How to be witty. Wit - books and exercises for developing wit

If the ability to joke is not your natural quality, do not despair. You can master the craft of humor on your own, turning learning into an exciting adventure. We will tell you how to become a funny, cheerful and positive person without much time and effort.

Think over the image

From appearance a person depends on how others will treat him. If the eyebrows are frowned, the movements are constrained or feigned, then, despite the smile, it will become clear that the person does not know how to become funny, but really wants to seem like that.

In the image of a joker, everything is important - gait, clothes, manner of greeting, timbre of voice, facial expressions.

Our success depends on how we speak, gesture and look at our interlocutor. Making people laugh is an art in which every detail is important.

Refresh your vocabulary

They pay more attention to jokes with special, unusual words. For example, the word “zenoyam”, which must be read backwards, sounds funnier than “mayonnaise”. You can say the usual phrase: “I’m going to bed,” but it sounds funnier: “I’m going to listen to the noise of submarines.”

American comedian Gilbert Gottfried joked on one of his comedy programs: “If a girl has a hairy back, there is no need to be upset. You can close your eyes and imagine that she is wearing an alpaca jacket.” In this joke, the word “alpaca” played a punchline role, showing the absurdity of the situation.

Specific sounds add comedy to the stories. For example, showman Eddie Driscoll, speaking on intimate topics, creates a sound that imitates the opening of a zipper on his fly.

Joking with a purpose

How to become funny and be the life of the party? The answer is simple - make sense of your jokes, fill them with purpose. The audience needs a victim, a specific object of humor. It could be an absent person, an internal enemy, a famous ruler, or some generally recognized vice. The most popular objects for humorous attacks:

• Geographical: city, country, people
• Relatives: lovers, mother-in-law or mother-in-law, neighbors
• Celebrities: high-profile personalities or current news about them
• Sports: football team, coach

To risk

There is no formula that uniquely answers the question “How to become funny.” Some people can reach the peak of humor in a week, while others may need a month or more. The main thing is not to lose the opportunity to practice. And nothing will work out without risk. If there is the slightest chance to make a joke, you need to take risks.

The worst that can happen is that the joke turns out to be unsuccessful, but over time everyone will forget it. Even the most famous comedians admit that they never know which joke will work. Deep down, they are afraid of hearing dead silence in response to their miniatures. But they know that there is no risk in this matter.

Use surprise

Everything that is said unexpectedly and inadvertently remains the brightest and funniest moment. No one expects a joke and there will be no preconceived attitude towards its meaning.

Here's how to learn to make spontaneous jokes:

• Remember a joke during a serious conversation
• Give a humorous answer to a strict question
• Say something both funny and shocking with a neutral expression

Complement and develop someone else's joke

In KVN, the “Warm-up” competition is structured in this way, where teams come up with a funny ending or beginning of a pre-prepared phrase.

The answer to the question “How to learn to joke” is stored in the jokes of friends or acquaintances. Let them think for us what is interesting to say, and we will come up with our own based on their phrase.

For example:

- He gives her the last shirt.

– What do you think she should do with an old sweaty size 52 shirt?

Be brief

Many jokes are laughed at only out of politeness towards the teller. Not because the jokes are not funny, but because they are long, too figurative, and not always understandable. Sometimes 2 words are enough to explode the audience, and lyrical inserts tire the listener. Prickly witty phrases– ideal for those who want to learn how to learn to joke so that the jokes are understandable to everyone.

Use self-irony, exaggeration, sarcasm

Self-mockery– comedians’ secret weapon. She makes it clear that the author of humor is not arrogant and does not consider himself superior to others.

Psychologists have long noticed that people who know how to laugh at themselves win others over, inspire trust, and make communication comfortable. Self-irony is better than self-analysis, pompous modesty, or a boring story about yourself. She is in the company of braggarts, making the comedian taller, wittier and nobler than the rest.

The famous American speaker Terry Bradshaw begins his speeches by making jokes about his own hairstyle or character. This is how he establishes contact with the audience. Arnold Schwarzenegger, knowing the secret of how to learn to joke, more than once began his speech with “jokes” on his accents.

The main thing is not to go too far. 2-3 jokes in this style are enough to get the desired effect.

Exaggeration d makes the joke bright and funny. “I’m so hungry I could eat two helpings,” is a common phrase. But if you admit that you would eat a hippopotamus ham, a smile appears on your face.

Sarcasm - a good comic tool, but better to be careful with it.

When is sarcasm appropriate?: Comedian Jay Leno commented on the decision of the Los Angeles authorities to open a Center for Abandoned Children, where young mothers can abandon a child with impunity for 72 hours. Using sarcasm, the speaker said: “That’s why I love my country! I have more than 2 days to give away the unwanted child, but there is no way to get rid of the car that I didn’t like.”

It's important to remember that sarcasm is not appropriate when everything is fine. A sharp, sarcastic joke in a favorable situation looks like sour grapes on a sweet cake.

How to learn to joke? Regularly use self-irony and exaggeration. Sarcasm can be reserved for special occasions.

Train

Without experience, it’s difficult to even cook dumplings. And if we talk about how to become funny, then you definitely won’t get away with just a few attempts at a joke.

Trying to appear in a new role, you need training in a company and in front of a mirror, trying to joke in different forms must succeed and fail. Only trial and error can achieve good results.

Practical exercises for training:

• Write a sarcastic commentary on current news.
• Make up a story to make it look funny.
• Come up with a joke “with the trinity”: once a wolf, a boar and a fox got together...
• Make up a few jokes about yourself based on traits that are known to everyone. Make me laugh loved one, having come up with an interesting joke about him.

How to become funny: cheat sheet

• Use both spontaneous humor and phrases prepared in advance.
• Laugh at yourself in awkward situations.
• Make jokes about what is known to a wide circle of people.
• Don't laugh at your own jokes.
• Use different intonations and voice timbre (high, low, hoarse).
• Do not rely on obscene language: a scandalous statement sounds better than swearing.
• Don't humiliate others by trying to be funny.
• Be original, don’t take credit for jokes from famous comedians.
• Laugh at the jokes of others.
• Do not try, at all costs, to make the audience laugh. The most important thing is to remain yourself.

We told you how to become funny and original. All you have to do is follow our advice. Don’t be afraid to come up with your own jokes, take risks, practice and they will definitely say about you: “This person is incredibly funny! We need to learn from him."

Instructions

Distinguish between a sense of humor and wit. These two qualities are often perceived as a single whole, although this is not entirely true. A sense of humor is the ability to find something funny in any situation and point it out to your interlocutor. Wit lies in the ability to create this “something funny” and put it into speech form. Of course, sometimes there are people who have both of these qualities at once, but most often you have to be content with at least one of them. Some people believe that a sense of humor and wit are a gift, not a skill that can be acquired at will.

Know how to abstract yourself from yourself. Few people have the ability to laugh at themselves. Often this is due to some kind of complex, fear of making oneself a laughing stock, etc. Once you understand that there is nothing wrong with this, that people, on the contrary, will more happily accept a cheerful person than a bore, it will be much easier for you to laugh at yourself.

Exercise constantly. Try to come up with funny situations and interesting lines as often as possible when you have nothing to do. This seemingly useless activity will allow you to react faster to what is happening and find expressions in a timely manner.

Engage in self-development. Expanding your horizons is never a bad idea, especially if you intend to amaze your colleagues and friends with your witty attacks. The more you know, the more material you will have to build intricate designs designed to make your listeners laugh and enjoy themselves.

Smile more, because without it even the funniest and original joke will lose all its charm. Try to look in everything only positive sides and make fun of possible unpleasant moments. The more often you do this, the better you will get at it over time.

Now it is especially important to be cheerful person– and life will become more fun and easier, and you will encourage those around you with your positive attitude. But in everything you need to know when to stop, if a person constantly tells jokes, constantly jokes and teases someone, this behavior can quickly tire anyone. Such a person can be called a jester, and this is not a very rewarding calling.

Instructions

Don’t be shy about joking, joke more often. If you have good mood– be sure to share it. Friends will appreciate it and also have fun. A cheerful friends, in turn, will charge you with fun and will lift your mood if it suddenly drops. But remember, you need to make your friends laugh with you, but not at you. You can, of course, pretend to be a fool, create absurdities and talk all sorts of nonsense, but in this case you will have to forget about your good position in. To be cheerful is not to be funny. Although sometimes you can fool around a little.

Laugh in the face of the difficulties that life presents to us. Keep in mind that if you experience difficulties while sitting on a chair and propping up your sad head with your hands, it won’t make you feel any better. You need to be able to distract yourself, find interesting activity, which you can immerse yourself in headlong. Then you will spend less time on your nerves, and it will be easier for you to look at the world with a smile.

Don't be afraid to be an altruist, help people, even those you see for the first time. You've probably noticed that as soon as you help him with his problem, your soul becomes lighter and calmer.
Help your friends too, they will appreciate it. Just don't overdo it, otherwise they will get used to your help. But to ordinary acquaintances, especially those with whom you had strained relations, you should not extend your hand.
Imagine that one of your not very good friends comes to you and unexpectedly gives you a little financial help. He says that he respects you, that you are his friend and begs you to lend him money. You can give him that you won't give him money. Most likely, this person is just trying to get money out of you, and not to borrow. Having “helped” such people once, expect them to visit you again and again. I say this based on personal experience.

Helpful advice

See, being a cheerful person is not as difficult as it seems. Stick to these simple tips and your life will change in better side.

The ability to joke at the right time and ironically reflect an inappropriate remark helps in any company. A person with a sense of humor is interesting to communicate with and easily gets out of difficult situations. The art of being witty within yourself can be developed.

An important condition ironic statements is the speed of reaction. Many people tend to find a decent answer with a significant delay when the interlocutor has changed the direction of the conversation. Psychologists advise exercising active species sports, which helps to increase reaction speed.

Attention to detail

Pay attention to minor details and facts, and not just the essence of the conversation. They sometimes contain inaccuracies and disclaimers that may need to be emphasized. Develop the ability to cling to incorrect phrases. Witty answers and puns can come from playing on the meaning of words.

Pay attention to the general logic of your interlocutor. Combine two contradictory statements into one belief, which will be absurd due to the lack of a cause-and-effect relationship. For example, a friend complained about his health, and before that he told you about the movie. Conclude that the reason your friend is feeling unwell is due to his tendency to watch horror movies at night.

Game communication

The basic principle of humor is that interaction with a partner occurs in the form of a game. Initially, tune in to a non-serious attitude and try to outplay your interlocutor. Consciously exaggerate the event or, on the contrary, downplay it. Change the meaning of what is said by repeating the phrase, changing the main emphasis. When asked whether an acquaintance was married, one can answer that, in fact, he was not unmarried at all.

Use facial expressions and theatrical gestures to make the statement more comical. Explore parodies of famous people. In them, comedians note characteristic personality traits and, through repeated exaggeration, create vivid and funny images.

Reality distortion

Give facts the opposite meaning. With irony, the speaker can give an opposite assessment of reality. For example, on a rainy, windy day, you can note that you adore such wonderful weather.

Observe with what spontaneity children comment on adult conversations. Use a naive perception and an exaggeratedly serious tone. Try to take the hidden subtext literally. Comment on rhetorical phrases that do not require an answer. For example, thinking out loud about the lack of happiness in personal life, intended more for yourself, do not ignore, but bring

Many people believe that wit, being an innate human quality, cannot be developed. However, this is not quite true. Let's try to give some recommendations to people who want to develop this invaluable quality and understand how to joke correctly.

1. Learn wit from people who have outstanding abilities in this field. Pay attention to how they formulate their thoughts, what logical moves they use to create a reprise, etc. Read works by authors known for their wit. Watch performances by various comedians, noticing different styles and types of humor.
2. Hang out more with witty people and try to joke with them. Observe other people's reactions to jokes, drawing conclusions about what your friend said that made other people laugh the most.
3. When you deliver your jokes, be confident. This greatly affects their perception.
4. One of the main features of the thinking of a witty person is the ability to think outside the box, finding in ordinary things unusual features. Learn to look at the surrounding reality from a non-standard angle.
5. While your goal should be to think outside the box, you surprisingly shouldn't be afraid of being commonplace. Only by allowing yourself to tell even the most mediocre jokes can you ensure that the reprises turn out to be truly original, because they will come from the depths of your soul.
6. Pay attention to the meanings of words as you try to play with them. After all, the material of many comedians contains many similar phenomena.
7. Formulate your jokes in such a way that others can understand them. Adapt to people's perceptions to achieve the best results.
8. There is no point in making jokes about controversial topics. Only in the company of close people whom you know well can you allow yourself to joke about religion, politics, etc.
9. Don't try to lighten the mood with jokes if you see that the person is not in the mood for humor. This will only cause irritation and a desire not to communicate with you.

Wit is the ability to accurately use words and extinguish any negativity with them. Wit can be called the “muscle” of the sense of humor, which means that if it is not “pumped up”, no one will talk about you as a good joker or comedian. I want you to know how to develop wit, so I picked it for you useful tips and exercises to train this “muscle”.

To develop mental acuity, you will have to put in a lot of effort, but I am confident that you will succeed. My useful tips will be a good help:

1. Expand your horizons. Read as much as possible more books writers who introduced humor and irony into their works. For teaching, I recommend humorous literature by the following authors: Ilf and Petrov, Zoshchenko, Chekhov, Bernard Shaw, Bulgakov. You can listen to audiobooks or read, but the most important thing is to notice jokes and witty phrases. Of course, it won’t hurt to watch humorous films, TV series and programs.
2. Practice. Without practice, wit cannot be developed. Try to make sharp and subtle jokes whenever the opportunity arises. Don't forget that a joke works well if it has the effect of surprise.
3. Laugh at yourself. Yes, I agree that this is not the most pleasant thing, because we all have our own complexes. But this is precisely the technique used by famous comedians who make the audience laugh until they cry. Yes, they are witty, thanks to the fact that they use self-irony.
4. Forget about stereotypes. A witty person finds very quickly what to say, and you will have to learn to abandon the cliches and stereotypes inherent in society. To develop wit, you need to use your imagination and speech, look for associations, turn familiar situations around and see the funny in them.
5. Live life with humor. A person with a sharp mind cannot be gloomy and boring. If you have a good wit, then you will always be the center of attention in any company, you will have many friends, and people will come to you for advice. Look at the familiar in a new way and find something funny, then they will also say about you that you have an innate talent for making jokes in any situation.

Remember that every joke has its own time, so it’s not enough to learn how to write jokes, make jokes and humor, it’s important to learn how to do it at the right moment. As an exercise, I recommend that you play association games and apply basic techniques to develop your wit from scratch.

Wit is the muscle of the sense of humor

• memorize jokes and funny phrases;
• use metaphors and phraseological units;
• do not show negative emotions in public;
• look for relationships between people, animals, plants and different situations;
• learn to draw caricatures;
• Laugh at a joke, even when you don't find it very funny.

Of course, jokes should not flow from you, because you are not a clown! Remember the saying: “Rarely, but accurately.” This is exactly what you should do when inserting some sharp phrase into a conversation. I conduct special training on developing a sense of humor and wit, and I can say with confidence that any skill can be developed. You can read more about training at the Comedy School in the section.

How to develop wit: basic techniques

If you want to become a truly witty person, learn to look at the world a little different. You will have to break patterns, stereotypes, play in associations and even, perhaps, attend my trainings and webinars. The goal is to learn to observe people, play out any situation, quickly find the right word, translate everything said or happening into a joke.

Generate ideas and develop wit from scratch

I have also selected for you the TOP 5 cool humorous techniques that develop wit:

1. Changelings.
2. Direct meaning.
3. We confuse words and letters.
4. New meanings of phraseological units.
5. Hyperbolization.

To help you use these techniques to develop your wit, I'll give you a few examples of each.

Shifters

Proverbs and sayings are the best tool for developing wit, because you can swap phrases or come up with their own ending.

Repetition is the mother of learning. Stuttering is an exception.

And the sheep are safe, and the wolves are well-fed... And the shepherd has eternal memory.

What a sober person has in mind, a drunk person has in practice.

One head is good, but two is a genetic deviation.

DIRECT MEANING

In Russian, we often use words and expressions with double meanings. Your task is to put aside the circumstances and take the phrase literally.

The wife says to her husband: “Support me.” The husband replies: “Are you falling?”

- Take aspirin and in the morning you will be as fresh as a cucumber.

- What's green and with a pimple?

WE CONFUSE WORDS AND LETTERS

Changing letters in words or words in sentences - good exercise to develop wit and a sense of humor. You can bring this skill to automaticity so that jokes are part of your everyday speech.

Example 1. Snow Maiden - Firehand.

Example 2. Store - Gamazin.

Example 3. Girlfriend - Podlyuga.

Example 4. Labor feeds a person, but laziness spoils - Laziness feeds a person, but labor spoils.

Example 5. Coffee with milk - Moffee with colac.

Believe me, there are a lot of witty phrases in your head

NEW MEANINGS OF PHRASEOLOGIC UNITS

Kazan orphan – Russian orphan

Glue fins – Glue uggs

Carrot and stick – Hammer and donut

Stone in your bosom – Bucks in your bosom

The cow licked it with her tongue - The neighbor licked it with his tongue.

HYPERBOLIZATION

This technique implies a strong exaggeration or understatement of what is happening. A witty person quickly finds something to answer, exaggerating or minimizing the truth.

I was so frightened by this noise that even my neighbors turned gray.

She weighs so much that her husband had to switch to proper nutrition.

That day he got so drunk that even his neighbors had a headache.

I hope you understand the basic techniques for developing wit. Now, as an exercise, try to remake well-known phraseological units, proverbs and sayings. You can find them in books or on the website fraze.ru. If you find it difficult to exercise on your own, sign up for a webinar with me and we will develop wit and a sense of humor together.

I took several courses on developing a sense of humor and wit from American teachers and realized that people do not laugh spontaneously. It's all about special laughter triggers that are activated when a joke is correctly written and told. All the basic techniques I described above are used by famous comedians, and you laugh. So why not learn how to be witty yourself?

How to develop wit: exercises

Any muscle becomes bigger and stronger thanks to regular training. I suggest you practice a little to develop your own wit. Just 7 exercises will help you become a wittier person.

Exercise 1. Finding analogies.

This exercise is based on the Linguistic Pyramids, which help train generalization, dissociation and analogy skills. What are Linguistic Pyramids? This is what you build yourself based on what you see around you.

So let's take a look around. The first thing I saw was a plate. The plate itself is just a plate, but if you think about it a little, it refers to the utensils. Now we already have the base of the pyramid and the first branch from it. Now find another subspecies for the plate. In the photo you can see examples of the branching of the linguistic pyramid.

The photo shows an example of developing wit using the linguistic pyramid

Now do this exercise to develop your wit. To do this, invite a friend and decide who will be the leader and who will be the follower. After this, the follower must point to some object, and the leader will show what can be done with it. Remember that you need to generalize the subject to more high level or to a lower one. Complete the task within 5 minutes with one object, only using gestures, which are best agreed upon in advance.

Exercise 2. Find out as much as possible about the subject.

This exercise is great for developing wit and creativity in speech, as you will have to use your imagination and Creative skills. Look around and find some object again. After that, set a timer for 5 minutes and tell everything you know about this subject, even if it seems to you that you are talking nonsense.

What can you tell me?

• Name;
• appointment;
• about application;
• about new application;
• about popularity;
• history.

In general, it can be anything, as long as you have something to say within 5 minutes.

Exercise 3. Interesting story.

And now you have to turn into a storyteller fascinating stories. To do this you will have to gather a company of 4-5 people. Try experimenting on your family members first, and then move on to your friends. Say that you want to develop your wit, so you need to practice.

Your audience must set a topic for conversation, and your task is to say something about this topic for 5 minutes. Even if you don’t understand the topic, it will be even easier to use humor. If you don't have viewers yet, I'll ask you a topic:

1. How to choose a steam generator.
2. Why do women put on makeup in the morning?
3. How to change a baby's diaper.
4. Secrets of properly beating chicken eggs.

I think your stories should be interesting, and you will be able to write your first joke.

Exercise 4. Comparing something with something.

If you learn how to create unusual analogies, you can develop your wit much faster. For a successful exercise, you need helpers. Ask one person to name an animal, the second to name an inanimate object, and try to find something in common between the animal and this object.

This method of finding an analogy is based on a riddle famous writer L. Carroll, to which no one has found an answer so far. You can use it for this wit activity: “How is a raven like a table?”

Try making this exercise a little more difficult, but speed up the development of your wit. Find commonality not only between animals and objects, but also between emotions and objects, situations and animals.

Exercise 5. Creativity in speech.

Now choose adjectives for nouns. Let me remind you that the adjective answers the questions: “Which, which, which, which?” That is, you select words that describe the characteristics of objects.

For example, let’s take the noun “bed” and select 5 adjectives that we usually do not use for this word in our speech.

• sour bed;
• crooked bed;
• quick bed;
• effervescent bed;
• lightning bed.

So we endowed the bed with new characteristics. To develop your wit, you need to do this exercise at least 10 times a day and within a week you will notice that you are starting to think creatively and speak with jokes.

Exercise 6. Let's fantasize.

A witty person quickly finds a way out of any situation and does not focus on problems. You should learn this too! Ask a friend/wife/co-worker/husband to tell you about a problem. Your task is to help find a solution to this problem, but in a rather unusual way.

Develop your wit with fictional characters or objects

Your speech must be creative, so come up with some kind of assistant who can solve this problem. Of course it must be a non-existent character! After that, come up with the actions of this character. Try to fantasize as much as possible! Forget about reality and use your imagination. It is best to record the course of action of this character. Now read this story, BUT... On unknown language. Yes, mix up the letters, distort the words as much as you can. It will turn out quite funny and incomprehensible, but this is how you use new mechanisms in your brain and learn to think witty and creative.

Exercise 7. Journey into unreality.

To develop your wit, you will need another exercise, which is also best done with a partner. It's a bit like a game, so you can practice it on your children or other family members. So, blindfold your partner and take him to the room. Explain that real world consists of atoms and molecules, but you are going to an unreal world, so everything here consists of socks. Yes, from socks, or hats, or rats, or cats, or balls, in general, from whatever you want.

To do this exercise, explain in detail to your partner how an object is made up of socks or something else. That is, you bring a blindfolded person to the TV and say: “This is a TV and it consists of socks. The screen is made according to modern technologies, so the engineers used nylon socks, but the body is made from grandma’s knitted socks.”

All these exercises help develop wit, but to perform them requires a lot of effort. If you doubt your abilities, then I suggest you undergo special training at the Comedy School. Agree, it’s important not only to learn how to make jokes, but also to be able to avoid hurting a person’s feelings. You don't want to cause anger and tears instead of laughter.

How to develop wit: books

Want to generate ideas on the go, make jokes, and remember more? Then you should read books to develop your wit and train your brain.

1. "How People Think." D. Chernyshev.
2. "Brain Development". R. Sipe.
3. "Brain Rules" D. Medina.
4. "Awareness." M. Williams and D. Panman.
5. "Flexible consciousness." K. Dweck.
6. "Remember everything." A. Dumchev.
7. "Invincible Mind" A. Lickerman.

The main mistake in the thinking of many people is that they believe that abilities such as wit, a sense of humor, imagination, and creative speech are given at birth. These books will help you understand how the brain works and discover your talents.

Witness test

Keep a notebook of jokes to develop your wit.

Witness test:

What is X equal to?

Write your answer in the comments, but do not forget that after reading this article you have taken a lesson on developing wit, not mathematical abilities.

Wit is the ability to find good expressions and add a little humor to them. It is necessary for every person to develop this quality, because today everything more people suffer from depression, feel depressed and complex. A witty person will find a way out of any situation, and will always find something to say to the offender and how to turn his own shortcoming into a joke. Sign up for my next webinar, where we will discuss how to develop wit and...

In the life of each of us we have met a person who can be called truly witty. He is able to joke in the harshest situations, and accurately senses the right moment. But is there any practical benefit from wit?

It turns out that the ability to make others laugh is quite beneficial for your health. Psychologists unanimously claim that perceiving a situation with humor effectively helps fight stress. After a bout of laughter, a person experiences a state of relaxation, accompanied by the release of endorphins, as well as a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. In addition, a sense of humor is closely related to flexibility of thinking.

Flexible thinking person easily reads the mood of the audience and presents information in the form in which it will be received most positively. This generates positive feedback from listeners and fosters a sense of unity.

Humor strengthens connections between people

In one of the studies, a group strangers showed a funny video, after which they were more open to getting to know each other than those who watched documentary. This fully confirms the theory about the unifying role of laughter. The same goes for romantic relationships. Laughing together is perceived as a feeling of support from a partner. Couples with a similar sense of humor, who often laugh at things together or make each other laugh, experience greater unity and emotional closeness, which can lead to a stronger relationship.

Being witty gives you an edge in the workplace.

A lively sense of humor definitely contributes to the movement towards success, says Dr. psychological sciences Jamika Falconer. Research shows that sarcastic people are more successful. Sarcasm is perceived as confidence, and this confidence gives you an advantage. Plus, sarcasm often goes hand in hand with creativity, a quality that leaves your competitors far behind.

Sense of humor: innate or acquired?

But what if you've never had a sense of humor, and now you decide to give it a try? Of course, wit is rather a trait that manifests itself already from childhood. However, it is quite possible that you also have a sense of humor, although you do not realize it. Do you think that sarcastic comments in a chat or jokes over a glass of beer about an unpleasant situation do not count? But they make up most of what we understand by the word “humor.” In this article, New York comedian couple Vicki Cooperman and Max Cohen share tips on how to unleash your inner wit.

Six steps to making you laugh

Make jokes in moderation. If you haven't yet established a reputation as a prankster, that's to your advantage, Cohen says. “A joke should be unexpected, and it is expected from no one less than from a quiet, modest guy. I always envy those who say little but cause bursts of laughter. So say something occasionally and with confidence, and you will be remembered as that really funny, silent IT guy.”

Find common ground. Cooperman believes the key to good laugh– context. Be relevant. You shouldn’t make jokes about your mother-in-law’s quirks during your lunch break at work, unless people are already accustomed to your role as a joker. It's much easier to joke about what's on people's minds because then you have a common set of concepts from which you can draw inspiration.

Make jokes on time. If you're going to make a joke about the current situation, do it right away, especially in the office or at a party, Cohen says. You can't say, “Remember that meeting two hours ago? So I could answer Jim...” This looks depressing.

Play up the climax. When you joke, it is very important that the outcome is unexpected for your listeners. According to Cooperman, a brilliant example is the joke from the movie "American Pie": "The whole movie you're waiting for her to tell a terribly boring story about music camp, which she eventually does, but the ending leaves you dumbfounded. She is indecent, vulgar and surprisingly funny, because you never expected her from this person. For me this is one of the best jokes in this film".

Check your material. Not ready to joke in public yet? Cooperman advises trying your hand at chatting or on social networks, where you don’t see the grimace of your interlocutor if he doesn’t like the joke. “Social media is a great platform. I use them to see how good my joke is. If it gets enough likes and retweets, I add it to the repertoire. It's easier than testing jokes face to face."

Be prepared to fail. “If you want to try to be witty, it's very important not to get discouraged when you fail, because failures are bound to happen,” Cohen says.

“Be prepared to accept the fact that not every joke you make will be brilliant and sparkling, this does not mean that you have lost your sense of humor. Just believe in yourself and you'll come up with some great jokes."