HACKER Q&A
📣 0x54MUR41

What is the effective way to develop the sense of humour?


Context: My sense of humour is pretty low. I usually take everything seriously, either at work or in my inner circle.

Is there any recommendation to develop this? Maybe books, training, and etc. Thank you.


  👤 jadamson Accepted Answer ✓
Are you trying to be less serious (i.e. change your attitude) or trying to be funny?

👤 ggm
Look in sentences for alternate meaning. The missing Oxford comma. Bad apostrophe use. Altered meaning is a bedrock of a lot of humour

Puns go back thousands of years across all languages and cultures. Recognise them, try some on for size.

Use sarcasm judiciously. It's easy to be misunderstood. Sarcastic fake racism is often mistaken for real racism when casually overheard.

There's a thin line between roasting, and bullying. If you're worried your on the receiving end, that has to be made plain.

Deadpan can be very funny.


👤 Quinzel
I have a couple of suggestions:

1. I would start by trying to not take things seriously.

How would you actually achieve this? Firstly, you could start by taking sometime to reflect on why you take things so seriously. Then maybe when you have thought about those things, you could then also ask yourself questions like, “Is there other perspectives I could have taken?”, “what would it be like to take other perspectives?”, and “what might the consequences be like?” It doesn’t take a great deal of effort, it’s just a little bit of self-reflection, and maybe meta-cognition which may allow you to see other ways of perceiving your experiences in a less serious manner. However, it is appropriate in some circumstances to be serious, so at least in that regard, you have an advantage.

2. Familiarise yourself with the art of sarcasm. I myself am sometimes sarcastic to myself, as an intentional act in order to not take myself too seriously. Additionally though, I personally use sarcasm to lighten difficult situations. I am careful however not to use sarcasm in a nasty way towards other people - which is always a risk because of the very nature of sarcasm - hence why I refer to it as an art. Needless to say, sarcasm is great. Additionally, when using sarcasm, you can risk accidentally offending people, for this reason, I caution that if you do choose to use sarcasm, you may at some point be required to admit you mis-read a situation and you will need to apologise. Some people find it difficult to admit their wrong doing and apologise - perhaps because they take themselves too seriously. If you’re one of those people who can’t do that, then probably avoid sarcasm.

3. Failing the other two methods I have suggested, there is always dad jokes. The benefit of dad jokes is that there is practically an endless supply of them on the internet and even though they’re slightly corny, they’re still fun. They’re even better if they are delivered by a middle-aged man with a dad-bod with middle childhood aged children, however the truth of the matter is that anyone can tell a dad joke and amuse others.

Good luck on your journey to being less serious :)


👤 muzani
You don't need a sense of humor to be fun. Watch Guardians of the Galaxy and mirror Drax.

👤 austin-cheney
Sarcasm.

Once I was on a specialized two person team in Afghanistan. They needed to swap out my teammate the incoming guy had spent almost his entire life on Guam. He had no concept of sarcasm at all. Before coming in country to join me the unit provided him a sensitivity brief because I was known to be exceedingly sarcastic and to not be offended by it. He adapted to my conversational style super fast and I was actually exceedingly sarcastic. He found it hilarious all the time.

Any attempt at humor can be offensive. Know your audience. It does not matter what you intend, but how they perceive it. Just relax and be a team player.

I also worked with a guy who memorized all the lame dad jokes he could find and many were really funny.


👤 yamrzou
First, it important is to accept the fact that you are a serious person and make peace with it. This is because what you resist, persists. Change occurs when one becomes what he is, not when he tries to become what he is not (See: The Paradoxical Theory of Change — https://www.gestalt.org/arnie.htm).

Second, it would be helpful to understand where seriousness comes from. Taking everything seriously is an attempt to ward off the fear of the loss of control, the fear of anything that could lead to failure or rejection and the accompanying feelings. Seriousness is the opposite of spontaneity and play. By working on this, you can make a step toward developing a sense of humour.

Hope it helps.


👤 not_your_vase
Just like everything else in 2023, sense of humor also should be developed with rust only.

👤 gardenhedge
If you were to look at a scale with serious on one side and not-serious on another. Where do you think the best employees would fall? I assume most would agree that they are towards the serious side.

👤 catlover76
Just watch a lot of funny stuff. All these recommendations suggesting behavioral change are useless tautological prescriptions ("stop taking things so seriously") and/or difficult to implement in daily life. Repeatedly exposing yourself to funny such that you absorb it by osmosis and it affects your internal thoughts is easier.

👤 WallyFunk
Humor is mixing the real with the absurd. We laugh because something is absurd, not because it's 'funny'.

👤 kwar13
"Comedy Writing Secrets" is a classic book and highly recommended!

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/51721


👤 davidhbolton
Watch some old British comedy series. BlackAdder series 2-4. Also with Rowan Atkinson, Not the Nine O'Clock news.

👤 atleastoptimal
Do stand up or improv