Hopefully after that last behemoth of a post you have a few ideas on how to add more humor to your interactions gracefully and effectively, and those videos gave you a welcome break from reading. Next I'd like to talk about a few techniques that can be used with any and all types of humor to inject more laughing into your sets.

Techniques for Applying Humor

1) Escalating the Joke - This is possibly the most useful tool I have ever stumbled across. The opportunity to escalate the joke occurs when you are in a situation where somebody else has already established a funny vibe and people are laughing about a particular subject. It is at this point that you want to "one-up" the original joke-maker by taking his humor to a new level or in a different and unexpected but still related direction. Here's an example of escalating the joke from a (paraphrased) real conversation my wing and I had with a set a few weeks ago:

Target: Did you know you can add a little bleach to your toothpaste and it will whiten them?
>Other girls seem generically interested, make small comments<
Wing: Wait, what?! Did you just say you add bleach to your toothpaste?!
Target: Yeah, it whitens your teeth!
Wing: So does sulfiric acid! That doesn't mean I put it in my mouth!
>Set erupts into laughter<
Me: Wait a minute, what about acid?
Wing: She says she adds bleach to her toothpaste to whiten her teeth!
Me: Are you fucking serious? Jesus, do you wash your hair with laundry detergent?!
>Set erupts into more laughter<

Now as you can see, the original joke made by my friend (sufiric acid) was a bit of imaginative humor that caused the group of girls to laugh and enjoy themselves around what would otherwise have been a rather dull conversation. The interaction could have easily drifted back to less stimulating conversation relatively quickly after that, but he brought me into the set and I used more imaginative humor to escalate the joke in a new direction--since bleach is a household chemical and teeth are a body part, I used a different household chemical and a different body part. The set is now laughing uncontrollably. Continuing on:

Wing: Seriously, Target, that's like using steel wool as a washcloth!
>Set is now freaking out, laughing so hard they're crying and spilling their drinks<

For the next phase of the joke sequence, he used an even heavier dose of imaginative humor to further escalate the joke in a new, but still related, direction. We could have gone on like this all night, but an interesting fact about joke escalation is that whoever does the FINAL "raise" usually ends up getting "credit" for the entire humorous sequence. In this instance, I want my friend to get those sexy points rather than me, so we let the joke die there, moving on to a new thread and leaving him in a higher value position than before it. The good emotions of laughter from that sequence are now anchored to my wing. If we had ended it with one of my "raises," those feelings could have just as easily been anchored to me.

2) Delayed Referencing - This technique is best used when you have been in "comfort mode" for too long and need to turn up the flirtiness of the interaction a little bit. It's most effective if there is something you teased her about for a while earlier in the night and have occasionally touched on since then, but it can be used for any memorably humorous portion of your interaction. All it entails is simply bringing up a joke from further back in the interaction with the proper comedic timing. For example, if she is about to get up to go buy another drink, and you opened her after she slipped on a wet spot on the floor and fell on her ass, this is an ideal time to reference the way you two met with a clever quip about her balance:

Me: Careful now, I know you have a hard time with this walking thing ... maybe I better walk you over there!
>she laughs loudly<
Me: Seriously, do I need to go down to Rite Aid and get you a walker?
>hahahahahaha<

I just made that scenario and conversation up right now and realized it's a good combination of delayed referencing AND escalation of my own joke. THAT is how humor is done, my friends

To be continued ...

Your boy,
870

Because i feel lazy just saying "This is good" i am going to add something.
Inside jokes are gold, preferable something between you and the girl that you do or say that makes her laugh her ass off. When you and her are in a group of people, and one of you mention the inside joke and you are the only two laughing liek crazy people it shows there is a strong connection between the two of you.
A great way of making a inside joke, is when something funny naturally happens, exaggerate it and make it so every time you mention (preferably 1 work) it you both start to chuckle.

Btw, this is a great thread
Madals

Well explained 870.

Keep it coming cos we can all improve on stuff.

Magnetik

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also, to expand on an earlier point, it really helps to watch more comedy. even shitty sitcoms that you wouldn't watch otherwise, immersing yourself in that stuff would get you into the funny mood before you hit the clubs.

awesome thread, 870!

Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this thread so far, I think this is a really nice compilation of information on how to be funny. This is going to be the final post I make on this topic, covering the last few points I wanted to touch on. All you guys out there reading, I hope you learned a lot! And thank you for participating.

The Value of Purposeful Misinterpretation

Chances are you have probably already read somewhere that purposely misinterpreting what a woman says as having a sexual context is a very effective method for setting a sexual frame for the interaction. Perhaps you even have some experience under your belt using this technique--if so, awesome! It's also a very valuable method for injecting humor into a set. The application is simple: anything that she says which can be construed as something humorous, do it. Here's an example from a (paraphrased) conversation I had with a girl a few days ago:

Me: Yeah, it's been too long. We'll have to get together sometime!
Her: Well I dunno when it will be, I'm a wanted woman these days!
Me: Really? What did you do?
Her: What are you talking about?
Me: Well if you're wanted it must be pretty serious. Did you kill somebody or something?

Here I have used a touch of innuendo to imply that by "wanted" she meant "wanted by the police." I did this without intending to be funny (alas, my hood-mentality strikes again) but afterward realized just how great of a sequence it was, and of course she laughed hysterically.

A Word About Timing

There are two reasons I saved the discussion on comedic timing for last: 1) because it is the most important aspect of humor, and 2) because it's very difficult to explain in text. Aside from the obvious situations where making a joke about something is inappropriate--serious discussions, funerals, etc.-- there are a plethora of times where using comedy comes off as contrived and drains value from the interaction. The only way to really understand this is to experience it in person. Like anything else, comedic timing must be calibrated in field, so get out there and start making women laugh

Your boy,
870

I got to see dane cook live and front row at the laugh factory for my birthday and he is amazing. Awesome way of involving everyone there.

I didn't read all of your posts so forgive me if I'm repeating something.

Paying attention to the sources from which you draw your humor is important.
If you constantly make fun of the things she says it comes across as formulaic and eventually not clever, boring, and even insulting.

There's situational humor.
Where your comment is on a certain situation you are presently in.

There's humor drawn from conversation. [puns, riddles, etc] plays on words, or on the current conversation.

There's humor drawn from your surroundings [I find this funny when done right. Boring when done wrong]

Example: The door to her apartment is unlocked.
you> Do you just keep the criminals out with the honor system?
upping your own joke, miming the criminal> "Knock knock! I saw your door was unlocked and just figured maybe you were home so I shouldn't steal from you right now!"

Ultimately humor is about noticing something, and responding to it in an original way. The best humor ever is a response to your own invention. Willy Wonka style.

And it is true, that the lowest form of humor is sarcasm. [Note: Cynicism, witticism, and satire are different than sarcasm] Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor because it is formulaic, therefore predictable, and only a small negative contribution to a conversation. It usually brings everyone down, and it depresses/ devalues the entire set.

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Well that explains alot, I use alot of sarcasm and people say I have a big mouth or am a smartass (Not in a good teasing kinda way).

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I think that humour is one of those things that can't be taught in the short-term, but rather acquired and learned over time and exposure. It'll take a long time to sharpen your wit and your timing if you have none to begin with, and it'll take even longer to find the particular sort of humour that you're good at, be it physical, sardonic or angry.

Where did you learn this? Also any recommendations on books or any other resources where I can learn to be funny?

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I learned it by living, experiencing and taking note of things along the way. If you read this thread in its entirety (I posted several articles here), you will have a pretty complete view of the basic concepts of humor. From there, you really just need to get out and try things until you find something that works and fits your personality.

Your boy,
870

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http://tinyurl.com/c6lbje<-Member Journal (PMZ Only)

Is it really possible to learn to be funny? I mean at the moment, I suck at being that 'funny guy'

Yes, it definitely is.

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An approach a day keeps the guru away.

interesting cool stuff bro thanks appreciate it

great post!