[gundos]

A lot of people are

just natural at it when it comes to being funny. But for those misfortunates like me, whats the best way to start

building up on being funny? or jsut a fun person to be with?

[perpelverw]

Good

comedians relate well to people (at least when they're performing); they are keen observers of human beings and

their characters; and they remember everyday stories well. Most importantly, they think lots of things are funny.

They have an element of non-selfisheness about them that enables them to focus on others. You can improve in any or

all of these areas.

Freud's 1928 paper, "Humor", was the most significant early work on humor in

psychology, though not well known, even to psychologists. In it, Freud presents humor as the highest defense

mechanism, an ability to get joy from life's ironies and paradox. I believe Freud was right on with his analysis.

So what you want to do is cultivate an ability that, whenever life's ironies get you, you need to find some

amusement in it.

Never get stuck in tragedy without also appreciating the comedy, which is its flip

side.

Watching lots of comedies and hanging out with other funny people will rub off on you as

well.

Finally, try not to take yourself too seriously. We're all unavoidably fallible, silly, limited, foolish,

flawed, ignorant, forgettable, insignificant, and extrememly temporary human beings; in an important sense. But

we're OK anyway.

[Meowmeowz]

This world is a very funny

place if you learn to look at it that way. There's a funny side to almost everything. Once you recognize that and

learn to express the humor that's all around you you'll discover you can comment on almost anything and get a

laugh.

The Doc is giving you good advice, especially that last paragraph. Don't let self conciousness prohibit

your expressing yourself when something is funny. Tone of voice, facial expressions and body language all play into

being funny. But they all come together of their own accord when you start expressing the comedy all around you.



I think another aspect of being funny is that most people are telling jokes for two reasons. To amuse themselves

and for the personal gratification of seeing another person laugh. It's kind of self serving.