What does a sense of humor depend on? The editors of The Village continue, with the help of experts, to answer the strangest and most unexpected questions of our time.

Why does a person need to be funny? This question can be answered in different ways. But, one way or another, any of the answers will lead us to the fact that humor is important in any area of ​​our lives, and is also highly valued by others. If a person has a sense of humor and wit, life is much easier for him than for someone who does not.

People with a poorly developed sense of humor are often rational and straightforward, which is why they often have difficulties with social adaptation and communication. For such people, even minor troubles end in stress. But if there is a sense of humor, then psychological defense mechanisms perform their functions much more effectively. Agree: how nice it would be if we could always easily perceive what is happening and find something funny in any situation? This is one of the reasons why many people want to develop a sense of humor.

Who do you think is easier to communicate with: a shy, insecure and timid guy or someone who knows how to make funny jokes in a company, laugh at themselves, amuse them, and attract the attention of the opposite sex with a cool joke? In our opinion, the answer is obvious.

The benefits of a developed sense of humor can be listed for a very long time, but we think that the two discussed are quite enough to draw certain conclusions, although we will talk about the benefits of humor later. In the meantime, let's think: is it even possible to develop a sense of humor and wit? Does a person who has never been able to joke or was generally characterized by gloom and lack of cheerfulness have a chance to change and let positivity into their consciousness? We have bad news for you - this won't happen overnight. But we also have good news - if you want, you can do this, and you don’t have to move mountains!

Of course, there is no doubt that a sense of humor is transmitted in genes. However, this is not at all a reason to give up on yourself if your ancestor was not Mikhail Zadornov or Charlie Chaplin. After a person is born, the development of a sense of humor already depends on the characteristics of the environment where he grows up, the subtleties of upbringing and other conditions. But we do not set ourselves the task of getting into the very jungle of influences that reality has on human consciousness.

We want to say that anyone at almost any age can develop a sense of humor and learn to be funny. All that is required for this is to learn the basic laws of the comic as such, and study practical information, including techniques, methods and methods for developing a sense of humor. And this information is right in front of you - in the course, the introduction to which you are now reading.

Our online course on developing a sense of humor consists of six lessons with a lot of theoretical and practical information, interesting examples and exercises, available for practical use from the first minutes of study. Plus, we have selected many examples of jokes, which will allow you to clearly see how to joke in general, what you should take into account and what you should pay attention to on your way to mastering the skill of a comedian. So don't waste your time and keep reading.

What is a sense of humor

A sense of humor

call a psychological feature of a person, which consists in identifying all kinds of contradictions in the surrounding world and their subsequent assessment from a comic point of view. It begins to manifest itself and develop already in early childhood under the influence of the environment, comic manifestations of other people, funny situations and other prerequisites. If there are no such prerequisites, a person develops a straightforward character, which can lead to many social and psychological difficulties.

Thus, we can conclude that a sense of humor allows a person to:

• It is easier to cope with difficulties, problems and difficult life circumstances
• Find common language with others faster
• Find like-minded people in society
• Don't be too serious

Interestingly, entire studies are devoted to the sense of humor. In many of them, scientists tried to measure the sense of humor of different people, and also relate it to other personality characteristics.

Assessments have been made (and continue to be made) from the perspective of psychology, sociology, linguistics, anthropology and other scientific disciplines. And among hundreds of theories of humor, there are those that say that the task of a sense of humor is to relieve tension and stress, as well as encourage the search for new interpretations of life situations. Based on these theories, all jokes are accompanied by increasing attention as they are presented and a subsequent release when the joke ends. The reason for the emergence of new interpretations is that jokes entail unexpected associations of unrelated and even conflicting circumstances.

There are also theories in which humor serves as a means of defusing aggression and negative emotions. Although in certain circles, for example, among military personnel, doctors, officials, criminals, etc. has its own, special humor, from which it follows that the sense of humor is to one degree or another subjective.

In general, a sense of humor should be understood as the ability to see the funny in situations, people, environments, stories, etc. The protective function of humor is highlighted by almost all researchers.

But let’s summarize: one of the authoritative researchers of humor, Bogdan Dzemidok, in his work “On the Comic,” focusing on the social role of humor, defines several of its main functions:

But it would not be superfluous to say about one more function of humor, which the famous German poet and playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing once spoke about:

All this is just basic information about the sense of humor, and if you go into this topic in more detail, you can collect a large amount of data looking at it from all sides and angles. If you are interested in this topic, the Internet and libraries with dozens of encyclopedias are at your service. We will continue the conversation about the practical side of using a sense of humor.

A joke is a joke, or should you watch your words?

Definitely necessary! After all, jokes sometimes concern the actions and characteristics of another person. It is important here not to touch a sore spot, not to offend. Not everyone will understand a joke about themselves, even if it is expressed in a positive way. First, you can practice on yourself, notice your comical moments and laugh about them. This will help you practice good laughter, perceive your own and other people's actions ironically, and will also give you confidence in the process of formulating quality jokes.

But you don’t need to go too far in controlling your sayings, because humorous masterpieces are born in a relaxed and confident state, so sometimes you need to give free rein to your words.

A sense of humor in practice

After all that has been said above, you probably will not argue with the fact that a sense of humor is one of the most important qualities that a person should have. But it still makes sense to say a few more words about its practical application.

First of all, I would like to point out that it allows you to very quickly win over your interlocutor, and it doesn’t matter: it’s a girl or guy you like, a potential business partner, a work colleague, or a simple plumber who disgruntledly came into the house to change the toilet.

A person who can skillfully and colorfully joke will always be distinguished by his wit and attract attention, start a company, and bring a positive attitude to society. Among other things, a sense of humor can also be attributed to the qualities of a leader and someone who will often, if not always, be listened to and his opinion taken into account.

But having a sense of humor means not only being able to joke and make witticisms, but also understanding the humor of other people, being receptive to jokes directed at oneself, having the ability to behave comically, fend off caustic remarks and save face in any tricky situation. It is also advisable to have the skill of expressing humor in writing and even in drawings - these are tangible bonuses for those who have a good tongue.

A practical sense of humor is also the ability to distinguish one form of the comic from another. For example, can you distinguish irony from sarcasm, jokes from banter, stand-up comedy from miniatures? An experienced comedian is familiar with many comic forms, genres and techniques.

As a result, in order to confidently consider yourself a witty person with a good sense of humor, you need to have a number of certain qualities.

For some, a sense of humor is a gift, but for people who work on themselves, it is just another skill that they are able to master. But this needs to be done not anyhow, not spontaneously, not chaotically, but regularly, consciously and systematically. If you have firmly decided for yourself that you want to learn how to joke and improve the quality of your sense of humor, then you are on the right path - we will tell you about everything you need to do.

Intelligence

People who constantly need to be told “where to laugh” know firsthand how difficult it is to comprehend humor. Processing humor is not for everyone and requires complex thinking and the ability to look at things from different angles. In addition, to understand humor, you simply need a penchant for abstract thinking, imagination, life experience, and therefore intelligence.

Moreover, anthropologists claim that the darker the humor, the higher the intelligence of its owner.

Few people know that black humor is used in psychology. It helps patients cope with tragic events such as illness, the death of a loved one, or discrimination.

How to learn it

There is no doubt: the ability to develop a sense of humor and use it to benefit yourself and others does not come out of nowhere. Of course, some people are great at humor and entertaining others and themselves from an early age, because heredity is heredity. Such people, by the way, very often devote their lives to humor and become professional comedians, and they don’t have to learn to be funny (although even they hone their skills and improve their skills, as they say now). The rest need to work to “catch fish out of the pond”, try, study and develop. But there is no need to perceive this process as an impassable obstacle - you can learn everything, and on your own - if you have the desire.

As with any other topic, there are two sides to developing a sense of humor:

The difficulty, however, often lies in the fact that many people, having mastered the theory, give up what they started halfway and never move on to practice. And the reason here lies not only in the individual characteristics of each person. The fact is that any training course, any training, any theoretical material should be created with a basis for subsequent practice. Otherwise, knowledge will simply gather dust on the shelves of memory, become covered with cobwebs, be pushed into far corners and will not bring any benefit.

Guided by this idea, we have developed the presented course on developing a sense of humor. We pursue two goals: the first is to provide you with high-quality material for reading and studying, and the second is to teach you how to use it in life. Therefore, each of the course lessons is distinguished by a two-way focus: they contain both theory, without which practice is simply impossible, and practice - tips, recommendations, exercises and techniques - tools for moving from words to deeds.

Leveraging the expertise of influencers

In order to learn how to joke well, you can choose an authoritative funny guy on television and repeat his jokes. If you think it smells like plagiarism, the phrase can be modified without affecting the meaning. With such imitation, you can impress others without problems, because few will know that this is not your impromptu. By repeating humorous phrases, you develop associative thinking, which is the basis for developing a sense of humor. In addition, an ironic attitude towards surrounding people, events or phenomena is formed, and this is the path to quality jokes.

Lessons in humor

We already have a lot of courses and trainings in our arsenal, and we have good experience in developing and compiling training methods. It has already become a tradition for the 4Brain team to conduct case studies, systematize the material, select the most important and interesting from a huge number of sources, adapt the received data for easy perception and quick application, and give it all a beautiful form. We did exactly the same thing now.

In the next six lessons, we will look at the most significant topics in our opinion regarding the development of a sense of humor, the most effective techniques, tips from professional comedians and easy-to-use exercises:

Lesson 1. Theories of humor and the nature of the comic

If there is a task to approach the development of a sense of humor competently and fully, it is imperative to learn about the nature of the comic, what theories of humor there are, how it is interpreted by researchers and scientists. Such knowledge forms a correct understanding of the funny and its adequate perception, and also serves as wonderful food for the mind.

In the first lesson we will tell you about the ideas of psychologists and philosophers such as Rod Martin, Thomas Hobbes, Théodule Ribot, Charles Gruner, Francois Rabelais and others. You will learn about the psychoanalytic theory of humor, the theory of arousal and comfort, the theory of superiority and humiliation, the theory of incongruity and other theories. In conclusion, we will briefly summarize the entire lesson material.

Lesson 2. Positive thinking as the basis of a sense of humor

It is difficult to call a person who is used to thinking in a negative way someone who has a good sense of humor. Due to the peculiarities of his perception, he is inclined to see in the events happening to him and the world around him mainly what causes fear, anger, resentment, hatred, a sense of injustice, etc. in him. All this suggests that the first step towards developing a sense of humor is the formation of positive thinking.

From the second lesson you will learn what the essence of positive thinking is and get acquainted with various techniques for its formation: substitution, elimination, power of thought, self-irony. We will also offer a set of practical recommendations and rules of positive thinking for every day.

Lesson 3. Types and techniques of comic

Anyone can tell a couple of jokes. However, a true humorist is a person who is able to “juggle” his sense of humor, presenting it in different forms; someone who knows how to see and identify different situations and adapt to them; someone who understands how to make a joke so that the maximum result is achieved. And you can learn all this only by knowing about the types and techniques of the comic.

After completing the third lesson, you will learn how a joke, anecdote, irony, oxymoron, satire and parody differ from each other, and you will see clear examples of each of these types. In the second part we will talk about basic techniques, and in conclusion you will be offered several exercises and recommendations for practicing skills based on the information received.

Lesson 4. Developing wit

Wit can be described as the “muscle” of the sense of humor. If she is undeveloped or even atrophied, her sense of humor will certainly be weak, but if she is strong and alive, even a couple of your words can cause an explosion of laughter and win dozens of people over to you. A sense of humor and wit are two facets of one whole, and one is impossible without the other.

The fourth lesson is divided into three parts. In the first, we will present more than a dozen recommendations for developing wit. In the second, we'll introduce five great techniques, each of which is accompanied by examples. And in the third, we’ll arm you with eight cool exercises that will help you become a real wit.

Lesson 5. What you can’t joke about and what the success of the joke depends on

The success of a joke is not always due to technique, originality, surprise or timing. An important factor is the topic on which a person jokes, because if you joke about something that is not customary to joke about, the joke will be unsuccessful, and the joker himself will most likely find himself in a very disadvantageous and unenviable position.

In Lesson 5, we'll cover the main topics that professional comedians and humorists avoid and explain why they are so. In addition, you will learn what to pay attention to when writing jokes and during the joke itself. And as a supplement, there will be excellent recommendations intended for beginning pranksters.

Lesson 6. Comic forms

In addition to the fact that there are different types and techniques of the comic, there are also many forms in which jokes are generally presented to the public. Simply put, when performing on stage with a humorous act, you won’t be able to get away with one anecdote, while a short story will work just fine in a friendly company. Likewise, it would hardly be appropriate to show an interesting skit to a friend at a bus stop, but it would be perfect for performing in public.

The sixth lesson is devoted to the forms of the comic. In it, of course, we will not consider their entire diversity, but will touch only on the most popular forms in our time. More specifically, we will present you with sketch, stand-up, miniature, humorous games and one man show. And by clicking on additional links, you can see examples of performances by artists in these forms.

Course authors:

Kirill Nogales and Evgeny Buyanov

The formula for constructing jokes in stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a show or performance in which a comedian performs original jokes on stage to make an audience laugh.

Comedy numbers follow a script. Modern stand-up comedy originated from vaudeville in the 19th century and remains a popular form of entertainment today.

Jokes usually have a structure and follow a certain formula. Comedians call a set (block) of jokes on one topic a “beat.”

Most funny jokes end unexpectedly for the audience. This is because they work best on audiences by creating an assumption and breaking that assumption when listeners least expect it.

A joke contains narrative elements such as story arc (beginning, middle, end), characters (theme), conflict (the situation or problem faced by the characters), conflict resolution (climax). A stand-up joke consists of the following three main parts.

Setup (tie)

The setup (commencement) is the informational, unfunny part of the joke. This is the beginning of the speech, where the characters, place, and situation on which the plot is built are usually described in detail.

The opening usually states some fact, sets the tone of the story, and introduces the audience. In an introduction, comedians usually build anticipation followed by a punchline.

Punchline (climax)

Punchline (climax) - revelation of the plot, denouement, the funniest parts of the joke.

A punchline usually contains an element of irony or an unexpected turn of events that makes people laugh. The punchline should be short, have an element of surprise and generate the most laughs.

In a broad sense, a punchline can also mean an unexpected, funny ending to any performance, situation, or story. Saving the best moments for last is a strategy to ensure the performance ends on a positive note.

In the final part, references to earlier fragments of the show are allowed. Longer funny stories may have other peaks of humor. “Jab Lines” are sharp, humorous lines that create comedic tension.

Tag (link)

Tag (link) - additional remarks spoken after the joke. The tag links the pieces together within the beat, allowing for smooth transitions between jokes and creating a cohesive performance.

At the end of a comedy act, the tag serves as a conclusion that is just as important as the beginning of the act. A good tag usually references earlier parts of the show and helps leave a positive impression on the audience.

Of great importance in stand-up is the style of presentation and tone of speech - gestures, expressiveness, intonation of voice, which determine the comedic rhythm and allow the audience to visualize the story for a greater reaction.

How to take classes

As already mentioned, our humor lessons are completely adapted for practical activities, and are also suitable for anyone who wants to develop a sense of humor. However, our task is to give you the base, and only you are responsible for what you do with it. We are talking about the fact that you can take at least a hundred courses and fill your head with a bunch of information, but still not do anything worthwhile in your life. Therefore, try to project everything from the area of ​​knowledge into the area of ​​​​action.

To make it more convenient for you to complete the course, break this process into several stages. You can do this - study two lessons during the week:

• One day – study of the first lesson.
• Two days – applying knowledge in practice.
• One day - rest.
• Further - according to the same scheme.

Of course, this is just an example, and you have every right to come up with your own system that is more suitable for your employment. The only thing we want to point out again is that it is important to go through the lessons very carefully and with an understanding of why you are doing it.

As for the practical component of the course (exercises, techniques, tips, recommendations, etc.), they imply not just a single repetition, but multiple repetitions - this is the only way you can fully master the material, consolidate and hone the acquired skills.

Try to develop a useful habit of reminding yourself that you are developing a sense of humor and learning to joke, then in real life you will not have any problems with experiments on this topic. With practice, the application of knowledge will become automatic, and the need for careful self-control will disappear by itself.