Remember the famous children's fairy tale about Cinderella? So, there is news! The carriage turned into a pumpkin at midnight! Cinderella, however, didn’t care anymore, because by that moment she was having a lot of fun with the Prince, but the tow truck driver was specifically surprised...
If this continuation of the fairy tale is also surprising for you, then you should read this article to the end. And also take our courses on “Storytelling” and “Modern Rhetoric”, where you will learn to write and tell stand-ups, comic miniatures and just jokes with expression.
Do you think this cannot be learned? In fact, it is possible, like many other things in this life. This will naturally require some effort, but you should start by understanding the basis and structure of any joke. This is why we need to understand what a setup and punchline are.
Setup: what is it?
The word “setup” is borrowed from English, where set up means “install” or “configure.” Thus, a setup is like setting up a system. The word has many shades of meaning in relation to different areas - computer technology, electronics, IT technology. But, since we started talking about humor, we will limit ourselves to understanding the term in relation to this area.
In a nutshell, the setup is the beginning of the joke or the premise for it. In the Cinderella joke example above, the setup is a succinct reminder to readers of the story's plot. Without it, the actual joke about the tow truck will be incomprehensible.
Great Russian language
The surprise effect can be created in another way. The Russian language is replete with many synonyms (words denoting the same concept). Therefore, when considering various options for how to write a joke, you can use this feature.
Readers probably remember an episode from the famous Soviet film “Gentlemen of Fortune,” where Yevgeny Leonov’s hero teaches bandits to replace obscene words with literary analogues that sound strange from their lips. This is a great example of how to come up with a joke using various expressive means of the Russian language.
Punchline: what is it?
The word "punchline" is also of English origin. In English there is the word pun, which means a pun, the word punch, used in the meanings of “to hit”, “punch”, “punch”, and the word line, most often translated as “line” or “string”.
Thus, punchline should be understood as a shock line or the actual joke for which the setup was conceived. You can also find such a translation of the word punchline as “zest”, which is also correct. The punchline is where the crux of the joke lies.
So, the punchline is the second part of the structure that makes up humor as such. Punchline complements the setup and gives it an unexpected meaning, making viewers and listeners who were unaware of the possibility of such a turn of events laugh a second ago. In the Cinderella joke, the role of the punchline was played by a tow truck.
Where is setup and punchline used?
The setup and punchline are the basis of the joke, even if we joked without thinking. If we responded funny to a colleague’s comment, it means that the colleague’s comment acted as a setup, and our response acted as a punchline. If you funny commented on the director’s next crazy order, then the director’s order was the setup, and your comment was the punchline.
In relation to humorous shows and programs of the corresponding focus - KVN, "Evening Urgant", Comedy Club - the authorship of the setup and punchline is usually the same, and a whole team of authors and screenwriters works on the degree of fun expected from the joke.
It happens that the author writes for himself and performs in stand-up format. For example, like Pavel Volya from the Comedy Club or Valery Zhidkov, aka “Tambov Wolf” from the 95th quarter.
This is exactly how authors are involved in writing scripts for humorous films and theatrical performances. And if in a television comedy show improvisation is quite possible, and in KVN there is even a special competition “Warm-up”, built exclusively on improvisation, then in cinema and theater all jokes are written in advance. And they are built according to the same formula:
Setup + Punchline = Joke
It turns out that if you master this formula, you can become a professional comedian? Yes and no. What matters is how well you have mastered this formula. In the end, everyone also studies mathematics and formulas from physics at school, and only a few become great mathematicians or at least candidates of physical and mathematical sciences.
However, anyone can try themselves as a writer and inventor of jokes. And we will try to explain how to create the setup and punchline of a joke. Let's start with the setup.
Competent presentation
Now attention! In order to convey a funny story well to the listener, it is important to present it correctly using a special formula:
Setup (installation from English) + Punchline (shock wave from English) + Relevance coefficient
Now let's take a closer look.
The setup is the beginning of a joke that intrigues the listener. This part should be said in a normal voice, as if narrating.
Punchline is a blow with the second part of a joke in such a way as to “finish off” the listener with laughter. This part is presented as emotionally and expressively as possible.
Relevance factor – it is important to take into account the current interests of the public. “Soaked” situations are no longer interesting to anyone. You need to keep your finger on the pulse and take new events and stories for jokes. There is also a subtext of immorality here. If your humor is immoral for the company, no one will laugh at it. He will be perceived negatively, and they will bypass you and look askance.
It is also important to evaluate the intrigue of the group. If they don’t listen to you, then don’t try to joke - this can play a bad joke on you: your idea will either be stolen, or you will no longer be perceived as a person who knows how to joke. It is important to be creative here to remain respected in the group. It helps you gauge the relevance factor and people's attention to your jokes.
For clarity, let’s analyze the joke according to the described structure, starting with the relevance coefficient. There are a lot of memes on the Internet that you can use to make jokes for stand-up comedy or a blog. The topic, for example, about diseases will be relevant. So: two doctors are talking:
– Maybe we can check it again, I feel sorry for the guy?!
- Yes, they’ve already checked it 10 times, tell him somehow gently, with understanding. (this is a setup that should be pronounced softly, in a normal voice, you can add a little drama)
– I’m very sorry, but we cannot extend your sick leave! (this is a “shock wave”, after which laughter should follow. Whether there will be laughter or not depends on the coefficient of relevance, intrigue and your emotions during the speech).
Science as a source for setup
A setup delivered outside a specialized comedy show often does not foretell anything funny at all. Moreover, it is a common technique to take a serious scientific recommendation and come up with a funny ending for it. To understand how a “scientific” setup is formed, we will provide examples. The most fertile soil is examples from psychology.
Example 1:
If you are angry or irritated, psychologists advise doing physical labor. Let's say we start cleaning the windows. And it doesn’t matter what the rest of the bus passengers think about it.
It seems that by now you yourself have already understood that the setup here was a recommendation from psychologists, and the punchline was a deception of traditional perception and a banal continuation of the idea that windows should be washed exclusively at home.
Example 2:
At an appointment with a psychologist:
– Imagine that happiness is when a 3D printer...
– Do you mean I have to create it myself?
“I mean, most people don’t have it, and never will.”
Here, too, the traditional expectation of banality and variations on the theme “man is the architect of his own happiness,” etc. is played out. Moreover, most psychologists base their recommendations on this, generously diluting them with examples from science and practice. Failure to expect is precisely what makes an initially promising dialogue funny.
Example 3:
A dog can learn about 250 signs and words and can count to 5, which is the developmental level of a 2-year-old child. The cat reacts exclusively to the sounds of the refrigerator being opened and dry food being poured into a bowl, which corresponds to the intelligence of a 45-year-old civil servant.
The comparability of the level of development of a dog and a 2-year-old child is a scientifically proven fact [Science 21st century, 2009]. Cats, perhaps, could also master all of the above, but they don’t want to, so from the outside their behavior looks as described in the punchline. Let's hope the cats won't be offended by the comparison with 45-year-old civil servants.
Theory of funny jokes: basic course
Laughter theory isn't the funniest thing unless the researcher gives examples. While some scientists are digging into the laughing brain, showing stand-up comedy, tickling mice and inviting clowns for IVF, others are analyzing jokes and trying to build a general concept: what makes a joke funny. Even Freud writes about the techniques of wit. He is trying to derive the universal rules of humor: intensification, work with verbal material, ambiguity...
There are three main theories of laughter—that is, theories about why jokes are funny. The theory of non-conformity to expectations is, simply put, “unexpected”. Superiority theory, which goes back to Aristotle through Hobbes - it suggests that we laugh in schadenfreude because we are awesome compared to others or us before. The experiential theory says: a person relieves psychological stress when he laughs.
The first explains the “why” rather than the “why”, so upon closer examination it will help construct funny jokes. Or at least unfunny.
Viktor Raskin's semantic theory of humor is related to the theory of non-conformity to expectations. He believes that a text can be characterized as a joke when two conditions are met: the text combines two different scenarios and contexts; these two contexts are in a certain sense opposite or opposed.
As a text that falls under two conditions and is therefore a bomb joke, Victor Raskin tells the joke: “Is the doctor home? - whispered the patient with a sore throat. The doctor’s young wife whispers in response: “No. Come in."
Another researcher, Tom Veatch, elaborates on Ruskin's theory. From his point of view, humor contains two semantically incompatible elements: one is socially normal, the other represents a violation of the order as we perceive it - the laws of nature, society and morality.
Veatch quotes this joke: “Mommy, mommy, what is a delinquent? “Shut up and hand me the crowbar!”
The “subjective moral order,” which assumes that the mother explains to her son at the first cry what is good and what is bad, is violated. The listener chuckles. True, not loudly.
By the way, the “subjective moral order” can also be of a linguistic nature, when words turn out to be not what they seem. For example: “Stirlitz was walking through the forest and came across a branch. “You should go home, girls,” he said, “there is a war after all.”
Let us especially note: jokes are based on the violation of order as we perceive it. This leads to two rules for why, in theory, your jokes fail:
- Your joke violates some order that the listener does not know or is not aware of. If the left part of the frontal lobe still understands, at the very least, that this is a joke, then the right part does not understand what to laugh at. Example: “Argon walks into a bar and orders beer. Bartender: “We don’t serve inert gases.” Argon doesn't react."
- Your joke disrupts an order that the listener does not consider order. Seriously, we might give our lives for your right to joke about anything, but we didn’t sign up to laugh at this crap. Example: “The old ladies on the bench: “Lucky Ivanova!” Husband, lover! And yesterday they raped me!’”
As writer Alvin White said, “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested, but the frog dies from this.” Nevertheless, we are proud to present to you:
Disclaimer: A sober audience is a relative contraindication for using this guide. Choose a dispassionate delivery style or free your right hand to use it as a gesturing tool. If used successfully, bitches of any gender will climb on you themselves. Let the orgy begin!
Combine vivid fact with exuberant detail.
Choose details that are absurd or, conversely, exaggerated. It is better to place a striking fact at the beginning or first third of the joke.
«
Once my sister was bitten by a moose. At this time, she was scratching her initials on the elk with the end of a toothbrush, which her brother-in-law, a dentist from Sweden, gave her.”
— Monty Python
“Don't open the door to your hidden potential! You won't like it. All that will be there is a small, mangy gray cat with diarrhea, sitting on a mattress with springs sticking out. With bulging eyes. Meowing at you. MEOW. And he probably smokes.”
— Dylan Moran
Make your points paradoxical
The paradox can be based on the meaning of the thesis, the meaning of individual words, or the outrageous contradiction of your words to everything we love and believe.
«
What if I lose my job? I hate my ******** [damn] job, but what if I lose it?”
— Dylan Moran
“Stop being a fagot and suck that f*** [dick]!”
—Louis C.K.
“I told my niece that every time she loses, the angel gets AIDS. And guess what? She wins!
— Sarah Silverman
Work with styling
Describe the fight in the spirit of biblical myths, and getting a doctorate in the terminology of courtyard gopniks.
«
Then Saint Atilla raised a hand grenade in his hand and exclaimed: “Bless, Lord, your hand grenade, with which You can, in Your mercy, smash Your enemies into small pieces.”
— Monty Python
“You are a wolf. I despise you. You are leaving me for your lover. You are leaving me for Ptiburdukov. Today you, vile one, are leaving me for the insignificant Ptiburdukov. So this is who you are leaving me for! You want to indulge in lust with him. The she-wolf is old and disgusting at that!”
Fairy tales and parables as a source for setup
We started this article by recalling the fairy tale about Cinderella. However, this is not the only example when a fairy tale, parable or oral folk art becomes the basis for a setup.
Example 1:
Everyone remembers the parable about two frogs who fell into a jug of milk, when one drowned, and the second whipped the milk into butter and got out. And few people expect an ending like “thank you, I’d rather go to another dairy store.”
Indeed, the degree of appropriateness of a parable varies greatly depending on the context and location of the event. And the conclusions that can be drawn from the situation, too. Here the setup is a parable about frogs, the punchline is the buyer’s response.
Example 2:
Everyone remembers the fairy tale about Ivan Tsarevich and his author’s method of meeting girls - an arrow shot into space. And you need to have good ingenuity to draw analogies with contacting technical support for most telecommunications companies.
Here the example is a little more complicated. The setup is not fully voiced, as in previous examples, but rather implied. After the words “Hello, Ivan Tsarevich,” it is already clear to everyone who the main character of the plot is. The punchline in this case is a development of the analogy with the technical support service.
Example 3:
Hush, Little Baby, Do not Say a Word,
Don't lie on the edge...
But, come on, lie down...
Why am I interfering in your life?
This Russian folk lullaby is known to everyone, young and old. However, it can also be modernized by playing on the eternal desire of children to escape from care and the hyper-adherence of some people to various newfangled methods in psychology.
April 1st jokes for girls
Do you want to cheer up a girl? Jokes for April 1 will help you cope with the task. It’s not always possible to successfully convey the essence of a joke in words, but SMS is quite suitable:
***
Honey, I’m at a bar with friends, finishing my last glass of beer. I'll be home in half an hour. If I'm not there yet, read the message again.
***
Listen, what are you doing tonight? Don't think bad! And if you think about it, what do you think of this idea?
***
They called me and said that the most beautiful girl was wanted, but I didn’t give you away.
Playing an original prank on your loved one on April 1 is a mandatory event. Moreover, in 2021, smartphone applications will help cope with the task. Here are some interesting prank ideas:
- Delight your girl with the news that she's on the cover of Playboy. Special applications for smartphones allow you to create the name of a non-existent publication and substitute a friend’s photo. She will 100% like it.
- Does the girl like sweets? Then prepare a special treat for her. Buy sandwich cookies, carefully separate the halves and replace the cream with toothpaste. Invite your loved one to eat it.
- Make or order a small balloon cake. Cover it with whipped cream and invite the girl to try the treat.
- Pour dry baby formula into a cardboard box of washing powder. During breakfast, go into the kitchen and start using a spoon to consume the contents in the pack. The girl will be shocked.
News as a source for setup
News broadcasts are truly an inexhaustible source of inspiration for humor and jokes. Our reality is that you can beat almost any news.
Example 1:
– Teachers will be the first to receive the domestic coronavirus vaccine.
“They’ll know how to get students to get good grades for money.” And then they will go to work in laboratories and develop a vaccine.
Example 2:
– They want to appoint Chubais as the head of Arctic projects.
- And rightly so! Why do we need this Arctic?..
Example 3:
– New domestically produced cars are completely environmentally friendly.
- Yes! They completely rot in 3 years.
Example 4:
At a meeting with the head of VTB Kostin, the President said that “we are in difficult times now.” Kostin did not understand at all why he was having difficult times now, but out of politeness he decided to agree.
Example 5:
“They bought all the buckwheat in the stores.” Why do people buy buckwheat?
– Well, because rice is from China (the birthplace of Covid), and pasta is from Italy (the most powerful outbreak of Covid).
Example 6:
– During the quarantine period, all sports competitions will be prohibited.
– But fencing might not be banned! There are masks, there are gloves, and if anyone breaks social distance, you can pierce them with a sword.
Example 7:
– The Sultan of Brunei, who participated in the show “Bachelor,” could not make his choice.
– Did you buy it in bulk?..
As for the latter, we are not sure that it was news, but what is stopping you from coming up with news that looks like the truth and making a joke out of it?
Historical facts as a source for setup
In the same way, you can take any historical fact as the basis for a joke and come up with an unexpected continuation to it.
Example 1:
On April 5, 1242, the famous Battle of the Ice took place. Immediately after the end, Alexander Nevsky sent his charges to catch fish for lunch, especially since the ice of Lake Peipsi was already in the holes.
- It doesn’t bite! “They fed us too much in the morning,” the soldiers who returned without a catch complained to the commander.
Perhaps such humor may seem dark to some, but it doesn’t even take too much imagination to figure out how to use the holes in winter.
Example 2:
On August 27, 1760, Empress Elizabeth issued a Decree according to which civil servants were prohibited from taking bribes. 2021 marked the anniversary of the Decree, and I really want to know when it will come into force.
It seems that many Decrees from past centuries can be played out this way, so the field for setups is generally unplowed. In any case, the setup will be a historical fact, and you just have to come up with a funny continuation, i.e. punchline.
Formula: How to make something funny out of something unfunny
How to develop a sense of humor is one thing, but where to find funny topics is something completely different. You will have to introduce into your life the habit of observing and analyzing what is happening, using your imagination and writing jokes as often as possible.
Where do you get themes to create something funny?
Have you noticed that humor often comes out of unfunny topics or events? With a little ingenuity, you can find it in almost everything.
When searching for topics, consider the following points:
- something that is happening somehow wrong;
- things or people that irritate you;
- current events;
- historical events;
- things that you don’t understand and misunderstandings between people.
What's in your setup doesn't have to be funny. To create a convincing punchline, you need to take a serious situation and direct it in the right direction.
Remember this important rule! Your setups don't have to be funny. They just serve as a springboard for punchlines. I'm writing this because I've noticed that many new comedians struggle to make their setups funny. But you shouldn't do this.
How to come up with a punchline?
We have come to the most difficult part - the punchline, i.e. what makes a joke a joke. With all the variety of humor, there are not so many basic methods for making funny jokes.
Basic methods for creating jokes:
- Deformation of the phenomenon - exaggeration of the significance of small things, downplaying the significance of the important (usually black humor), bringing to the fore minor details.
- Bringing a phenomenon to the extreme degree of absurdity.
- Exchange of characteristics or assigning positive qualities to a negative and negative characteristics to a positive.
- Substitution of concepts or use of ambiguity in statements.
- Use of the banal and obvious with confirmation of banality and obviousness.
- A game based on the lack of logic, the relationship between facts and events.
- Playing on various associations, similar characteristics, words with several meanings.
Of course, you can come across a lot of other ways to create a joke, but most of the expanded options, one way or another, overlap with the above-mentioned ways to generate humor. Let's look at some options in more detail.
Why be able to joke?
At first glance, it seems that a sense of humor is not a necessary skill in everyday life. It is enough to be purposeful, responsive, have a broad outlook, and life will improve on its own.
This opinion is easily refuted: a person presents a sad spectacle without a sense of humor. This is especially true for men who cannot carry on a conversation with a lady, but at the same time have a strange touch of humor.
Let's figure out why it's so important to be able to joke correctly:
- The life of every person is so monotonous that fleeting jokes allow you to forget about pressing problems and feel carefree.
- When communicating with a girl, it is extremely important for a man to joke skillfully: this way you can brighten up awkward pauses in the conversation.
- People who know how to humor are accepted in society much faster.
- boring girls either: it is not at all necessary to specifically develop this trait; it will be enough to treat your own life with a positive attitude.
Another indisputable fact is that laughter prolongs life. Therefore, the development of this quality is necessary in order to have fun communicating with friends, girls, boys, parents and children.
Many more people are drawn to a person with humor than to a boring person.
The situation of the absurd as the basis of a punchline
The absurd is already funny in itself, so it will take a minimum of effort to turn an absurd situation into a complete joke.
Example 1:
The hawk grabbed and carried away the dachshund, the hunter killed the hawk with a shot, the hawk fell, the dachshund continued to fly. She probably didn’t hear the shot...
In this example, we see that it does not matter whether the absurd situation is real or fictitious. Both can be funny.
Example 2:
– Is there a herbalist on the plane?
- And what happened?
– It’s bad for the homeopath here.
The degree of people's trust in herbal therapists and homeopaths is approximately equally low. Therefore, it is easy to bring the situation to the point of absurdity by imagining that herbalists are ready to trust only homeopaths. It is possible and vice versa, in this case it is not important.
Example 3:
– Please advise which phone to take: Samsung S20 or iPhone 12? Just hurry up, otherwise the alarm went off.
It is clear that the robber will not be consulted at the crime scene about what exactly to take. And for the setup, you can take an ordinary everyday situation, when people are consulting about an upcoming purchase.
National mentality
Numerous jokes about communication between representatives of different nationalities are based on the same principle (unique thinking). For example: a Chukchi is asked why he bought himself a refrigerator, because in his homeland it is already very cold in winter. A resident of the Far North answers: “It’s -50 degrees outside. The refrigerator is ten degrees below zero. The Chukchi will bask in it.
Substitution of concepts or use of ambiguity of statements as the basis of a punchline
The substitution of concepts can be done artificially, or you can take advantage, for example, of someone’s inability to clearly formulate thoughts. The result will be funny in both cases.
Example 1:
– The child does not want to eat meat. What can replace it?
- A dog! The dog always wants to eat meat!
Here the uncertainty of referring the word “him” to a child or to meat is played on. Of course, such dialogues are usually full of concern for children. However, if children are tired of their “I want - I don’t want”, you can consider other options.
Example 2:
The most correct name for baked milk is “Mumu”.
The polysemy and variability of the word “melted” is used here. If it is understood not as a heat treatment technology, but as a derivative of the word “drowned,” everything falls into place, because everyone has read about the dog “Mumu” drowned by Gerasim.
Example 3:
Only forget-me-nots should be placed on Alzheimer's grave.
This is not only a substitution of concepts, but also a play on words. Alzheimer's disease suggests memory problems, and forget-me-not flowers carry the message “don't forget” in their name.
Example 4:
She was so hot that she warmed him up by 10 thousand dollars.
The word “hot” has many meanings, from temperature characteristics to temperament. The word “heated” also has several meanings: from heating food to deception and fraud. If you combine two ambiguous words, it can also turn out funny.
Example 5:
An elderly employee asks his young boss to leave work early because... is going to go for electrophoresis. The boss replies that, “of course, go ahead, but, actually, their last album is so-so.”
It's something like a generational conflict. For older people, electrophoresis is a medical procedure; for young people, it’s a synth-pop band (you can listen to it here).
Alternatively, you can search for similar words and get a new joke. For example, the quarantine folk tale “Sister Udalenushka and Brother Divanushka.”
Tip #1 for writing jokes: Unexpected list item
An unexpected list item is one of the most popular and effective techniques aimed at hiding the punchline through misdirection.
You list the main reasons for a certain result.
This pattern of joke construction is an easy way to get the listener to make a certain assumption about something because they think the list will continue.
What do you think is the least number of times needed to fix the model in your mind? That's right - two. Two repetitions form a pattern in the mind and create the expected perception, while the third beat shatters them. This is a classic joke structure.
Be sure to pick up this three beat because it's one of the easiest ways to come up with a quick and easy joke on the fly.
Using the banal and obvious as the basis of a punchline
The use of the banal and obvious with confirmation of the banality and obviousness can be no less funny than the substitution of concepts. Confirming banality and self-evidence when everyone is tuned in to hear something unusual is also an art.
Example 1:
– Why did you become a doctor?
– Well, I didn’t have much choice, I graduated from medical university.
Example 2:
- Dad, did our hedgehog die of old age?
- Of course, if I were young, then I would definitely run away from KAMAZ.
If you want, you can fill a whole carload of such platitudes, so we won’t dwell for long. Let's move on!
Irony
This technique can also be used, including when writing jokes for a company. It always involves some kind of inconsistency. For example, one of Mikhail Zadornov’s crowning numbers was the following. The satirist analyzed the lyrics of popular songs. The irony here is that the words of these works of art are studied along with high poetry. You can do the same thing with friends.
Irony is sometimes found in short everyday jokes. For example, seeing a neighbor dressed in a formal suit, you can say: “Yes, I see you are going to the gym.”
Playing on associations as the basis of a punchline
Playing on any similarity, real or imaginary, associations, real or caused by unhealthy fantasy, is also an inexhaustible source of jokes.
Example 1:
– Excuse me, but is the film “The Hateful Eight” about AvtoVAZ or about Baltika beer?
- This is about Windows...
Here the mass associations of the word “eight” with various objects and phenomena are played out. Therefore, even when offered a choice of two options, you can find a third, even funnier one. By the way, the film “The Hateful Eight” actually exists and was released in 2015. You can view it here.
Example 2:
– His whole life is like this: chemistry-camp, chemistry-camp.
– Is he a repeat offender?!
- No, he’s a chemistry teacher! And in the summer he goes as a counselor to a children's camp.
Here, many may need clarification. “Chemistry” for many years was the name of a colony-settlement for criminals who committed unintentional offenses (for example, a car accident) or received positive characteristics while serving their main sentence.
Example 3:
In his will, the taxi driver asked not to slam the lid.
This is an example of a punchline without a setup. More precisely, the setup is already “built in” into the punchline. Everyone who has ever taken a taxi to the airport knows that taxi drivers don’t like it when they slam the trunk lid. Considering the size of the country, there are many such people. Since the coffin also closes with a lid, we can only assume that the taxi driver will not want to hear the bang even through eternal sleep.
And now the most important question: how to learn to joke funny? How to make a high-quality setup and punchline become inseparable, like Beavis and Butt-head from the humorous animated series of the same name in the 90s? Humor, of course, is not for everybody, but it also has a right to life. Episode 1 of Season 1 is here. Another famous example of American humor from the 90s is the detective series Sledge Hammer. Season 1, episode 1 here.
About the health benefits of Laughter:
Why is it useful to learn to joke? American scientists have concluded that laughter has a positive effect on various parts of the human body. Researchers from Stanford University have proven for the first time that laughter stimulates certain parts of the brain, which begins to produce so-called “pleasure hormones” - endorphins. According to scientists, laughter is good for the facial muscles, since when smiling, a person uses 15 facial muscles, to which blood flow increases.
As you know, during strong, prolonged laughter, tears are released from the eyes. Thus, scientists believe, internal tension decreases and a person can get out of a state of depression. Doctors note that tears caused by crying have the same effect on people.
In addition, researchers have concluded that laughter can significantly strengthen the immune system. Their findings are based on the results of testing the saliva of hospital patients: it turned out that after laughing, patients' saliva contained much more germ-fighting substances than in the normal state.
Laughter is also important for the heart. The lungs of a laughing person process much more air than usual, enriching the blood with oxygen needed by the heart. At the same time, the blood vessels expand, which is why the internal organs are enriched with useful substances.
Recently, a theory has also been proven that laughter has a pain-relieving effect. It turned out that after watching comedies, people significantly lose sensitivity to pain for some time.
Ways to develop a sense of humor
Some may be surprised, but the methods of developing a sense of humor are similar to the methods of developing intelligence as such. In other words, to make funny jokes, you need a developed brain. We can only advise how to sharpen the intellect specifically for generating jokes.
How to develop a sense of humor:
- Be observant, learn to notice little things and minor details.
- It’s better to read news and jokes right after each other.
- Watch humorous programs (KVN, “Evening Urgant”, “95th Quarter” and others).
- Develop logical and abstract thinking.
- Once a day, select synonyms and antonyms for a word.
- Once a day, choose a word and think about what associations it evokes.
- Try to explain the meaning of the word using synonyms and associations.
- Regularly come up with non-trivial options for using ordinary objects (meat grinder, newspaper, computer, fork, etc.)
- Read authors who became famous for their sense of humor (Anton Chekhov, Sergei Dovlatov, Igor Guberman).
Of course, there are many more authors from whom one could learn wit. We chose only those whose work is almost entirely based on humor: Chekhov, Dovlatov, Huberman. For a better understanding of how to come up with something funny, it’s worth reading the work “Forms, means and techniques for creating the comic in literature”, where the techniques and methods you need are discussed [E. Safonova, 2013].
In addition, there are special materials devoted to developing a sense of humor and ways to do this. The work is called: “How funny is it to joke?” [D. Shekebaev, 2016].
And in order for the jokes you come up with to always be on time, in place and sound convincing, you should master stand-up as a genre of stage performance. It's worth doing even if you're not going to the big stage. Why should the average person learn stand-up skills? There are several reasons for this.
Why do you need stand-up speaking skills?
- Developing the interaction between the right and left hemispheres of the brain - you will learn how to both analyze information to generate jokes and format them in a creative format.
- Developing your voice, speech and public speaking skills - even if you practice with just a small circle of friends, it will be great training and will make you ready to take on more difficult challenges if required.
- Excellent training and preparation for professions that require publicity - as you know, the best impromptu is the one that is well prepared, and having prepared a couple of hundred jokes for a dozen stand-ups, you will be ready for almost any situation.
- Developing observation and intelligence - the main topics for jokes are quite monotonous, and finding new nuances in their presentation will be an excellent training for the intellect.
- The opportunity to receive feedback and an energy charge from listeners - it has long been known that you can only receive energy when you begin to give. By giving even a small circle of viewers a few minutes of good mood, you will receive a huge boost of energy.
- Improvisation Skills – Rarely does a live performance go entirely according to a pre-planned plan. So making it up as you go is something you'll be forced to learn pretty quickly.
- Developing a sense of humor - the more jokes you come up with, the more often you find yourself in situations that require improvisation, the faster you will develop a sense of humor and the closer you will become to the level of a professional author and screenwriter.
In general, if you are interested in how to develop a sense of humor, learn how to improvise, practice public speaking skills and feel confident in any situation, you should learn how to joke and master stand-up comedy.
What is the phenomenon of humor?
There is an opinion that a sense of humor is given by nature and cannot be learned. But any normal person, if desired, can learn to draw or play musical instruments. Also with a sense of humor: it needs to be developed. How to learn a sense of humor?
Humor is an important phenomenon in our personal and professional lives. It helps to find solutions, overcome communication difficulties, and maintain mental health during times of stress. Laughter caused by a good joke brings people together, promotes trust and even harmonizes conflicts in relationships. At the same time, humor in all its forms (sarcastic, witty, ironic, satirical, black, cynical) is complex and developed, like a language.
A sense of humor is both personal and personal, but it is also something that connects us to others like nothing else. A woman or girl is delighted with a man who is fun to be with when he can make a cool joke. A man prefers a woman who laughs at his jokes.
It is common knowledge that popular requests on dating sites are to find potential partners with a sense of humor. The fact that women laugh more than men suggests that some instinct is involved. But whatever the roots of this feminine instinct, it works - men find women attractive when they laugh. Perhaps this is because laughter unconsciously signals interest and pleasure.
On the one hand, the purpose of humor is biological (as a way to find a partner), but it can also be an indicator of emotional intelligence. In fact, evolutionary psychology suggests that a sense of humor reflects a person's intelligence.
Most would probably agree that those with a good sense of humor tend to be creative and cognitive people. They are able to look at life through a different lens and can appreciate its irony and absurdity. A good sense of humor has been proven to have many social benefits, so it's worth it.
How to learn to joke well - the main characteristics of humor:
- View from the outside. Humor leads to observation of the world, of one's words and actions. We can laugh at ourselves, at others, at the situation if we are capable of some form of detachment. And that's okay. Much of humor comes from awareness, and if you are willing to be open-minded to correctly perceive what is around us, you can turn it into something funny.
In many cases, humor can be an outlet to overcome unbearable moments. Then they talk about the “politeness of despair” - to laugh so as not to cry, as the French comedian Pierre Desproges, a cancer patient, was able to joke about cancer on stage.
- Complicity. Humor cannot exist without it, that is, without sharing a common belief system. This does not mean that the interlocutors know each other, but their communication implies a minimum of common knowledge and values. To plunge into the world of fun together, you need a common desire to laugh together, to share a moment of humorous pleasure. If there is no complicity or the company is too serious, the joke will fail and will not be understood.
- Inconsistency. The main driving force of humor, which means the simultaneous or very close in time presence of elements that are incompatible or contradictory to each other. Laughter or smiling is caused by this conflict - between what we expected and what we encountered. The humorous effect works better if there is an element of surprise.
- The boundaries of humor. Some comedians believe there are limits to what can be witty jokes, while others say if we value freedom of speech, no topic should be taboo.
Yes, what society considered acceptable just a few years ago—homophobic, racist, sexist, macho jokes—is no longer acceptable. As the late Pierre Desproges said: “We can laugh at everyone, but not at anyone.” Humor can be reclassified as harassment with appropriate penalties. In the US, there is already extensive case law regarding violations of the law (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).
Stand-up: how to learn
You can start mastering stand-up as a genre in parallel with working on your sense of humor. If you don’t have your own jokes yet, you can practice someone else’s. How to learn stand-up? You can do this yourself!
How to learn stand-up:
- Learn the text of the joke by heart.
- Choose a place where no one will disturb you for at least a couple of minutes.
- Turn on your phone's video camera to record.
- Stand up straight, don't slouch, don't look at your feet.
- Say the joke text with pace and expression.
- Highlight the stressed word (the place where you laugh) with intonation.
- Lightly stretch the stressed vowel in the last word of the joke.
- Review the recorded video with a dose of self-irony and self-criticism.
- Note the mistakes made (posture, gaze, intonation, pace of speech).
- Correct them in the next take.
By the way, you can work on intonation by studying a special lesson “Intonation” as part of the course “Voice and Speech Development”. If you prefer a career as a screenwriter and would like to offer your services to the leading TV shows in the country, you should know the principles by which humorous shows are built.
April 1st jokes for parents
The second month of spring begins with a cheerful holiday, which falls on April 1st. How to joke with your parents and set a good mood for the whole day?
It is important that the pranks are harmless and fun. Prepare jokes in advance from April 1st. SMS will help deliver them to the recipient:
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The transfer of money from your bank card to the account of Shelter for Homeless Raccoons LLC has been successfully completed. Thank you for your humanity!
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Dear subscriber, your phone is blocked due to the squandering of state secrets on our network.
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Dear subscribers! Free SMS sending of works by classics of world literature begins. Volume 1 of L. Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is being prepared for release. The cost of canceling the service is $1.
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Please stay at home from 6 am to 8 pm today. There will be bedbugs in your apartment!
In addition to SMS messages, you can play a fun prank on your parents:
- On the night of April 1, wait until your parents are fast asleep. Using large stitches, sew their duvet cover to the sheet. Early in the morning, run into the room and loudly shout “Fire!” (or other emergency word). Enjoy the show!
- Get up early in the morning and cover the toothpaste hole with cling film. Trim off the excess and cap the paste. Watch with interest as parents try to brush their teeth.
- Do your parents have a great sense of humor? Then at night, paint dad's toenails with a bright polish. Hide the nail polish remover and watch your father get ready for work.
How to Write a Humor Script
Due to the fact that our domestic television largely borrows the traditions of Western TV shows, there is a reason to immediately turn to the source and see how humorous scripts are prepared in the West. The sources for the setup are similar in all countries of the world, so we will focus on the punchline, because it is the “highlight” of the scenario.
Types of scenarios in Western terminology:
- Escalating Punchline – the punchline develops progressively, enhancing the comic effect.
- Brick Joke – the punchline ends suddenly, creating a comic effect.
- Feghoot is a complicated story where the ending is a play on words.
- Late to the Punchline is a drawn-out punchline that develops over time in the show.
- One-Two Punchline – the setup ends with more than one punchline.
- Orphaned Punchline – punchline does not have a clearly defined setup.
- Orphaned Setup – the setup is funny in itself, without a punchline.
- Subverted Punchline is a subversion of the audience's expectations.
- Stealth Pun - viewers can make their own meaning, but everyone laughs anyway.
- The Triple is a punchline based on two setups.
This classification of show techniques is offered by TV Tropes - a project in the image and likeness of Wikipedia, which introduces the underbelly of television.
We hope you now have a general idea of how to make funny jokes and realize that it is quite achievable. Especially if you take our Storytelling and Contemporary Rhetoric courses, where you'll learn how to write funny stories and inspire your audience with your speech. We wish you always a good mood and the ability to make great jokes!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Improvisational exercises to improve communication skills
- Seinfeld Strategy
- Ways to improve your sense of humor
- Stand-up for beginners: how to prepare a performance in this genre
- What your style of humor says about your personality
- MacGuffin: The Holy Grail of Any Plot
- How to prepare a stand-up performance: tips for beginners
- Conflict and humor
- Leitner's system: 5 steps to learn anything
- What is happiness and why the law is not a law at all
Key words:1Rhetoric, 1Storytelling
Preparing material for jokes
We constantly devour television shows where experienced and talented comedians delight us with new, topical funny stories. And perhaps you would also like to come up with a joke that many of your friends would appreciate. This is understandable - funny stories help us adapt to a new environment, react more calmly to stress and live easier.
Coming up with jokes on the fly is quite difficult for a beginner, so you need to start with material for your humor. Of course, for any joke you need to develop a sense of humor. It will help you find great material, notice funny moments and be cheerful in communication.
How to find material for jokes:
- Notice that what most interests listeners is what they respond to with laughter. Choose topics that interest not only you, but also those around you. For example, about the weather: “The women were so good this year that they got Indian summer, Indian autumn, Indian winter!” Or again: “People who said goodbye to the winter at Maslenitsa - where the hell did you spend it?!”
- Look at famous people performing stand-up and what themes they play on. Determining the theme is the beginning of the joke.
- Try to find topics that are interesting to many people. Medical anecdotes are difficult for electricians to understand (although commonalities can be found there too!). The more diverse topics you find, the more often you can talk about them in different groups.
- News and situations from your own life can make people a lot of fun. To intrigue, immediately come up with a title that would convey the meaning of the joke. For example: “I am an ace in the house (title). When my wife asked me to drain the compote, I took out a colander and drained it. Who knew that the compote should be left..."
- If your main goal is to learn how to joke so that everyone can laugh, try not to touch on controversial topics: race, religion, illness.
- If you appreciate a joke and suspect that it may offend someone, it is better not to say it out loud.
When you have studied the material and gained a little experience, you can easily and quickly come up with funny masterpieces.
