Developing Original Humor for Your Talk

Most humor in the real-world setting is unplanned. It just happens. Learn three key principles for finding and creating original humor. Most humor in the business setting is unplanned. It just happens. Spontaneous events with clients and co-workers create the surprises and uncomfortable situations which call for humor as a coping tool. We all have differing abilities to recognize, appreciate and create humor. How's your HQ (humor quotient)? Do you work with people who are full of wit? Regardless of where you are now, you can increase your humor skills. When you study humor, it's obvious there's more to it than just spontaneous laughs. There are times when you may want to deliberately use humor, maybe even plan it in advance. Perhaps you want to spice up a training session or a planning meeting. Maybe you want to lighten up a sales presentation. You can learn ways to administer a dose of laughter to help you connect and communicate. There are three elements which can help you understand and structure your humor: surprise, tension and relationships. First, humor is based on the element of surprise. Humor often comes from something as simple as someone saying the unexpected. The surprise twist creates the humor. Because of the element of surprise, when we are deliberately structuring a piece of humor (perhaps for a speech) we don't want to telegraph the joke. A line like, "a funny thing happened to me on the way over here," signals your listeners that a joke is coming. This will lessen the element of surprise. To enhance the surprise, it's best to place the punch line at the end of the joke. And within the punch line, the punch word is usually given last. The punch word is the word that makes the humor work. It's the trigger that releases the surprise. If your humor falls flat, do what professional humorists do. Pretend you are serious. Since the listeners didn't realize you were making a joke, you never need to apologize or explain it. Turn your surprise into a secret. It's no surprise to people who work in pressure-packed work environments that humor is also based on this second principle: release of tension. Laughter is a pressure valve which releases muscle tension. Uncomfortable situations, fear and pain are all tension builders that cry out for humor. We find ourselves laughing at risqu