How to Be Funny If You’re Not a Naturally Funny Person

Some beginner tips to make your fellow humans (and non-humans) laugh at your jokes.

I’m sure you’ve heard about how being funny correlated with intelligence. If you haven’t, I don’t know what kind of Earth you live on, but science says funny people are more intelligent and potentially more successful on this Earth.

So does being funny matter? You heard the scientist, it pretty much does.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t born as Tina Fey’s humanoid clone — I’m not naturally funny and it sucks.

The closest compliment I got about being funny is when my crush in 8th grade called me “silly” — which is literally a decade ago.

Even though I wasn’t born with the gift of making people laugh in all circumstances, I can be quite humorous when I’m in my inner circle or with the creatures I’m comfortable with (ask my cat). And I believe everyone can be funny if one knows the recipes.

So here, as a fellow human, I want to share some tips on how to be funny that I learned after 100,820 failed attempts to make people (and non-people) laugh.

Tip #1: Do something wrong for once in your life

Being funny means making people laugh. Agreed? Agreed.

For starters, the very first thing to be funny is to do something wrong for once in your life. Chances are, 8 years later it will be a super funny story.

I don’t need to explain a lot here. Just do something wrong. Break the rules. Do strange and silly things. Be the President of the United States. Whatever.

You don’t have to be drunk to be a "jerk," just be yourself. The likelihood is that you’ll piss some people at some point in your life. And when you do, remember what Bill Burr said:

“A good story is always you doing something wrong, you know? That’s why nice people are so damn boring. I mean, they’re nice, but their stories suck.” — Bill Burr

Tip #2: Provide a unique perspective about something, but stop throwing only sentences

It would be easier for us non-funny people to give our perspective on something since we are most likely the weird, serious people in the room who have the kind of somberly inscrutable faces that even aliens could land outside our rooms right now and we wouldn’t give away any sort of expression whatsoever.

Do you want to know why people don’t laugh at your jokes? Chances are it’s freaking boring — like the run-on DEAD sentences that I just wrote above.

What do you call a joke that isn’t funny? A sentence.

Yes, you may know a lot of things about physics, literature, or sociology, and that’s GREAT, really — but comedy isn’t rocket science.

If you want to make people laugh, stop throwing only sentences and provide some “ice-breaking” in your long explanations. Slip in some unique facts. Try to make an unexpected twist from your serious point of view.

See things from a bigger perspective and find connections in the world around you, twist it with a slightly unique point of view, and there you have it, you suddenly become the funniest person in a room consisting of you and your cat.

Tip #3: Find your own audience

Chances are you make a brilliant joke, but no one gets it.

If this happens, then you simply fail to be funny. Yes, maybe your joke is indeed the funniest joke that makes Heather Chen jealous, but remember rule number 1: being funny means making people laugh.

If people don’t laugh at your jokes, it’s very likely that you choose the wrong audience — not that they have “a poor sense of humor”.

I know you want to ask everyone at the bar, “HEEYYY… dude! Oh, you’re not a dude, I'm sorry, quick question — what if everyone once was a zombie and there was a human apocalypse?” but no one seems to take you seriously. Of course, you’re freaking drunk.

But hey, it’s okay. It sucks that your new pal who you just called “dude” doesn’t even know what “apocalypse” means, but it’s not the end of the world!

You need to move on — before you got kicked out by the bartender, or the dude — and find other groupies who will appreciate your driest jokes like the Atacama Desert.

Tip #4: Get feedback from living beings

“An onion can make people cry, but there’s never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.” — Will Rogers

We cry because of onions. That's a perfectly normal earthling behavior.

Assuming we are all from Earth, it’s important to find your real human friends with earthling behavior as well — definitely not a bottle or a vegetable.

Find people who speak the human language so they can talk back to you and give feedback — such as rolling on the floor laughing — when you make jokes.

Don’t forget that they also have to be alive and breathing. Yes, it’s surprising that both are necessary for the equation to make people laugh.

The last time I checked, dead people can’t laugh since their lungs are no longer functioning, and when you laugh it means more oxygen enters your lungs.

No oxygen? No laugh. No feedback, hence not funny.

“Dead men laugh no laughs.” — My Grandmother (who’s dead now).

Bonus tip: Watch funny people and (actually) learn from them

“A prudent man should always follow in the footsteps of great men and imitate those who have been outstanding.“ — Niccolo Machiavelli

Bonus tip: the easiest way to learn is by imitating. It’s the key benefit everybody knows but forgets to implement on a super-conscious level.

If you want to be funny — or to be anything, really — retrain your mind to be your ally, not your enemy.

The best thing you can do to be funny is probably this:

Throw the 4 tips I’ve mentioned above out of the window. Forget I ever said anything. You already forgot them by now, didn't you? It’s cool. Now, just watch funny people and actually learn from them.

That’s it.

Are you kidding me? You’re saying I should just imitate funny people and steal their technique?

Umm… Yes? That’s kinda part of our biological nature since 2000 years ago; we learn by imitating.

I know, it’s better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation, but hey, Einstein, read the title of this article again. This is about how to be funny, not how to write a less than 20% plagiarism score scientific paper.

People don’t care if you’re original or not, they only care whether or not you make them laugh. You can be sad all you want, but that’s just the truth.

You’ll thank me later.

Takeaway

Just like everything else in this world, being funny takes practice. If you’re not naturally funny like me, you can try the 4 tips above. Or just the last bonus tip. People love bonuses more than advice, right?

The bottom line is, don’t be afraid to make jokes, even if you think no one would laugh. If you failed, you can always get back home and retell your jokes to your cats, dogs, iguanas, or whatever pets you have.

They probably don’t care.

So at least you gained self-esteem by having a mindset shift from “I’m so sad, I’m not funny…” to “Screw it, not even a single soul cares.” and after that, feel free to go cry silently in the corner.

I did that too.

Screw it, not even a single soul cares.

Now, this is the part where you realize that this whole article isn’t about you — but about me. My sincere apology for wasting your time. Here’s a picture of a beach to lift your mood.

Unless it is a fake beach.

Thanks for reading, you unfunny son of a beach.