Public Speakers — Be Funny By Doing Less
Less is More. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” This especially applies to public speakers. And it applies to using humor.
1. Brevity makes strong structure. The punchline is the payoff. Traditional wisdom is that the shortest distance between the setup and the payoff is best. When a story has a long set up before getting to the joke, it’s said that the punchline is carrying a lot of baggage. Top comedians work hard on writing a tight setup because it’s the most effective way to structure a joke.
2. Brevity clarifies. The key to humor is relationships and connections. Concise writing helps to make crystal clear the precise words that need to be connected to activate the joke. Doing more results in confusing clutter.
3. Brevity gives focus. Wordiness makes for noise that can hide the punch word or the punch line. That’s why the punchline and the punch word normally go last. It puts the spotlight and focus on the key words. Anything added after that only camouflages the joke and confuses the mind.
4. Brevity creates scarcity. The person who is trying to be funny all the time, wears out his welcome. People get tired of the showboating. The person who is selectively funny wins. Scarcity creates value. It wins the attention and admiration of others.
5. Brevity teaches discipline. By selecting only the best jokes and delivering only the best lines, you develop the discipline of knowing which lines are funnier. When you blurt out all your funny thoughts, you’re not having the mental exercise of filtering out the weak lines. Being selective will make you a funnier person because it will make you a better judge of good humor.
6. Brevity makes you appear funnier. The person who self-selects and uses only the best lines can appear to be funny most of the time. The person who insists on sharing all lines, strong and weak, will appear to be funny a smaller percentage of the time. I’d rather be known as a person who delivers a gem nearly every time he speaks, than someone who speaks all the time and is occasionally funny. One skill set is attractive. One stands a good chance of being annoying.
December 25th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Perhaps this explains the growing popularity of Twitter!
Practice writing in 140-character microbursts to develop brevity & increase wit!
December 26th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Thanks for the article.
I would love to know more about , what to look for in a punchline.
As you mentioned, that we need to develop the habit of knowing which lines are funnier
December 28th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Hi Munish,
What to look for when searching for a funny punchline? That’s a complicated answer and it’s found in nearly every article in this blog. You’re looking for the structure, the word choice, the timing, the physical delivery, the common knowledge of the audience, etc. The best way to learn and internalize the skill of knowing what’s funny is by guessing what’s funny…and then trying it on a live audience. Trial and error will show you the path to chosing funnier lines.
John
January 1st, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I’ve noticed how most famous comedians use very short set-ups before their punchline; sometimes the set-up includes the punchline. Steven Wright gets away with combining both into little sticks of dynamite laughs. Examples:
“Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks? ” or “Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country.” or “I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol.”
(see more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/steven_wright.html )
So one day, I managed to think up my own “Steven Wright-esque” joke: “Y’know, as a parent, I just don’t understand why children love Casper the most.”
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
[...] Kinde encourages brevity for public speaking [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 10:46 am
[...] Be Funny By Doing Less [...]
October 6th, 2009 at 7:16 am
The interesting thing is that laughter and crying are related.
Both are stress relievers. I remember an interesting statistic
shared at a humor workshop by Dr Annette Goodheart. She said that
the tears shed from laughing and crying contain the same stress
relieving chemicals. The chemistry of tears shed from slicing
onions are different. Laughing and crying serve similar roles in
keeping us healthy.
I found the above quote while surfing and thought of you and your work.
I love your site and thank you for the highly educational (high standards) content.I love the study of humor.