You Can Be Funny & Make People Laugh

I just finished reading You Can Be Funny & Make People Laugh (Gregory Peart, 2019, 241 pages), and I really enjoyed it!

The topic of humor is somewhat close to my heart. Although I’m definitely not a funny person, and I didn’t spend much time studying humor either. This book, however, is one of my attempts to get more information about it, since I from times to times reflect on the rules behind jokes and funny stories and behaviors.

Well, this book added certainly lots of material to that library of funny stuff in my brain. And it makes it in a very lightweight way. Not repeating itself too much, but progressing nicely over a number of techniques that can be harnessed to create funny stories, comments and playful interaction.

The playfulness aspect is quite central to the book, since it focuses a lot on how different techniques open space to others to chip in with even funnier comments and continuations to things previously said. I like that line of thinking!

In short, things as contrasts, exaggeration, meta commentaries, hypotheticals, references, etc. are some of the main weapons one can use to create funny comments and stories. The book has a multitude of examples that illustrates a large number of situations and how they can play out to be on the funnier side of the spectrum.

I think the book does a great job in helping going beyond the seriousness that many of us have around us almost all the time. I’m the first to admit that I typically take things seriously and literally. And that is typically not funny at all. Although I love playful situations, and can show my childish humor in private situations, I hope this book can help creating a bridge to allow more playfulness on more serious parts of my life too.