How To Be Funny: 20 Tips and Ideas

Posted on July 8, 2008

How can one be funny? Is there a science to it? After lots of observation and studying humor devices, I've found that there are many common ways to be funny. I've compiled a list of 20 techniques that you can try. Experiment and see which suit your personality well.

How to be funny: 20 Tips and ideas

  • Caricature/impersonation: Exaggerating someone (sometimes a celebrity or someone well-known) and their physical traits, personality, voice, or common expressions. Saturday Night Live's impersonations of George W. Bush is one example.

  • Coining New Words: to modify or combine multiple words to make a new one (e.g. beer + gut = beergut)

  • Generalizations: a sweeping statement about a group or subculture (e.g. "Men are like creepy vultures.")

  • Hyperbole: exaggerating something for effect (e.g. "Johnny has muscles as big as Rosie O'Donnell.")

  • Insult: a boorish, straightforward insult (e.g. low-brow momma jokes such as, "Your momma is so fat, when she jump for joy, she got stuck!")

  • Ironic words: Saying something counterintuitive (e.g. "Why they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?", or something that expresses an idea completely different from the literal meaning.

  • Joke: a short story that typically ends with a funny twist.

  • Messup: Humor based on a mistake (intentional or unintentional), which makes a person look silly.

  • Nonsensical: a statement that doesn't make sense. For example, Yogi Berra often said illogical statements such as "I never said half the things I said" and "It ain't over til it's over."

  • Observational: finding the humor in realistic circumstances or details (e.g. "Did you ever notice how butlers always seem to be named 'Jeeves'?) Jerry Seinfeld was the master of this.

  • One-liner: A short quip, often with something unexpected (e.g. "There are three kinds of people in the world: people who can count, and people who can't."

  • Parody: a funny mutation of something well-known (e.g. "Amish Paradise" song instead of "Gangster's Paradise").

  • Personal story: a tale from your own experiences, perhaps an embarassing or humorous situation that you have experienced.

  • Prank: someone expects a normal situation but is assaulted by something surprising or unexpected. The humor often comes from the reaction.

  • Satire: subtle humor that appears serious at first glance, but is actually either sarcasm or something told in a ludicrous fashion.

  • Slapstick: physical humor, typically with quick horseplay and antics (e.g. hitting someone with a baseball bat).

  • Surprise Ending: a story that builds up to an expected ending, but surprises the listener with an abrupt, silly, and unexpected ending.

  • Taboo (Crude) Humor: not appropriate for some settings. This is humor based on subjects that might offend some people (e.g. flatulence, body parts, etc).

  • Understatement: making something large trivial for effect (e.g. "Bill Gates could probably afford a few items on the dollar menu.")

  • Zinger: a typically short quip that pokes fun at someone or something. (e.g. "N'Sync? More like, N'sucked.")

    • Rob Colston is a freelance author and contributor of humorous websites including Funny-Stories.net, a site that features funny stories and Group-Games.com, a collection of group games.

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