Summary of how to be funny
Mean humor
- 2014.01.13 - NPR - Chris Christie And Pulling The Red Handle
- MI: You may not like the way Christie behaves, but that doesn't mean it's OK to joke about his weight.
- MI: When you try to hurt Christie by joking about his weight, you also hurt other people who are also overweight.
Others' advice
- Lindybeige - You CAN analyse humour
- I need to rewatch this and pull out the specific tips he gives.
Don't come across like you're trying to be funny
If a person doesn't get a reference you're making, they shouldn't notice that a reference was being made
- this was a rule among the developers of Fallout 1 and 2.
Reference What People Know:
part of it is referencing something the person knows; I once made what I thought was a very funny joke to a friend of mine, but he completely misinterpreted it and may have even taken offense because he wasn't aware of what I was referencing. You should always ask yourself before you make a reference-joke, "Am I sure that the person will get the reference?"
Surprise People:
It's important to put the funny thing at the end, or in other words, draw people into one understanding of what you've said and then suddenly force them to quickly reinterpret what they've seen before. For example, I made a Facebook album in which I took photos from the 1800s and pretended as if I had taken them with an iPhone + Instagram, but at first I didn't care too much about the order, and so after thinking about it I realized it wasn't as impactful as it could have been. Then I realized that if I ordered the pictures so that they started out looking very close to modern-day Instagram photos and then gradually got more and more obviously from the 1800s, the album would be funnier. I ended with the most ridiculous/unusual photo of them all.
Don't Come Off As Seeking Approval:
I've gotten the feeling that if people think you are TRYING to make them laugh, they'll be less likely to find what you're saying funny. Maybe because they'll be on guard to expect some kind of surprise.
Don't be too obvious about what the joke is:
7 Filthy Jokes You Didn't Notice in Shakespeare
http://www.cracked.com/article_20501_7- ... peare.html
- Make fun of / play a prank on some person or group you and your companion both don't like: I was bicycling in Palo Alto and needed to go through a tunnel, and I got stuck behind this guy on a recumbent bicycle, and at one point we both had to wait for some people to walk through this metal barrier that prevents bikes from blasting through the tunnel, and he was being kind of impatient about waving people through, and he had this big floppy security flag, so while the people were walking towards us I bent the flag over and let it go so that it would flop around. The woman who was walking toward us smiled at me as she passed.
Daily Mail - Cigar guy revealed: We find the man who stood behind Tiger Woods and became an internet sensation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/a ... ation.html
- Note how relaxed he looks in the photo relative to the others, who generally look stressed out. The article mentions "Rupesh strikes an insouciant pose"
- His eyebrows look like they're raised, which makes him look happier (relative to the people around him)
- He's got the silly outfit on which makes him seem like someone who likes to have fun.
Satire
← Satirizing Mark Zuckerberg's attempts at philanthropy, which some see as patronizing.- I thought this was really well-done / very funny, if maybe not fair to Mark.
- It sets you up with a totally-normal sounding first paragraph.
- It sets you up in the "normal" paragraph with the idea that he's driving around, and then in the second paragraph it surprises you with the idea that he wasn't driving a car.
2015.03.17 - C-SPAN - The Fresh Prince Calls Washington Journal
http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4531505/f ... on-journal