If I were to ask your three closest
friends are you funny? What would they
say?Do you consider yourself to have a nice
sense of humor? You're funny? You're
middle-of-the-road? You're not very funny?
what would you say? Humor is very
difficult to dissect and explain why
something is funny if people I want to
learn how to be more funny it can be
difficult to do that because there's so
many factors involved but I wanted to
boil down the four strongest theories
for why something is funny for you so
you can just kind of start to wrap your
head around these ideas when you're
formulating jokes and thinking about how
could I be funnier how could I bring a
little more humor into my conversation
you're able to do that because bringing
in humor is so powerful I think over the
next 20 years we're really gonna start
to learn more about why humor is
powerful but man it just displays
confidence it puts people at ease
there's really no downside to well-timed
humor and what are the reasons that this
is that's kind of an overarching concept
that I'll get into a bit later is that
you can't be funny when you're nervous
and scared your brain shuts that off
just like it can be hard to make
conversation around someone who's super
high status or when you're nervous you
just don't know what to say go to ask
gorilla on a date you're like oh I can
usually talk perfectly now I can't your
brain when you're under stress shuts off
that part of the brain the free
association that being able to come up
with ideas and also humor so when things
are tense and you display humor people
like wow this guy's cool these companies
relax in this environment that makes
them number one assign higher status to
you number two makes them comfortable in
that environment so now you're the guy
that could lead them to water in a
stressful environment so they can relax
so let's dive into number one the
superiority Theory so what this
basically says is when you make a joke
about someone or something that is
inferior to you it's funny
so somebody trips and falls it's funny
right there the don't--but tripped and
fall you're the ones standing looking at
them right oh they acted a fool it's
always funny
true it is funny to watch people it's
just natural
funny to walk through there unless they
get hurt clearly there's no malicious
and tetanus but when things go wrong and
people don't get hurt it's kind of funny
but I want to take this a step further
and this isn't what this theory implies
but I want to add it because it kind of
fits for the superiority thing when
people have high value or high status
other people truly think the jokes they
tell are funner funnier sure you're
gonna get people like when the CEOs
around telling a joke that nobody thinks
is funny they're all gonna laugh just
because of his status but studies show
that people that have a higher status
are actually perceived as funnier so
when you have a high status your jokes
are just gonna land so much easier
that's why a lot of people who are
trying to improve maybe they're starting
with a low social status and they're
trying to be funny and these jokes may
be delivered the exact same way that
they are by a higher status person
they're gonna fall flat because they
have lower status and people are looking
at I'm like yeah you're a bum you're not
gonna say anything funny versus some guy
who's really you know clicked on has
high status and they're expecting
something funny it's an easier audience
so as you begin to improve your social
status and your social awareness you're
gonna be naturally perceived as more
funny if you don't feel like you have
very high status right now you don't
feel like your friends or your
colleagues hold you as having high value
or high status maybe they talk down to
you maybe when your social environment
completely understand what's going on
you're not sure you can go up to
somebody and get them to like you I
don't have time to talk about that in
this video but I have a program called
the social invincibility program go to
social invincibility calm or touch a
click up here and I can talk to you
about more how you can improve their
number to the relief theory this was
actually coined by old Sigmund Freud
back in the day and he says that when
you're in a stressful environment or a
stressful situation and someone can
break that stress with a joke it lowers
the tension and that's funny for people
okay and the reason I think that is is
because you're gonna have a suit
poor easy crowd just like I was when I'm
coaching people to give talks for a
wedding I'm like this is gonna be the
easiest crowd ever usually people are
drinking they wanna be nice they want to
laugh they want to have a good time you
can literally usually get up and give a
speech that's a 2 out of 10 and people
are gonna applaud it and laugh like it's
an 8 easy crowd also in stressful
environments people don't want to feel
that stress and tension so anytime
anyone cracks a joke it's just gonna be
like a little bomb goes off and people
are gonna laugh so hard because they
want to defuse that tension and laughter
is a great way to do it so cool you can
apply this is be very aware of that in a
stressful environment if you can crack
these little jokes let's just do a
couple people right here it's gonna
position you as someone who what what
are we talk about can find humor and
stressful environments high social
status putting them at ease a very
high-status thing to do number three the
incongruence theory and what this says
is that anytime something clearly
doesn't match intentionally it's kind of
funny
so in examples when people put
sunglasses on their pets right clearly
the pets aren't wearing sunglasses but
it's funny because it's in congruent or
what's another when you walk up to a
taco shop and you ask for a table like
you're at a black-tie event something
like that that clearly doesn't make
sense
but intentionally is oftentimes funny
and I really like this one because you
could really kind of take this one
wherever you want and it allows you to
be really creative because there's an
infinite amount of things that are
incongruent but through experience
you'll learn specifically what type of
incongruencies are funnier and it kind
of nabel's you to open up the whole
playing field for all different kinds of
joke types of jokes in all different
environments and settings number four
the kick of the discovery theory I'm not
sure his name like this but basically it
says you're telling a story and you're
leading people down this path and then
at the very end you bring in a new piece
of information that's completely
unanticipated and funny an example this
isn't gonna be funny but an example
it'll be like maybe you're telling a
story of someone some dude who's just
so creepy and it gets creepier and
creepier in the very end you're like oh
hey dad is my dad okay
so something that can't be anticipate at
the end that shocks people and throws
him for a loop and one that I feel like
was left out that I'm gonna create on my
own that actually I think is oftentimes
the funniest and I use this all the time
the exaggeration theory and so what this
says is you take something about the
person that you're with that's kind of
funny right maybe you're poking fun at
them about something or maybe usually
you're poking fun at about something and
then you take it and amplify it to a
ridiculous point where it's not even
reality and it makes it way funnier so
it's based in reality but it's so so
exaggerated there's no way it could be
real so an example this let's say you're
driving with a girl who drives crazy and
really fast and you're giving her a hard
time about it and then later in the day
you see some article about Elon Musk
building a spaceship to go to Mars hey I
got a bet I bet you could cut the travel
time down by about 50% if you were
behind the helm of that thing something
like that clearly first law she's never
gonna be an astronaut
she couldn't cut down the speed these
space double the speed these spaceships
go but because she drove crazy it's
funny right it's a throwback humor to
something that you were already teasing
them on and it's amplified to an
unrealistic amount I think those are
really funny too but maybe being funny
is something that is beyond what you're
trying to do maybe you're just trying to
learn how to go up to somebody and start
a conversation what do you say I
actually put out a video you can touch
or click right here that's gonna teach
you an easy way in any environment you
can go up engage someone and get them to
want to talk to you if you want to check
out that social invincibility program I
was talking about you can touch a click
right here to do so I'll talk to you
then go up start a conversation with a
complete stranger but there are three
different ways