How to Develop Your Sense of Humor

Laughter is a very great thing to have in your life--it makes people feel good and can often make hard situations less stressful. Developing your sense of humor is not only good for stand-up comedians but for anyone who wants to improve their skills with people in general. In this article, I'll give tips that can help with this:

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. First, it's important to realize that there are different types of humor. Think of your favorite comedians, and often though they're all funny, they each have a different style and way of looking at situations. The point of this step is to not take developing your sense of humor to mean being someone you're not--focus on what already feels natural to you so you can strengthen it.

2. To a certain extent, you can learn some things about comedy through observation--watch a lot of movies and TV shows you find funny. What you want to look for however is how the jokes and situations are set-up. Notice the differences between improv and very structured jokes--there's a major difference on the kind preparation that goes making each type of comedy work well.

3. Life can be very funny, and truth can be stranger than fiction. Keep a notebook with you whenever possible so that way you can write down funny life events before you forget them. This is a great source of material for any writer, and it comes in handy for keeping a conversation interesting. Keeping a journal or blog can help as well, and a lot of humor comes from your own unique filter or perspective of events.

4. Finally, you can really develop your humor by putting it into practice--and you don't have to get up on stage to do it. Keep an inventory of funny stories and situations in your mind so when the time comes up when it's relevant to mention it, you seem like you've brought it up on-the-spot. If you're in an educational position (that includes having to get up in front of the class for school reports) adding humor to your reading or presentation can make it more entertaining.

Tips & Warnings

• Like a lot of things in life, what you put in your brain determines a lot on what you get out of it. Reading funny books and comics, watching funny movies and TV shows, and hanging out with people who have a good sense of humor will impact you in a positive way.
• Don't try to force yourself to be funny--people can usually detect that something isn't right from your tone or body languages.

Resources

• More eHow Articles by Cougar1002
• Cougar1002's Article Blog and Portfolio

[hoolihan0519]

on 1/14/2009 Very good article. Funny is as funny does. More people need to lighten up and take life less seriously. Makes for a much less stressful life. RCR.