously. It is just being that insensitive and annoying. I have had a couple of friends like that, you won’t believe how many times I have felt like punching them, right in the nose :D : D
A light fluffy post balancing your blog profile….
Thank you Chaitali :)
Very offbeat post. When i started to read it I was like i am such a serious person that i don’t want to try to be funny and looking at the pitfalls a person may land in in order to be funny, not trying it will be prudent. Very nice post Vinay.
Thank you Shweta :). He he, I think humor is either underrated or overrrated most times and people often think that humor is about making people laugh. I think there is so much more to life than that.
I really do hate it when the funny ones take any topic they want without regard to people or feelings, I also hate to be made fun of with inappropriate humor (not that I dont do it at all) but I think it is equally important to understand one’s limits when it comes to humor..
Such a nice post Vinay, I must say you are sharing blogs on topics on which no one else will think about to write. And this is one of the best quality of a good blogger.
Honestly the first thing which strikes my mind is the image. I must say that you made it brilliantly, I took around 10-20 days to understand how to design a good image, while you designed it within one or two days only. That is truly great :)
Thank you Alok, that truly means a lot to me. For a long time I was thinking of coming up with some more basic posts, where in I could drive in a better impact. While doing my research for this article I realized that there was no comprehensive post on the sense of humor and then thought we must write about it :).. And wolla, here it is :)
The image, I guess I did work with a few designers during my initial days at Royal Mysore Walks, and major credit goes to Vidya. I am now thinking of perhaps using coral draw for the image designs and maybe join a basic course which will help us deliver better on this site :).. Hopefully we will get there soon :)
Very good decision Vinay. To be very frank I really don’t have much idea about how to design things, the reason being I am a bit color blind and thus I am a bit behind in designing thing. Meanwhile I thought I should learn Photoshop, and very soon I will learn it…
Thanks Alok :). Ohh, I am sorry to hear that, truth is I was also diagnosed to be a bit color blind in one of the medical checks in Delhi, I dont know how right they were, but I guess I partially am, I am not sure though :).
I think photoshop is a very good idea and so is coral draw, both of them are in very high demand and they can simply elevate the design aspects of the site very well.
Then Alok, you have a very bright future ahead in IT field because Mark Zuckerberg is also a color blind ;)
Lol Ravish, now you are pulling my legs :)
How tragic! If that line comes from Brian Tracy, you’d have responded “very inspiring.” :(
Not at all Ravish brother, for me your comments are more valuable than of Brian Tracy, cause you know me, while for him I am having no existence.
But anyways brother, I said this just because I know my ability, I am not going to reach somewhere near to what you are saying, just because I am not walking on that path. Once I will start walking on that path then only I can think about it :)
Hope you can understand…
He he, I am sure you have it in you Alok, it is just about setting foot in that direction :)
Trying to do so only Vinay :)
He he.. I was just kidding…. And I agree with Vinay that you have the balls; just a little nurturing is needed :P :)
I guess you people are right, but then who knows the future, we are just here to do our work in the best possible way.
True Alok, we are here to do our best and create a mark of our own indeed. And I am sure it is already on the process :)
Thanks Vinay for such a wonderful post. It’d be very useful for the introvert persons like me who always have difficulty in communicating just for fun. A very needed topic indeed!
Thank you Ravish :). I used to be a big time introvert too and in some levels I still am. But at one point it really was fun breaking the barrier to try and be an extrovert as well. Now it feels really good to have that flexibility to shift between the two :) .
I am not sure if you had an opportunity to read this post I had written about shifting from being an introvert to extrovert. You might find it a little interesting.. Here you go:
https://inspire99.com/how-do-i-stop-being-an-introvert/
That Dale Carnegie’s book! He he… Vinay, the thing is knowledge & implementation are two different things; that’s why, I had strategic responsibilities not executive ones. And that is the reason I’m starting again from the scratch in the execution. Thanks for suggesting that post. It really had good points to implement. :)
He he, actually Ravish the Dale Carnegie book has made a tonne of difference to me. Like I told you, I used to be an introvert and to and extent that people called me reserved and arrogant and I knew that I had to change and that was when I was introduced to the book. Although my initial inclination to a self help book was with disdain, I realized how simple it was and how practical each of these suggestions were.
I understand the skepticism since there are so many books out there and many useless ones too. But this one can make one hell of a difference and execution is great fun when you plan it and see how best you can make it happen. Part of being an entrepreneur to me was learning the beautiful connection between the two and the improvisations you get to maek with the execution :)
The irony is I’ve read that book and often use its stories in my posts. :) I know what should be done and I’m working in that direction. My situation can best be described by this Gandhiji’s quote: “It is enough that I should be my own follower. I know what an inadequate follower I am of myself. ”
And thanks for the encouraging words :) I’ve seen that you’ve implemented the idea; one more thing put the text alignment as justified.
That’s a beautiful quote and an amazing moral to stand by Ravish, being the follower of one’s own ideals and standards :).
Thanks Ravish, text alignment? You mean of the post? I think the I have made the alignment changes for the post. However for the comments, unfortunately I don’t see that option on the disqus platform, it doesn’t give that much flexibility over editing those :(
You can have that on disqus too by little modification in template through html. The option is available there. Anyway, I was not talking about that but intro section. :)
Intro section? But the intro section seems to be aligned Ravish, I just checked ant it is justified in the editor section. I have a feeling that I am missing something here, but I am not able to put my finger on it..
He he… just like that typo :P
I would have never thought to put a post on this topic :)
The last one is the best of all. There are many people whom I know to make fun of others easily, but if someone else makes fun of them they take it personally and gets very defensive and makes it a big deal.
Thank you Vidhya :). I have always been a huge fan of communication and esp humor.
I have had a couple of friends who have been so annoying with the humor and they keep thinking they are very funny even if they are not and are hurting someone. So I thought, what better way than to make a post about it? ;).. He he :D ..
This is a writer’s revenge :P :D
Nice. I hope the targeted audience gets it :D
He he he he :D .. I hope so too, I wonder if they ever read :P
While I respect this writer’s view points, there are many grammatical errors in this article. Maybe that’s okay. Maybe it’s not. I understand how it is to learn a second language. My first is English; my second is Spanish. However, I couldn’t write a complicated essay so I don’t. Respectfully yours …………
Hi Jackie, appreciate you taking the time for a comment. Wish it were more about the content which could add value to a reader or encourage a fresh thought. I am all for positive feedback and further development, but I am a bit surprised about the condescension this comment assumes. Not to be rude, but I would rather encourage a positive discussion which can help readers better.
Thank you Jayasimha :). Nice to see your thoughts here.
How did the exams go mate?