Is it possible to learn to be funny?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Generally, in my experience, most people are funny in proportion to their intelligence. I, however, am a very smart person, and possibly the least funny person I know. I generally don’t make any attempt at being funny, and when I do, my jokes sound obvious and repetitive, sometimes childishly so. I think it is a broader issue than just humor: I seem to be defective at all analogical or metaphorical reasoning; that is, I never think of what a thing is like, only what it is.

I suspect that this is not entirely an innate aspect of my personality, although I can only conjecture as to an alternate explanation. Perhaps it may have something to do with the amount of experience one has: having greater experience of things strengthens one’s ability to make associations among them, and humor derives from the ability to make such associations quickly and among apparently unrelated things. This would explain my lack of humor, since I’ve lived a pitiably sheltered life, accumulating masses of theoretical knowledge and absolutely no life experience. It would also explain why children, no matter how precocious they may be in adult subjects, are consistently unable to produce or understand adult humor.

Anyhow, this is tangential to the purpose of the thread. My question is, is a sense of humor innate, or can it be developed with the right methods and sufficient effort?

2

In my experience, you can learn to appreciate humor, but you can’t learn to be funny.

3

Speaking as a former professional stand-comedian:

Yes, and no. You can memorize jokes. You can learn to tell them well after much practice. But if you want to be “funny” the secret is both timing and having the ability to read your audience . It’s a subtle thing. You need to be able to tell from many different signs if you have their undevided attention and if you sense it’s wavering to bring it back to you by altering your delivery. Watch your funny friends sometimes at a party, notice how they communicate with body language and words when they are the center of attention. This applies to 5 pals sitting around a living room or 250 people in a nightcllub.

Some humor is in a clever attack on someone or something else.

Some humor is in a clever attack on yourself.

Most humor is surprise, the bon mot the clever riposte, the pratfall, all rely on surprise.

The better question is: Why do you want to be funny? What are you hoping to gain?

Have you ever been funny? What was happenning at the time? Can you recreate the situation?

On the other hand, you can always quote obscure Monty Python lines at inappropriate times, that works for some people.

4

It has to be learned. Infants can be cute, bubbly, and inadvertantly funny … but they’re never witty.

Maybe it’s better to say that it’s difficult to learn to be funny later in life the way one can learn to, say, use a computer application, or the rules to a new game.

5

I guess we’re talking about two different kinds of “funny.” You can learn what others will perceive as being funny, but if you don’t have a sense of timing, inflection, or what have you, it’s not going to come off as funny. Those things can be *polished[/i}, but I’ve never seen an unfunny person pick up those essential ingredients of humor.

6

If you can’t think funny, you can’t be funny. If you don’t crack yourself up all the time with absurdly funny stuff you thought of, or crack up other people saying those things out loud, I don’t think funny is ever going to be your bag.

You’re very good with language and spelling. Do you ever think in terms of puns, or plays-on-words? Ever make up wrong, silly words to a song? Funny is a mindset. If a person doesn’t have that as part of their, oh, for want of a better term, psychological makeup, it seems as though it would be pretty hard to just acquire. Because once you acquired it, you’d have to figure out how it works, how to use it, and how to develop it. If you haven’t done that before, how would you know where or how to start? A good place to start from is when you can make a metaphorical reasoning, without thinking, “hey, I just made a metaphorical reasoning.”

7

As I say … it’s difficult. but if one person in the history of the world ever pulled it off, it’s not impossible.

Keep in mind that “funny” is not one thing to all people. If you can amuse one person, might not that be “funny” enough? I don’t consider myself “funny” the way a talented stand-up comedian is, but there are about a dozen friends and acquaintances that I can crack up easily. A lot of it relies on shared experiences, but even so – they’re laughing.

8

I realize there are different flavors of funny and that one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. But I’ve never seen an unfunny person become funny. I suppose it’s possible. But I cannot provide a single instance of this ever happening.

9

You’ve never seen someone come out of their shell … even if only once?

People often juggle more than one personna. The person who strikes you as decidedly unfunny might be a hoot elsewhere, albeit in limited circumstances.

10

IME, a sense of humor is, at its inception, a defense mechanism. It’s a way of viewing the world when the world isn’t always going your way. It’s born of cynicism and life experience. Thus the people with the best sense of humor are not the people who’ve led the happiest and most carefree lives.

It’s why, if you ask funny/clever/witty people, even pro comedians, about where they came from, a lot of 'em will tell you they were the fat kid in school, or the nerdy guy with zits, or the child of divorce, or the ethnic minority, or the kid whose parents never cared, or the lonely girl who was singled out for ridicule by the cheerleaders, etc…

That’s, a lot of times, where a sense of humor is born.

So it’s not really something you can “cultivate,” like a hobby, IMO. You can appreciate other peoples’ humor, but it’s not like you can just “turn on” your own.

But that’s okay. Not everybody has to be funny. And there’s nothing more irritating than somebody trying to be funny who isn’t.

11

I would say no. If you could learn to be funny, Adam Sandler would surely have taken some classes by now.

12

Sure. But outgoing people aren’t necessarily funny. Anyone who carries more than one personna (that would be all of us) don’t prove that someone can learn to be funny. It just proves that they have more than one personna.

13

Excellent description. One that I’ve always liked and I am taking it from the uber-radio DJ, Dick Purtan ( Detroit ) who said, " Comedians hear differently."
Which is why there will be muffled laughter at funerals, meetings and weddings . Because for everyone 20 people trapped in a dull situation and glazed over like a sunday Ham, one listening to the speil with different ears and chuckling to themselves.

Don’t give up on being funny. But don’t take it too seriously.

Take it in baby steps.

Too little is better than overkill. Always leave your audience wanting more not looking at their watches.

Watch Spongebob and the Ripped Pants episode to get the drift.

14

Jeezuz…could I SOUND any more like an inbred toothless hick?

15

hehehehe Casey1505 :slight_smile: I agree.

I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who wasn’t funny, in one way or another.
Even our Prime-Minister, who’s a very serious putz, said some [deliberately] funny things.

The main thing, imo, is to be able to laugh at yourself. Don’t take yourself too seriously and don’t be afraid to show you can be a silly goat.

If you fall flat on your face in public, be sure to grin along with the rest. [even when it hurts]

Kalhoun: So, you think I have more than one personna? ** worried**

16

Do you have a sense of humor even though you aren’t funny yourself? If you can at least recognize that something is humorous, you can probably learn to be at least passably funny. I don’t know if any of these tips will make you funny, but they helped me to at least be funnier.

Try to make a habit of looking at things in a different way. There is so much unintentional comedy in the world, it just takes someone to point it out. Observational humor is often funny, and isn’t as embarrassing if it falls flat (unlike a scripted joke.)

Don’t take yourself seriously. Self-deprecating humor can be a riot if you’re confident and easygoing.

Become familiar with pop culture.

Take an improv class. If you don’t learn to be funny, you can at least learn to relax and be creative. It’ll help you learn timing, delivery and audience interaction.

17

Yes I do. I may be wrong (and I know I spelled it wrong) but:

**1 entry found for personae.
per·so·na ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pr-sn)
n.
pl. per·so·nas or per·so·nae (-n) A voice or character representing the speaker in a literary work.
personae The characters in a dramatic or literary work.
pl. personas The role that one assumes or displays in public or society; one’s public image or personality, as distinguished from the inner self. **

I’ve yet to meet anyone whose outward mannerisms don’t adjust, to some degree, depending on who they’re with. I’m very different with my friends than with my boss than with my husband than with my dad. Do you maintain exactly the same “personality” (for lack of a better word) around all these groups? If you do, you’re in the minority.

18

And never forget that a football to the groin is a footballball to the groin.

19

Well, let’s see… I’m near expert at accidental humor. As a younger person I would try to make people laugh only to not get the response I was not looking for. I’m the kind of person that sometimes just can’t keep my mouth shut. I’m sure you know some version of me. It was only when I was being serious and used the wrong descriptive word that seemed to make what I said evolve into a joke I started, only accidently with no premeditation.

Up until 14 or 15 I could find humor in plenty of things, but I wouldn’t laugh. I thought I had some kind of defect that something could be SO funny and I was smiling, but the laugh never came. Then one day I just made myself laugh (watching comedians on TV). I told myself it was funny and I want to laugh at things that I think are funny. If you’ve ever forced yourself to laugh, then you’re aware of how stupid and fake it sounds, but gradually it became different “real”.

Laughter is a healthy release. From my own experience, if you can appreciate humor then you can become funnier than you are now. I was never a lost cause, however I’m what one radio DJ called a “FAF personality” (farts are funny). So obviously I’m a real ladies man, huh? Heh… well, I’m married now so no worries there-I feel another dutch oven coming on, uh-ohh. I’m the love of her life I tell ya =)

I’m no great comedian but if you care about making other people laugh then you can, friends are easiest because you know them and knowing what buttons to push is real key in the whole thing. Just remember the things they laugh at and then study the situation that surrounded that laugh. If you really care about making people laugh I think you can improve up to a point.

I always knew “funny” not for everyone mind you, but lots; the rest I didn’t care about, hah! Anyway, the comedians I enjoy, I would listen to them and the stuff I thought was funny I would steal, before I could “walk on my own” I used everybody else’s “stuff” (still do) and the beauty of it is, everybody is funny!

Whether they do it on purpose or accident and if you can see it/ hear it, then you can “steal” this joke for yourself as well …what’s that U2 lyric go like… “every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief”… and if comedy’s not an art then I don’t know anything. I must admit though, it really pisses me off when “unfunny” people keep trying to make jokes; the joke just ends up being them and annoying at that.

Really though, I think anyone can become better, just no guarantees of greatness. Even if you’re stuck doing knock-knock jokes for elementry schools humor is all in perception, in fact alot things are but that’s my input on “funny”.

20

It hasn’t worked for Pauly Shore, and his mother owns a comedy club and he grew up surrounded by comedians.