How to be funny: Useful tips for people with no sense of humor

How to be funny: Useful tips for people with no sense of humor

While watching Trevor Noah, Aziz Ansari, and Taylor Tomlinson, one of the things that may come to mind is, "How are they so funny?" It's assumed that famous comedians like the aforementioned are lucky because they have the unique talent of making other people laugh. But, did you know that it takes more than just luck and talent to become a funny person? This further proves that anyone can learn how to be funny.

How to be funny
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You may have landed on this page for various reasons. Maybe you are a budding comedian who would like to learn how to be funnier, or maybe you are the average Joe who would like to learn how to make people laugh. No matter what brought you here, one thing is certain: you would like to master the art of being humorous.

If you have ever asked yourself, "How can I be super funny?" then this article is just what you need. Without further ado, let's get to it.

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Foolproof methods on how to be funny

If you would like to locate your funny bone and learn how to use it properly, here are a few tips that could come in handy.

1. Believe that you can be funny

Just as it is when learning a new skill, you have to believe that you can be funny. This also includes changing your mindset that you can't be humorous.

One of the very first steps in learning how to be more goofy is believing that you have what it takes. Have confidence in yourself!

2. Put down your phone

To be funnier than the average Joe, you need to develop a good sense of humor, which can't happen if you are always on your phone.

You need to observe the world around you and use observational humor because it relies less on wordplay or carefully constructed jokes and more on having an interesting perspective on the things you experience.

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Getting away from your phone will also allow you to incorporate humor into your conversations, which will definitely help you on your journey to becoming very funny.

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3. Find something funny in every situation

Try to always find the humorous side of every bad situation. This will also help develop your sense of humor.

Say, for example, you accidentally got out of the house without looking at the mirror, and somehow, you ended up at the office with your shower cap still on.

Instead of focusing on the excruciatingly embarrassing situation, think of how humorous it would be if you saw someone do the same thing, or think of what was going through other people's minds when they saw you, fully dressed, with a shower cap on.

4. Improve your language

You can't tell jokes if you don't have the language skills to help you deliver them correctly. In order to be humorous, you have to have a way with words.

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Develop your vocabulary and improve your grammar to the max.

5. Find a humor buddy

Find someone who can act as your accountability partner. Practise telling jokes with this person and watch how they respond to them. Respect their feedback as well.

6. Use specifics

Details make a story more interesting, so do not shy away from them. Use vivid descriptions when telling a comical story.

7. State the obvious

Some of the best jokes are actually just people saying what no one else dares to say, although everyone thinks it.

Most good jokes state a bitter truth. Besides, people laugh more when they strongly agree with the premise of a joke; so, the more obvious you are, the better.

How to be funny
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8. Watch comedy shows

When learning how to appear funny, one of the best things to do is to watch the pros. Try watching comedy shows and movies and watch how the actors deliver their jokes and what is so special about their gags.

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Some of the shows you could try watching include Modern Family, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and many others.

For example, if you decide to watch Friends, you will notice how Chandler uses sarcasm to become comical and how Ross' unfortunate circumstances make him the butt of the joke now and then.

9. Expose yourself

If you would like to be a stand-up comedian, for example, you need to take the risk and expose yourself. The audience may not like your jokes, but exposure is important.

Remember, we live, we learn. So take every opportunity as a chance to learn.

10. Watch a live comedy show

Watching a live comedy show is not the same as watching a TV show. For live comedy shows, you get to see how the comedian reacts to the audience's reactions, how they actually communicate with the audience, and more.

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While watching a live comedy show, take notes on how the audience reacts to a particular type of joke.

11. Act dumb and dumber

It is well known that whenever people confuse, misinterpret, or misunderstand something, it's funny.

It is also humorous when you do this on purpose, i.e., play dumb. Do not be afraid to make yourself the butt of the joke, but do this moderately. Do not do it all the time, and definitely do not do it when you are actually the butt of the joke.

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12. Always exaggerate

When you have something funny to say, the best thing you can do when delivering the joke is to exaggerate the details as much as possible until it gets ridiculous.

13. Practise telling one joke

Have a go-to joke that you have practised telling over and over. Each time, notice how the audience reacts to the joke and tweak it until it becomes perfect. Besides, doesn't practice make perfect?

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14. Practise telling one funny personal story

One of the best tips taught to people learning how to make someone laugh is to build a bank of humorous personal stories that they can tell, allowing others to laugh at their expense.

15. Use a play on words

Puns are some of the funny things to say to someone. As a rule, the worse the pun, the better.

16. Be yourself

Before you can be an excellent comedic genius, you need to learn how to be yourself and be comfortable with who you are. Do not try to imitate another person's style of delivering jokes.

17. Observe what people find funny

Comedians are good observers. Most times, the jokes that comedians create come from them observing something and then turning it into something comical.

In the same way, you need to learn what people find amusing and create jokes based on that.

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18. Laugh

You can't make other people laugh if you can't laugh yourself. Develop a good sense of humor and do not take things too seriously. If you suffer a slight misfortune, try to see the humorous side of it.

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How to be funny in text

As most communication these days happens via text, you also need to learn how to expose your sense of humor via text. Here are some ways of being funny via text:

  • Send funny memes
  • Send links to funny YouTube videos
  • Search for funny GIFs or make some on your own and send them to the person/ people you are texting
  • Take a silly picture of yourself and send it to the person. You could also add silly Snapchat filters to the photo to make it even funnier.

Hopefully, you now know how to be funny. Try our foolproof methods and tell us how it goes.

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Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Adrianna Simwa avatar

Adrianna Simwa (Lifestyle writer) Adrianna Simwa is a content writer at Legit.ng where she has worked since mid-2022. She has written for many periodicals on a variety of subjects, including news, celebrities, and lifestyle, for more than three years. She has worked for The Hoth, The Standard Group and Triple P Media. Adrianna graduated from Nairobi University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in 2020. In 2023, Simwa finished the AFP course on Digital Investigation Techniques. You can reach her through her email: adriannasimwa@gmail.com