Conan O'Brien has an extremely fast
sense of humor and a sharp wit when you
watch them interact he can seem
impossibly conversationally clever and
it's why he's had no problem
entertaining millions of people for over
20 years on his late-night shows I'm
gonna be the villager because he looks
like one of those puppets in a horror
movie that comes to life and murders
everyone look at his eyes he's enraged
because the mad scientist puts spoons on
his hands the truth is that there are
principles behind the kind of sharp wit
that Conan uses so often and while his
years of comedy training have made him a
master simply understanding the
principles and using them in your own
life can make people find you much much
funnier so let's take a look at what
those principles are today first out of
context analysis lets rewatch that first
clip I'm gonna be the villager because
he looks like one of those puppets in a
horror movie that comes to life and
murders everyone look at his eyes those
are the eyes he's enraged because the
mad scientist puts spoons on his hands
we all recognize that cartoon hands
represent real hands even if they aren't
anatomically perfect but Conan describes
that image as it would appear to someone
who had no context to be able to
understand what a cartoon hand was and
when you strip that context away they do
kind of look like spoons in this case
that is where the laugh comes in Conan
is pointing out how weird the world that
we live in every day actually is and
it's this constant lack of context that
makes Conan's clueless gamer series so
funny here's another example
he's very broken English yes so if he's
been living in this country for a long
time he's not really paying attention
but Conan's doesn't just do this in
areas where he actually doesn't get the
context like video games
Conan uses this comedic tool all the
time watch how he talks about this teddy
bear holding a heart now we all see a
symbol of affection in this may be
something that you'd give to your
sweetheart on Valentine's Day and
friendly reminder for those of you who
do have someone you might need to plan
something for Valentine's Day is coming
up soon but when Conan talks about this
bit
he describes something very different
from that romantic image something you
would ever give a girl you were
interested in possibly really it's not
as romantic as you think this is a bear
that was born with its heart outside its
chest look at the Bears like I kill me
again the humor comes from applying a
different context to a normal object the
same thing occurs in this next clip most
of us are gonna look and see a podium
for a college speaker and it's
interesting because yes it's a tree
trunk but it's otherwise not really
worth commenting on we get it but strip
away what you think it should be that it
is a podium imagine a different context
and you get all kinds of different jokes
insecurity is so great Dartmouth that
you don't even think you deserve a real
podium I'm sorry what the hell is this
thing it looks like you stole it from
the set of survivor Nova Scotia
seriously it looks like something a bear
would use at an AAA meeting this is a
huge component of what it means to be
witty it's to change the context
constantly of normal things that people
otherwise take for granted and it's
worth mentioning that this is exactly
what Robin Williams did in his famous
pink scarf skit I'm going to link to our
breakdown of that in the description but
for now let's just talk about another
piece that is critical to wit
specificity for a great example watch
Conan teasing Kevin Hart about his
workout outfit in this next clip for a
second good god this looks like tuxedo
from the Year 3015
now Conan could have just said you look
like you're wearing clothes from the
future which is kind of funny and it is
what those clothes look like to most of
us when we strip away the context but
the power of this joke comes from the
specificity conan doesn't say clothes
but tuxedo and he doesn't say future but
the 3015 pay attention to every example
that I've given you and you're going to
see the power of specificity and work so
this rule is very simple
specificity generally makes you funnier
last week we talked about how
specificity can make compliments more
effective so you may just want to be
more specific across the board no need
to belabor this point it's pretty
straightforward
so let's move on to the last idea in
this video which is doubling down that's
when you follow up on a joke until
people laugh basically here's a great
example where do you get your hair cut
kommer I don't this isn't real
this is scientists work on this this is
this is a high density polymer that NASA
invented hair hair is for wimps
this has robotics in it it can do things
you see here Conan making several
follow-up jokes all on the same theme of
his hair being fake the first joke
provides the premise that his hair is
not real everything else that he adds
just makes that more absurd and
therefore funnier the critical word here
is absurd ideally each add-on joke takes
the original to a more extreme place
that is the power of doubling down and
here's another example the premise of
this next joke is that Nintendo's
designers are on acid now he takes it to
more absurd places even adding in weird
noises until he gets his big laugh scarf
he's like a kind of like a frog he uses
water swords so everyone at Nintendo is
on acid you know what ideas do they edit
out what is he he's a blip blorp the
nice thing about doubling down is that
you can do it with jokes that your
friends make as well and it typically
feels good for everyone involved
your friends premise is being built upon
so it feels like you're paying attention
to what they're saying people around
gets a laugh at two jokes so that's an
advantage for them and you get an easy
opportunity to make everyone laugh in
fact if you do pay attention to close
groups of friends they'll often
ping-pong back and forth adding more and
more absurdity to one another's premises
till they have everyone cracking up
themselves including so doubling down is
an absolutely critical piece of being
funny maybe not so much of wit but
absolutely worth adding to your
repertoire if you haven't already so
those are the three main pieces from
Conan O'Brien that can help you to
develop his wit they are first
recontextualizing everyday things second
being specific in all of your jokes
third doubling down by making original
joke premises more and more absurd also
I put together a humour playlist of
breakdowns in the description if you
want to check it out obviously there is
so much to comedy and I've only
scratched the surface here in this video
but that playlist should give you a
really solid framework of how to be the
funniest person in your
friend group and if you did like these
ideas and you're curious about more
powerful frameworks to be more
charismatic and captivating I put
together a video explaining the four
emotions that lead to an amazing first
impression now the real power of these
emotions is in this sequence so if
you're interested in discovering that
click here to check out that video
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you