Tips to Developing a Sense of Humor

Anybody can be funny. You don't have to study at Bill Cosby's knee to learn the art. Spreading humor can be as easy as keeping a perpetual smile on your face around your friends.

If you're grinning like a madman when talking about the most mundane matters, people are going to think you must have a great sense of humor. Even if it's not true, the joke is on them, yes?

What is humor, anyway? James Thurber said "Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." In other words, talking about your close call, your accident or your breakup months later when you're not experiencing emotional trauma can be fun for everyone. Remember how funny you thought it was when Grandma fell over the poodle and her dentures went flying?

When you tell that story around the water cooler the next day you're going to get plenty of laughs. When Grandma tells it at the next family dinner, well, there better be an adequate supply of pamper available because they are going to lose their bladder over it.

Telling someone else's sob story is always good for a laugh. Telling your own sob story, with an unexpected twist (and then I caught Grandma's dentures...right in the middle of my forehead) is good for a five minute guffaw.

A laugh is results when a comedian (you) creates tension with a story and then releases the tension with a punch line. The trick is to get your audience (or your in-laws) interested in the outcome of your tale and then ending it with the unexpected (one morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know-Groucho Marx)

If you don't think you can pull off telling your own funny stories memorize some great jokes and entertain your friends with your amazing ability to steal somebody else's material. All of the best comedians steal from each other. Why not you, too?

Some tips for developing your funny bone:
-If you can't be funny, be playful. Funny will follow.
-Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself.
-Incorporate the element of surprise into your stories.
-Learn to impersonate at least one president.
-Look for the absurdity around you.
-Listen to funny people and pay attention to their delivery.
-Join a "joke of the day" website.
-Develop a signature line or story (i.e. Rodney Dangerfield's "I don't get no respect" or Larry the Cable Guy's "Get 'er done")
-Never start a joke by saying "I've got a great joke for you". Maybe you do and maybe you don't. Let your audience decide.
-Have fun, relax, be yourself.

If all else fails, making funny faces is guaranteed to get you a giggle every time. Just make sure your audience is under the age of six. Seven, tops. If even the funny faces don't get the pulses of the six year olds going, you may as well bow out gracefully using a made-to-order line from the great Groucho Marx; "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."