Comments on: Public Speakers — Be Funny By Doing Less

By: A. Wilson

A. Wilson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:16:59 +0000

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.

By: “Humor in the Workplace” Blog Carnival - 2nd Edition | Laugh-O-Nomics | Humor in the Workplace from Motivational Speaker & Humorist Brad Montgomery

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:46:26 +0000

[...] Be Funny By Doing Less [...]

By: Best Public Speaking Articles [2009-01-03]

Best Public Speaking Articles [2009-01-03] — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:06:38 +0000

[...] Kinde encourages brevity for public speaking [...]

By: Gerald Fleischmann

Gerald Fleischmann — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:26:57 +0000

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.”

By: John Kinde

John Kinde — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:36:30 +0000

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

By: munish

munish — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:48:29 +0000

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

By: Laura Bergells

Laura Bergells — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:28:10 +0000

Perhaps this explains the growing popularity of Twitter!

Practice writing in 140-character microbursts to develop brevity & increase wit!