How to Be Funny: 7 Easy Steps to Improve Your Humor

Some people are naturally funny, but being funny is also a set of skills that can be learned. Check out these 7 easy strategies on how to be funny.

Learning how to be funny is an essential people skill.

Most people don’t realize you can learn how to be funny. In fact, I want to convince you that the funniest people hone their witty craft.

And being funny matters.

You’ll be more successful if you know how to make people laugh.

…but only the good kind of laugh, not the awkward kind:

Learning how to be funny can make everything easier. Let me tell you a story.

A year ago, I was having dinner with my favorite person. But I hadn’t said anything remotely funny in the last hour.

The dinner was great. The company was great. The awkwardness was great.

I wanted to impress this guy. And yet, all I had been saying was, “Wow…Cool” and “OMG, that’s SO amazing…” with overly dramatic dropped-jaw expressions. My heart was beating. My inner self was mocking me, “Such a loser!”

I wasn’t able to come up with anything clever on the spot.

The next day, I woke up knowing I had blown it completely. I’m sure he thought I was boring–heck, I thought I was boring!

Feeling stupid, I asked Uncle Google “How to be funny?” I got some interesting, but not all that helpful, answers. Things such as, “Listen carefully,” “Appreciate irony,” and “Be surprising.”

I’m sure those funny tips are all true, but HOW EXACTLY DO YOU USE THEM??

I set out to find actionable and easy-to-use-by-anyone ways to be funny. I went to the best:

Claire Siyan Li, after analyzing 600+ talk show videos (Yes, she admits to having mild OCD tendencies.) packed the easy-to-use humor hacks into her book Become Funny in 14 Days: Humor Hacks for Those Who Weren’t Born Funny, for anyone to be funny and witty, fast.
My friend, comedian David Nihill, who spent more than a year interviewing and studying comedians for his book, Do You Talk Funny? 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker

My goal was to uncover exact lines and formulas ANYONE can use to be funny in daily conversations. I wanted to go beyond the vague instructions that still leave me wondering what to say. Let’s change that for you too.

Using the research just mentioned, I have put together a post on how to be funnier. If you want to know how to get funnier in your personal and business life, here are the exact lines, formulas, and practical strategies.
Give the opposite answer to yes/no questions

The easiest way to be funny, even if you are not, is to give the opposite answer to yes/no questions.

Yes, it is that simple. If people are expecting you to say yes, you say no; if people are expecting you to say no, you say yes. The more obvious the better. Let’s look at why this works:

This is Jennifer Lawrence’s go-to strategy.

This clip was filmed just after Jennifer shot to fame with The Hunger Games. Don’t forget, at that time she was only around 20 years old.

Given all these factors, the reasonable and expected answer to “Are you used to it (all the attention and publicity)?” is a big fat “No.”

I bet 99 out of 100 people would have answered Ellen’s question with “NO! It’s overwhelming/amazing/crazy,” with their head shaking, modesty taking control, and giving you chapter and verse about how lucky they are and who they want to thank.

You expected Jennifer Lawrence to answer with “No.” So, when she didn’t, it became funny.

When people expect you to say yes, trying saying no.

A yes/no question is your cue.

Let’s see another example of J Law — you will know how much she loves this tactic!

Jennifer was the guest host on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, interviewing Kim Kardashian. That was a first-time for Jennifer. So, Stephen Colbert asked Jennifer about her first-time experience of being a talk show host: “Not that easy, huh?”

Guess what Jennifer said?

“Pretty easy! Not that hard!”