When I began public speaking I asked a pro whether it was necessary to use humor. “Only if you want to get paid,” he said.
So I began studying humor. I have an entire shelf of books on the subject. Much later when YouTube became available I noticed that most standup comics use facial expressions, gestures, range of voice, impressions, mimes and mimics to get laughs. They also used humor techniques that I had read about.
Humor causes us to laugh in one of three ways: 1) Overstating the truth; 2) Understating the truth; or 3) Ending a statement with incongruity.
Here is an example of overstated humor: When workers were restoring Kyle field a skeleton was found in a forgotten basement closet. Turned out he was the winner of the 1947 Texas A & M hide and seek contest.
Mark Twain was a master of understated humor: The efficiency of our jury system is only marred by the difficulty of finding 12 men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read.
Lou Holtz gives us a good example of incongruity: When coaching for the University of Minnesota he said, “Minnesota is a great state with beautiful kids. They all have blond hair and blue ears.”
Becoming a comic is like the way to Carnegie Hall—practice, practice, practice….
But the most important humor for all of us to cultivate is cosmic humor that allows us to appreciate the absurdities and the paradoxes of life.
The golden key to a fun filled life: Learning to laugh at ourselves and not taking ourselves and events so seriously.
We all should have 18-belly laughs a day and most of those can come from the harebrained events surrounding us and our own farcical mistakes and words.
As Will Rogers said, “Friends, I don’t give advice. But, if I did, I’d just say that we’re only on this earth for a short time; so for Heaven’s sake have a few laughs and don’t take things so seriously, especially ourselves. Just live your life so you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.”