Saturday, December 29, 2012

How to Laugh out Loud

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Laughing out loud is good for your health, an obvious sign of happiness, and contagious and therefore essential practice for cheering up a grumpy group of people.

Steps

Read a funny book. Be sure to laugh out loud when it really does hit the funny spot.
Watch a video on Youtube that you think is funny. Have a good laugh out loud, then share it with friends and laugh again.
- Try watching videos of people laughing. It's contagious.
Watch a funny comedy show. Again, don't just sit there passively but laugh along loudly with the jokes and funny parts.
Read comics. Read them out loud and laugh at the funny parts.
Watch a funny movie. Dumb and Dumber is good if you like potty humor. Find your comedy genre and set up an evening for laughing out loud.
Shake jokes with a friend.

Warnings

Laughing out loud is frowned upon in quiet public places such as the library.

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Finding Happiness Real Happiness

If you were to read this, and I remove the condition of if immediately because you are, then you cannot negate that you are interested in happiness; perhaps very interested in happiness. We all want it whether we recognize it and we are scheming for getting it or not. We all want it sooner or later and preferably as much as possible too, right? You either have it or you don't. If you don't have it what can you do about getting it?

Firstly, let us take a quick look at the views of a sprinkling of some of the world's great sages and points of view and see what we can get from that on the subject.

The Buddha's view was that the removal of suffering and craving opens the path to happiness.

Thomas Aquinas got there by substituting his feelings of the loss of a friend for a relationship with God.

Mencius considered that doing righteous deeds would lead to happiness by strengthening well-being.

In the Indian tradition the ultimate happiness or ultimate Samadhi is that which replaces life's cycles of pleasure and pain and acquisition and loss.

Al-Ghazali inferred that happiness is attained by replacing this earthly life with one in a hereafter that has been earned by means correctly applied in this world.

So there we have five global views in which an awful lot of people put an awful lot of faith.

Interestingly each one infers that getting happiness arrives in the form of a substitution. I replace X with Y and then I get Z, which is happiness. What about doing absolutely nothing, no substitutions or replacements just be yourself as you are, always have been and always will be. Your mind just has to figure out who and/or what the Self is. In fact it is even easier than that: no figuring out at all just acceptance of reality as it really really is and that reveals the prize of undiminishing and undiminishable happiness and on top of it all happiness now! -- Article written in support of the movement to spread the good word of Man's true nature.
Or click here for the home page Source: http://www.articletrader.com

How to Be Funny

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Being funny is not about mocking or disrespectful. It's about being genuinely humorous and encouraging people to share a laugh together. Having a good sense of humor has many benefits. It helps you see the lighter side of life, it brings happiness to everyone you meet, and it's been recognized as an important part of getting a job. A survey of 737 CEOs found that 98 percent of them favored hiring someone with a sense of humor over someone who didn't.[1] Shuck off your stern self and tickle your funny bone with the following fun steps!

Steps

Sample Jokes Wordplay Examples Sample Brain Teasers Self Deprecating Humor Examples Part 1: Getting Started

Trust in your inner sense of humor. Being funny doesn't come in a "one-size-fits-all" package. What makes you funny is unique to you and the way you observe the world. Trust that you do have a funny bone; as babies we laugh from 4 months of age, and all children express humor naturally from kindergarten age, using humor to entertain themselves and others.[2] So know that it's already in you – you just need to bring it out!
- Find the things that make you laugh. They will probably make others laugh as well. And if they don't, you can't win them all, can you? Search for books, movies, shows, photos, stories, words, poems, people, incidents, follies, catastrophes, etc., that you've found funny. Keep a note of them.
- Do funny things and enjoy the things that make you laugh. Read a comic strip, share jokes with the kids, give in to "silly things" just because, and laugh as often as you can. Developing a sense of humor means laughing as much as it does being able to get others to laugh.
- Find out why things make you laugh. So you want to be funny? Well, then, you're going to have to do a little studying. When you see or hear something funny, ask yourself, "Why do I think this is funny?" Why do we think a picture of our boss dressed up as a baby is funny? What's so side-splitting about an alien smoking a cigarette in a cowboy hat? The more you dive into the reasoning, the likelier you are to be able to turn similar jokes going forward.
Learn a little about what makes us laugh. Laughter itself is unconscious – while it is possible for us to keep ourselves from laughing (not always successfully), it is very hard for us to produce laughter on demand, and doing so will usually seem "forced."[3][4] Fortunately, laughter is very contagious (we're about 30 times more likely to laugh in the presence of others),[5] and in a social context, it's easy to start laughing when others are laughing.[6]
- Three things make us laugh the most: a sense of superiority over someone else behaving "dumber" than us; a difference between our expectation of something and the actual result; or welcome relief from an anxiety.
- Think about expectations vs. actual result, or its fancy definition, cognitive incongruity. We expect something because it's normal or everyday to expect it, and we're surprised when our expectation turns out to be completely wrong. This surprise is basically the reason we laugh.[7]
  - Comedian Jackie Mason illustrates the point: "My grandfather always said, 'Don't watch your money; watch your health.' So one day while I was watching my health, someone stole my money. It was my grandfather."
  - This joke messes with one of our fundamental expectations: that grandparents are nice, friendly people who are utterly harmless. The joke is funny because, in it, we are presented with a grandparent who is rascally, thievish, and double-crossing.
- Different things make different people laugh. Some people find that sensationalism causes them to laugh; others find that satire does the trick. Learn which is which, and deliver your jokes and anecdotes so that they apply to many different categories of humor and emotion at once.
  - Not everyone knows what it's like to ride in a helicopter or be a millionaire or have a baby. But most people know what it's like to go fast, fantasize about money, and love another person deeply. So make your jokes cover more ground by utilizing really basic, but profound, human emotions.

Part 2: What Makes Something Funny?

Mislead the mind. Misleading the mind is what we referred to earlier as surprise, or cognitive incongruity. This is when you create a difference between what someone expects to happen and what actually happens. Verbal jokes use this element to the greatest level possible, trying to misdirect your attention in the same that magic tricks do.[8]
- Basically, this technique relies on cognitive processing errors, turning assumptions upside down, and word confusion. All of this happens quickly and unconsciously, and humor becomes your brain's "graceful" way of coping with the mixed signals; if you "get" the joke, you'll be laughing.
  - For example: "What happens to liars when they die?" Answer - "They lie still." This joke works because you have to interpret the joke in two ways, and the brain is temporarily confused by its inability to draw on usual experience.[9]
- The aim is to keep what's coming up a total surprise, and then to totally turn around our assumptions about what's going to happen.[10]
  - Consider Groucho Marx's clever one-liner, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read," or Rodney Dangerfield's line, "My wife met me at the door the other night in a sexy negligee. Unfortunately, she was just coming home."
Go to boring or unfunny places. It's good to know that the less funny a place is, the easier it becomes to add the element of humorous surprise. On the flip side, it's far harder to have the element of surprise where humor is expected — a stand-up comedy joint, for example.[11]
- This, again, has to do with expectation: We expect boring places to have little or no laughter in them, and we go to a comedy club in order to laugh. So it's easier to get people to laugh about an office workplace than it is to get people to laugh in a comedy club.
- This is why The Office, the NBC show, uses an office as its setting: it's about as boring as it gets. (For goodness sake, they process paper. How boring is that?!) We're not used to looking at an office as a funny place, so when it is funny, it's especially funny.
- Remember Christopher Guest's mockumentary Best In Show? The movie is about dog owners who compete in a dog competition. Guest shows us how all the dog owners display every emotion known to man, and how they are a microcosm of our larger society. The part that makes the movie funny is that it's about a dog competition. If you're looking for laughs, going to a dog competition is about the last place you'd look to go.
- Serious situations are much like serious places. A lot of our humor derives from very serious events and situations in our daily lives. This famous witticism by Winston Churchill proves the point. An MP asks him during a session of parliament: "Mr. Churchill, must you fall asleep while I'm speaking?" Churchill responds, "No, it's purely voluntary."
Strike while the iron is hot. Good timing is really important, because if you give the brain too much time to work out a situation or joke, the funny moment will pass by. This is probably why jokes people have heard before don't work, as recognition dulls the humor because the brain is already primed by experience.[12] React quickly and strike while the humorous moment exists.
- One liners, or comebacks, can be good fun. Someone says something that, by itself, isn't funny. And you whip back with something that makes what they said really funny. Timing is crucial here. Your humorous statement needs to come out quickly and fully-formed.
  - For example, your friend is thinking about hair, for some reason, and he says: "Isn't it weird that we only have hair on our heads and in our pubic areas?" The friend is not really even expecting a response. You say: "Speak for yourself."
- Funny comebacks don't always have to be laugh-out-loud, either. Witty comebacks impress the audience long after the moment has left, causing them to smile in amusement.
  - Take this exchange between famous writers William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, for example. Faulkner says about Hemingway's simple writing style: "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Hemingway shoots back: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
- If the timing is all wrong, don't mess with the joke. The worst you can do as a funny person is try to deliver a joke after your window of opportunity has passed. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of opportunities to crack through the silence with your whip of a wit.
Learn other comedy basics. We've explored the expectation v. results idea, along with unfunny places/situations and comedic timing, but there are a few comedy essentials that you should know to round out your education.
- Witty wordplay and puns. A lot of the time, comedy comes from linguistic confusion (unintentional) or linguistic playfulness (intentional).
  - Freudian slips are linguistic errors that are believed to expose what you were really thinking rather than what you "meant" to say, and are often of a sexual nature.
  - Witty wordplay is more intentional: "A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion." Or this one, where the words "hockey" and "fight" are switched: "I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out."
- Change someone's status. Changing a person's status, or the status of something long held to be true, can be very funny. For example, having a CEO of a company ask the receptionist for advice on how to run the company.
  - Or, as Stephen Colbert did, taking a tried and true saying such as "Be the change you want to see in the world" and telling people "[P]lease don’t do that. Some of us like it the way it is. Personally, things are going great for me right now.”[13]
- Know your audience. Have a reasonable idea of what those around you find funny. When you're in a group of people you don't know, for example, just listen to what subjects they're talking about and what's making them laugh. Are they the witty banter type? The slapstick, or physical comedy type? The better you know someone, the easier it will be to make them laugh.

Part 3: Expanding Your Material

Broaden your factual knowledge or joke material. It is much easier to find funny moments in material you know well – your workplace attitudes, your amazing knowledge of 17th century poetry, your familiarity with fishing trips that went wrong, etc. Whatever the material, though, it also needs to resonate with your audience, meaning that your concise ability to deconstruct a 17th century poem might not hit its mark with somebody not familiar with the piece!
- Broaden your horizons so that you are tuned-in regardless of who you're speaking to. If you can find the humor in physics and Paris Hilton, for example, you're well on your way. Drawing an interesting parallel between two wildly different subjects can be very funny, if done well.
- Work your smarts. In a way, being funny is simply showing that you are intelligent enough to find the humorous nuances that others miss. Comics do this routine all the time. They point out the hygienic customs of the clergy, for example, or the breeding practices of chimpanzees, relating it effortlessly back to something the average person knows and understands.
- Be observant. While knowing a lot can increase your capacity for humor, there's no substitute for seeing a lot. In fact, many very knowledgeable people fail to see the humor in things. Look for the humor in everyday situations, and see what others don't. Often, the unnoticed humor that is standing right in front of our eyes has the most impact.
Learn from funny people. You can expand your reach a good deal by listening to other funny people. Whether they're professional comedians, your parents, your kids, or your boss, learning from the funny people in your life is a key step to being funny yourself. Keep a note of some of the funnier things these people say or do. And find what you admire most in these people. Even if all you do is cobble together your own funny plan based on one admired trait from each person, you'll be improving your sense of funny tremendously. Immersing yourself like this will help you develop a toolbox of techniques you can use to be funny:
- Hang out with funny people. Their humor will rub off on you. You'll get plenty of opportunities to reel off jokes in supportive environment. If your jokes don't work on your friends, you can discard them and look for other ones that might.
- Watch funny shows. There are many, many TV shows and movies packed with excellent comedy. The British, for example, have a very dry, witty sense of humor that concerns itself primarily with cultural matters, whereas Americans have more of a slapstick, physical humor that often involves issues of sex and race. Getting a good helping of both will help you understand different cultural attitudes towards humor.
- Watch improvisers. All good comedians are improvisers, but comedians choose to improvise for a living and the experience can be hilarious. Attend an improv show and take part in it as much as you can – you'll laugh a lot and observe exactly how they take vague, unknown scenarios and turn them into something instantly funny.
Read, read, read. Get your hands on anything and everything that is funny, and consume it like your mom told you not to. Chemists become chemists by reading and practicing chemistry; sports writers become sports writers by reading and writing about sports; you're going to become a funnier person by reading and practicing jokes.
- There are many excellent authors writing funny literature. Do a search online for lists of humorous authors, or check out the authors in the humor section in book stores.
  - Read works by people like James Thurber, P.G. Wodehouse, Stephen Fry, Kaz Cooke, Sarah Silverman, Woody Allen, Bill Bryson, Bill Watterson, Douglas Adams, etc. (Don't forget children's books by good authors; they can be a terrific source for good humor!)
- Read joke books. It won't hurt to have a few good jokes memorized. Hopefully, reading good jokes might inspire you to start making up your own jokes and witticisms. When reading them, try to pick apart the elements that make them good jokes. Equally, try to work out why some jokes do not work. Just because you wrote it doesn't mean that it's good; it can be hard to stare at our own work objectively, so get feedback from someone who doesn't know you well (that way they won't sugarcoat the news, whatever it is).
- Read one-liners. One liners can steal the show. Dorothy Parker was brilliant with one-liners; for example, when told that Calvin Coolidge had died, she replied: "How can they tell?"
  - You'll need quick wit and readiness for delivering good one-liners but studying other people's can inspire your own. Or think of Calvin Coolidge himself; a woman came to him and said: "Mr. Coolidge, I made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." Coolidge replied, "You lose."

Part 4: The Benefits of Being Funny

Focus on the benefits of being funny. From a motivational point of view, as you travel along the path to becoming funnier, it is helpful to understand the extensive benefits of being a funny person. There are benefits both for the comedian and the audience:
- Humor can energize you and leave you feeling a lot more alert. Laughing works our stomach muscles and leaves us with that light, blissed-out feeling. It can be like a "mind-break" without having to travel.
- Humor can reduce anxiety. Using humor before an exam, test, or presentation is the ideal way to defuse tension and reduce anxiety levels. A well-timed joke, especially in the beginning, can turn an awkward situation into an opportunity for social bonding.
- Laughter can relieve pain. Numerous studies point to the ability of laughter to relieve serious pain and illness for defined periods of time.[14] Being funny when you visit a friend in hospital can be a breath of fresh air for them.
Use humor to break down barriers between people. Laughter itself is considered to be a "universal language".[15] Steve Allen said that humor acts as a "social lubricant and humanizing agent,"[16] giving it an important place during even the most serious of times. During both World Wars, for example, comedians and cartoonists worked to maintain morale among both troops and citizens.
- Being funny can help people to learn. Whenever you're in a position to teach people, using humor can be a fantastic tool for easing the learning process. Relieving anxiety in a classroom or workplace so that those learning are more receptive to what is being taught is an age-old tradition that works.[17]
- Being funny can boost creativity. David M Ogilvy recognized this when he said: "The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible." Consider the case of Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize-winning physicist, who was a lifelong prankster and wit, even while he was working on the Manhattan Project.
- Being funny can make you seem a lot less scary. Have you ever experienced a moment where you've frightened a small child but you've quickly turned the situation around by telling a joke, or making fun of your scary height or appearance? This is a natural reaction when we want to make ourselves seem less frightening to others.
Rise up the corporate ladder with humor. Peter Ustinov made a very insightful comment that "comedy is simply a funny way of being serious." In fact, if you're recognized as being both a good worker and funny, you'll be the person others want to spend time around. Being funny at work can help build teams and relieve workplace stress. In addition, funny people tend to be creative thinkers, intent on keeping an open mind about work challenges, as well as seeking new ways to fix them.[18]
- Give a thought to being a funny leader. A leader who loosens up allows the team to loosen up too. If you're in a leadership or management role, set a tone that encourages good humor around the workplace and encourages fun to be a part of workplace life. Find out from your employees what their idea of fun is and start to build relationships of trust based on allowing fun into the workplace.
- Consider creating fun ways of tackling hard problems. Taking difficult work situations and turning them into funny ones might seem frivolous, but it can be an amazing way to turn around a bad situation.
  - For example, a team suffering from low morale can be uplifted by humor, which is what happened when a Pennsylvanian bank started a "Worst Customer of the Week" award, complete with champagne prize rewarded to the employee who told the worst tale of customer behavior each week. The result was that every teller started going out of their way to serve the most difficult customers.[19] Who would have thought?!

Part 4: Putting It All Together

Be prepared to put your own shortcomings in the spotlight. Good comedians tend to use themselves as the principal target for humor, because they know their own faults so well. On the other hand, it's a way for them to show others the warts-and-all side of their personality, instantly connecting with our own warts-and-all side.
- George Bernard Shaw summed it up well: "When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth." We all spend so much time trying to be better people, often smothering unpleasant truths about ourselves, that humor becomes a way of releasing the tension.
- Don't take yourself so seriously. Remember the most embarrassing moments in your life so far, the monumental stuff-ups, the times you refused to make changes, the breakdowns in communications that you played a major part in, and maybe even the time you tried to be funny around your friends and only crickets chirped.
- Telling other people about very embarrassing moments in your life is a great way to get them to laugh. Take a page from famous improv comic Colin Mochrie, who said: "He had the kind of face only a mother could love, if that mother was blind in one eye and had that kind of milky film over the other... but still, he was my identical twin."
- Be able to point out things about yourself that others might be too scared to mention. For example, if you're really tall, or have bad teeth, or maybe could stand to lose a few pounds, make a joke about it. It'll give people a warm invitation to laugh at you, because you're capable of laughing at yourself.
  - If you happen to be older, deliver something like this point fun at stereotypes about old people: "People call me at 9 PM and ask, 'Did I wake you?'"
Be self-deprecating and humble. These traits can make you appear approachable and when you're being funny, it shows other people that you're like them, you've been through the same trials they have, and that you're a regular person. Just make sure to make light of the right things, and not come off as self-destructive or insecure, as these can be more pitiable and pathetic than funny. Deep psychological personal issues can draw attention away from the humor and towards the individual[20]
- Here are some great self-deprecating jokes to give you a feel for the many flavors of making fun of yourself.
  - Rodney Dangerfield made fun of both his sanity and his looks with this one: "I went to the psychiatrist, and he says 'You're crazy.' I tell him I want a second opinion. He says, 'Okay, you're ugly too!'"
  - Redd Foxx had this to say about his silly devotion to drugs and alcohol: "I feel sorry for people who don’t drink or do drugs. Because someday they’re going to be in a hospital bed, dying, and they won’t know why."
  - And, finally, one from Henry Youngman: "I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother."
- Be an active listener (and therefore lifelong learner). Listen carefully to others, really hear them, and understand what they're about. There's nothing more humble than admitting that you can always learn to be funnier from other people. When you're busy focused on people other than yourself, you'll get a better sense of how to help others through humor. It will also enable you to observe and relate the small joys of life too – making your funny self more believable and empathetic.
Know when not to be funny. Steve Allen noted that anything could be dealt with humorously, including religion, death, cancer, oppression, etc., but he stressed that this doesn't make it socially appropriate to do so.[21]
- Getting the balance right is important when you're trying to be funny; there are times when being humorous about something solemn or tragic will fall flat and insult people. Rely on your common sense and the feedback that your least favorite member of the family is starting to glare at you with deep malice.
- Do the "how would I feel?" test. Will Rogers once said: "Everything is funny as long as it is happening to Somebody Else." Would it be so funny if you were the target of the humor? This is not mooted by the fact that all good humorists should be able to laugh at themselves – know the difference between good, healthy humor and poor taste, or hurtful insults.
- Be especially careful about cracking jokes or pulling pranks in the following situations: workplace, funerals and weddings, places of worship (or religious events), whenever your humor could be mistaken for harassment or discrimination, or if your humor might physically harm somebody (for example, a prank).
Spring back. Every well-rounded, self-confident funny person knows how to take a failed funny – forgive yourself. Sometimes a joke will fall flat, or an observation that cracks you up will just make others groan. Don't be discouraged.
- Learn from your comedic errors, and keep trying. Even the highest paid comedians don't always get a laugh, and no one expects anybody to be funny all the time. If you feel like you're temporarily off your game, don't force it!

Video

Using skill, practice, and timing, you can learn to tell a joke well.

Tips

Gender matters. Men tend to tell more jokes, tease and disparage (hostile humor), and enjoy slapstick humor, whereas women tend to prefer telling a story, usually in a self-deprecating manner, that elicits a response of group solidarity from other females. [22] Interestingly, the roles reverse when you stick men and women together – men tend to tone down the teasing while women turn it up and target it at men, losing much of their self-deprecation in the process![23]
Remember to include non-verbal funny cues, such as doing a funny dance, or making a funny noise, where these are appropriate.
Keep it fresh. Staying on one subject can grow tiresome quickly; learn to flip to new topics to keep your humor fresh during an occasion of repartee!
Practice callbacks. You may have noticed that many comedians will tell a joke and then bring it back in one version or another, usually getting as big a laugh (or bigger) on the second time than on the first. This is called a callback, and you can use this technique, too. If you come up with a joke or observation that gets a big laugh, subtly bring it back a little later. As a general rule, though, don't try to call something back more than 3 times.
Fake it till you make it. This adage counts for being funny as much as for confidence. You can smile even when you don't feel like it, and the result is an improvement in mood.[24] Try being funny too, even when you don't feel like it; you'll notice an appreciable improvement in your mood!
Practice being funny. Everything improves with practice but it's important to practice in a low-risk environment first and to build up your funnier self to wider audiences as you improve. Your family and friends will be most forgiving, while your staff will be apprehensive if you're suddenly shape-shifting into a funnier person, and a large audience will expect you to be good from the start. Practicing with people you trust and who can give you constructive feedback is a good way to start.
Don't laugh at your own jokes until everyone else is laughing. It will not only make it seem you're trying too hard to be funny, but it can also spoil the funny moment and nobody else will feel inclined to laugh. Avoid "canned laughter" for individuals.
If you wait too long, even very funny comments will lose their impact. For example, if someone says something to you and you think of a witty comeback two hours later, you're probably better off just keeping it to yourself. It won't be funny anymore, and you'll look slow, and possibly daft.
What is funny has cultural overlays. Something funny in the USA may be perplexing in France, for example. Keep this in mind, and try to find universally shared funny stories.

Warnings

Some people will always take themselves overly seriously – while they're riper for being a source of humor than anyone else, on the whole, it pays to not over-target them. All the same, don't let their arrogance, insecurities, or stubborn attachment to solemnity bring you down. Recognize that terribly serious people can be very difficult to work and live with, and keep a good distance from them if your humor is rubbing them the wrong way.
Be very careful with being funny about sacred cows, from religion to politics. Everything can be funny but sometimes if you go "too far" in someone else's eyes, they'll call you on it. Be ready for that, and be armed with your reasons. All the same, keep in mind that not all calls on you for "insulting" someone or "beliefs" are good calls – sometimes your humor will have touched a raw nerve that deserved to be exposed – remember that humor often exposes truth.

Overall, to get a genuine giggle, don't be rude or disrespect anyone, just have the right timing and the perfect saying that will get a laugh out if everyone, and lastly, don't make a dumb joke jsu to get attention. It will make people think you need and want attention so you will take it away from others.

Things You'll Need

Humorous books, DVDs, TV channels
Theater tickets for comedies and improvisation performances
A humourous personality

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

↑ The Humor Project, Inc, Taking Humor Seriously, http://www.humorproject.com/doses/default.php?number=1
↑ Church, Ellen Booth, Joking Around, Scholastic Parent & Child, 10700552, Apr/May2005, Vol. 12, Issue 5
↑ Robert Provine, A big mystery: Why do we laugh?, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077386/ns/technology_and_science-science/
↑ James Butcher, Have you heard the one about the prefontal cortex?, vol 358 The Lancet, December 22/29, 2001, 2136
↑ Mark Buchanan, Did you hear the one about the computer with a sense of humour?, New Scientist, 02624079, 11/24/2007, Vol. 196, Issue 2631
↑ Robert Provine, A big mystery: Why do we laugh?, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077386/ns/technology_and_science-science/
↑ http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/publications/Humor.htm
↑ Jordan Cooper, How to be funny without even trying, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/01/16/how-to-be-funny-without-even-trying/
↑ Mark Buchanan, Did you hear the one about the computer with a sense of humour?, New Scientist, 02624079, 11/24/2007, Vol. 196, Issue 2631 (Joke from this reference also).
↑ Uncyclopedia, How to be funny and not just stupid, http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Uncyclopedia:How_To_Be_Funny_And_Not_Just_Stupid
↑ Jordan Cooper, How to be funny without even trying, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/01/16/how-to-be-funny-without-even-trying/
↑ Mark Buchanan, Did you hear the one about the computer with a sense of humour?, New Scientist, 02624079, 11/24/2007, Vol. 196, Issue 2631
↑ Kelly Lack, Colbert to Class of 2008: Don't Change the World, http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/06/02/21265/
↑ H Friedman, L Friedman, T Amoo, Using humor in the introductory statistics course, http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v10n3/friedman.html
↑ Marc Tyler Nobleman, Made you laugh, Read, p. 6
↑ How to be funny, Electronic Ardell Wellness Report (E-AWR), 11/03/2000
↑ H Friedman, L Friedman, T Amoo, Using humor in the introductory statistics course, http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v10n3/friedman.html
↑ Robert Half International, Laugh Your Way up the Corporate Ladder, http://www.workvine.com/heard_can_i_get_that.html
↑ Don Oldenburg, Bosses grin and bear it: Humor catches on as a management tool, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3766045.html
↑ Megan Hustad, How to be useful, (2008), p. 144, ISBN 978-0-74328-616-9
↑ How to be funny, Electronic Ardell Wellness Report (E-AWR), 11/03/2000
↑ C.N. What's So Funny? Scientific American Mind, 15552284, May/Jun2010, Vol. 21, Issue 2
↑ C.N. What's So Funny? Scientific American Mind, 15552284, May/Jun2010, Vol. 21, Issue 2
↑ Oprah, 10 Social Skills Everyone Can Master, http://www.oprah.com/relationships/10-Social-Skills-Everyone-Can-Master/2

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Be Funny. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Friday, December 28, 2012

How to Make Yourself Laugh

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Everybody loves a good laugh, but don't you wish you could really laugh whenever you wanted? Here's how to cheer yourself up with a good laugh!

Steps

Think of something funny. Remember something really funny that has happened in the past. Then think about it to test if this is enough to trigger automatic laughing. Once you find a memory that works, store it for needed moments.
Think about your funny moment at random times. Superimpose this funny incident onto something mundane right now, to make it even more ridiculous and out-of-sequence.
Perceive things in a funny way. Picture pink underpants on men in bowler hats, imagine green cucumber-shaped ears on serious little schoolgirls, think of a large wart growing off the front of a politician's nose. Whatever gets you laughing, imagine it.
Go viral. If your laughter is contagious, laughing on demand becomes even easier as others catch on and the joke becomes even more amusing. Once started, it can sometimes be a long time before everyone calms down and you're right at the center of it!
Don't laugh at the wrong times. In the middle of an activity where others are deadly serious, you don't want to burst out in laughter. Practice being able to control your thoughts and canning that laughter. If you can't, quickly excuse yourself and visit the bathroom or pop outside and let it out. Smile at anyone who finds your behavior peculiar and they'll leave you alone.

Tips

If you can't get something funny to happen, watch funny videos on YouTube and think about them.
Think about funny moments in your life.

Warnings

Don't think about it at important or serious times like class, funerals, fancy dinners etc. Realize, however, that humor and sadness are intimately linked, meaning that it is not unusual for very sad people to burst out laughing as a relief mechanism.

Related wikiHows

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make Yourself Laugh. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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How to Make a Friend Laugh

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Making your friend laugh helps you maintain your friendship and it will also makes your friends stay with you and never leave you. There are different ways of making your friend laugh but not to the extent that you will make yourself a clown or they will laugh at you because they see you as a jerk. You can make them laugh through words or through gestures. These are steps on how to make your friend laugh.

Steps

Be in a good mood. Who wants to be happy if you are lonely or even angry? If you plan to have some fun with your friend and you want him/her to laugh or you want to make a joke for him/her to laugh, make sure you are in good mood. It is your friend wants to be cheered, not you.
Be comfortable and have enough rest. Enough rest will help you think properly. Funny jokes are sometimes difficult to produce in mind if you are having stressful and have rested less than your preferred time of sleep. Don’t think of some other things that will destruct your mind so that you can think well of the jokes you want to say with your friend.
Think first. Before you start to speak or make a funny joke, think first. You will make him/her laugh not make him/her angry.
Don’t exaggerate. If you tend to make joke through gestures, don’t make yourself a clown. He/she will call you crazy and may even get rid from you the next time you will ask her/him to go with you and worst is he/she will never talk to you again. Some people don’t want to have a crazy friend.
You may say impossible things, but not too much. It is a joke so it is understood that it is not true. You can say anything unbelievable but make sure your friend will like your joke. Example, you may start your joke by saying “I saw a monster this morning, I was really terrified!” she will then ask you “Really? Where?”. Then, you will say “In the mirror and I almost break it until I realized that it was me”.
Compare. When you are in a public place and there are many people around, you may use them as part of your jokes but make sure that you pick also a funny one to compare. Example, you say “Do you see that guy over there?” then she ask “Yeah, why?”, you will reply “If he faces left, he looks like my father and if he faces right he looks like my uncle but if he faces front, damn!”. Your friend will then surely ask who will be the next person you will be mentioning. This is the best answer for your friend “My girlfriend”. It is best if your friend has not yet seen your girlfriend or does not know that you already have one for him/her to picture it out. Try to imagine that you have a girlfriend whose face is the same as your father.
Fart. This maybe crazy but you can still use this as one of your jokes. For example, if your friend talks so much and you are starting to get tired of listening, this is the best way to do it without saying anything that you don’t want to listen to his/her stories anymore. Just say immediately “Shh, keep quiet, do you hear that sound?”. She will then ask “What sound?” and then release that air within you but make sure it will make a sound or else nothing happens.
Seek for ugly and funny things. There are lots of things in the surroundings you can use as your subjects. You may compare it to something or someone that your friend also knew but make sure you know where to put your limits because sometimes it will just be offensive.
Enemies. You can use your enemy’s name as your joke by comparing it with something you want but make sure your friend also doesn’t like your enemy or your friend is not your enemy’s friend or else you will be your friend’s enemy. Example, If your enemy is a big black guy then you can start making your joke like this “Have you gone to the zoo?” and your friend answers “yes” then you will add “have you seen that big gorilla there?” and she replies “of course”, you then add “you know its name?”, if she says “no” put an end by saying “his name is (your enemy’s name) and now I know where he is having his part time job!”.

Tips

There are lots of jokes in the internet. Make sure you pick the right jokes for your friend and won't offend her/him.
For you to be a best comedian, watch those comedy movies and you will have an idea about how to make your friend laugh.
Read books about jokes.
Be imaginative, look around and try translating things and make fun of it.
If you have encountered a funny event, you can make a story about it and share it to your friend, make sure that is funny.
Impersonation is also a factor to make your friend laugh. Learn to impersonate celebrities or popular people.

Warnings

Be careful on what you are saying, some jokes maybe offensive and will only cause you trouble.
Get rid of corny jokes. If it sounds corny, don't continue and try something else.
If your friend is not in good mood, ask her first what is wrong and talk about it until she/he will have his happy face.
Don't beg for your friend to laugh. That is embarrassing.
Don't use her/his loved ones as your subject. Your friend will surely get mad at you.

Related wikiHows

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make a Friend Laugh. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Laugh Naturally on Cue

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Are you a victim of "He who laughs last didn't get the joke"? While sometimes we need an extra few seconds to figure out what's so funny, standing there with a puzzled look on your face while everyone else is laughing can be rather awkward. Here's how to join the fun without sounding like a fake!

Steps

Find those things that always make you laugh, whether it's a television program, hilarious movie moments, comic books, or a funny story. Observe your laughter during these times. Do you have a deep, loud laugh? A quiet one, followed by a gasp for air? Do you clutch your stomach? Close your eyes? Throw your head back?
Practice remembering those things during times when they are not present. Recount the time you fell flat on your face in front of someone you liked, and let yourself laugh at the situation, even while you're preparing breakfast or taking a shower. Recognize your natural laugh shining through.
Pay attention to your surroundings so you can judge when it is appropriate to laugh. When people are jovial and smiling, it's probably a good time to laugh. But when people are being serious or somber, it's not a good idea. If you see everyone else laughing, join the party and start laughing yourself! Even if you don't know exactly why you're laughing, you can call on whatever you thought of in Step 1 and feel like part of the crowd.
Relax!Be cool with yourself. Make sure you aren't trying too hard or forcing yourself to laugh. You'll end up trying to pinpoint the exact time to start laughing, and that will distract you from the actual joke. Laughing on cue will help you feel comfortable until you actually get the joke. But if you end up spending the whole time just pretending to have fun, you'll never end up actually having a good time!
Laugh about how you didn't laugh on time. Make a funny story out of it, telling your friends how you didn't understand the joke. Making fun of yourself in good nature is one of the best ways to have a great laugh. But remember, have fun!

Tips

Search online for jokes or funny stories. These will improve your sense of humor and will allow you to read it several times if you don't get the joke at first.
Don't think of the same stories too often or you will get tired of them and they won't seem as funny anymore. Try to keep a few stories on hand so if one doesn't work you can always use the next one in line.
If all else fails, try to NOT laugh. This may generate laughs by trying to force yourself to not laugh.
If you have someone in your group of friends that usually makes most of the jokes try to understand his style of humor and relate it to yours so that it will be even more easy to laugh.

Warnings

Don't laugh at everything, especially the things that aren't funny. This can make you seem non-serious and unprofessional.
If you do laugh a lot at the wrong time then that's really bad because your friends and people around you will start to think you're weird, or dumb, or you maybe have something wrong with you. Pick your times carefully when to laugh.
Try not to laugh when you have food in your mouth, or it can result to choking and you could possibly die.
Only commit to step 5 if you have good friends around, and don't do it twice around the same person.

Related wikiHows

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Laugh Naturally on Cue. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Spread Laughter

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Spreading laughter is the next best thing to laughing yourself. When you set out to spread laughter, you're also spreading joy, happiness, and love for other people. Long considered "the best medicine", laughter has power; it can lighten up the atmosphere, bring a group of people together, help people to feel good about themselves, and make a challenging day so much easier to face. Even tears are changed by a good laugh, turning into tears of joy and hilarity. Laughter lightens tension and provides a bridge to moving on during confrontational situations. If you can inject laughter into other people's lives, you will be giving a gift that is priceless, one that allows people to focus back on the joy of living instead of always seeing the hardships and challenges of life. Being able to spread laughter begins with laughing on the inside and seeing the worth of being happy amid the gloom. As laughter is contagious, provided you're willing to spark it, it'll soon spread to others.

Steps

Prepare yourself. In order to help spread laughter, you should limber up your own sense of the funnies and help release the laughter. While it might sound easy enough, it isn't always if you're feeling particularly pressured, stressed, or down. So give yourself some time out to relax, unwind, and think lovely, happy thoughts. And while you're at it, the following prescriptions also apply:
- Smile. When you smile, it makes other people feel happy. And in turn, that makes you feel happy. While smiling and laughing are different activities, they are both able to lead to the end of engaging others to feel better and happier. A smiling face evokes happiness and opens the door for a laugh. Most people find it hard not to return a smile, so this is a really great start.
- Think of funny things. Laughter needs to bubble up from somewhere and funny things are your best option. And it's really important to avoid over-analyzing humor - if you spend too much time asking yourself whether something is funny or not, the moment will be lost and you'll forget to laugh. After all, Mark Twain once said that "explaining humor is a lot like dissecting a frog; you learn a lot in the process, but in the end, you kill it." Instead, stay in the moment, react to funny thoughts and situations and let yourself laugh.
- Think optimistically about your current situation. Even in the toughest of times, it's possible to find something to laugh about. And what's really important when you're aiming to spread laughter is that your optimism can be as infectious as negativity seems to be at times, provided you're persistent and seek to draw others in to find out what's worth laughing about too.
- Lighten up. When the others around you see the chips falling down, see yourself finding ways to scoop them all back up again and build something new.
Enjoy the things happening around you and pass comment on how you perceive things either via jokes or humorous statements. Even the mundane has its humorous side; share your humorous thoughts with others. Think about how people have managed to raise a chuckle from topics as wide-ranging as cubicle life to living on the prairie and how much more enjoyable it is to laugh about the ironies of what we humans do to ourselves to get into the situations we do than to whine and bemoan our fate.
- Remember the funniest jokes and stories you've ever been told and share them with others. If you can't think of any, look online or check out one of the many, many joke books around. You might even be clever enough to brush up some very old jokes from an antique joke book and give them a modern polish that lets you claim them as your own funnies!
- Instead of forwarding the email jokes, why not retell them with gusto next tea break? Have everyone in stitches at your performance and the funniness of the joke.
- Draw silly mustaches on people in the newspaper, magazines, or even in the staff bulletin and leave it for others to find and have a giggle at.
- Be an example of joy.
Encourage others to see the funny side of their life. There are a lot of serious people out there, an awful lot. There is a convention in our society that "taking things seriously" marks us out for being the smart, intellectual, focused and dedicated person, while the person who jokes about tends to be put down for not taking things seriously enough, and by implication, not putting the effort into the daily grind of life. And yet, the irony is that psychology study after psychology study keeps on revealing what we all know deep down anyway, and it's that people who see the funny side of life often live longer, they don't get their knickers in a knot over trivial things, and they're actually more likely to be taking the right things seriously while every overly serious person is taking their own self rather too seriously instead! Very wisely, Robert Frost once noted that "if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane." Help the overly serious see that being funny won't dent their image and might just provide them with the flexible edge needed to really get ahead in this world.
- Life is filled with contradictions and absurdities. Assume that it is better to laugh about this reality than to weep about it and encourage others to feel the same way. It makes some of the confusion a little easier to bear, and humorous attitudes can often head off hardline responses to situations where people feel threatened. Laughter eases the tensions, reduces the threats, and creates space for seeing that while things might not be how people wish them to be, the situation is manageable after all and that there is no need to emotionally inflate things.
Help your friends and family to have a good laugh. Audrey Hepburn once said: "I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person." Prove your importance to your loved and cherished ones by helping them laugh a little more. Shout them to a cinematic or theatrical comedy, read funny stories to them, or tell them jokes. Remind them of funny memories you share together, including those times when things weren't quite going as hoped but turned out all right - and funny - in the end. Help the people you care about in life to have a good laugh and feel the joy of sharing good moments with one another.
Be a funny boss, leader, teacher, or business owner. If you are in charge of people, ease their day with laughter. Introduce things into the workplace or place of learning that will lighten up the daily grind in fun ways. This doesn't have to take a huge chunk out of the day or week but when you do implement something funny, make sure it's good. Things to think about doing include:
- Invite a clown squad in to roam the halls one day and spread mirth through the offices, work spaces, and cubicles.
- Invite everyone to come to work dressed as a favorite TV character. Make it even funnier by specifying a precise cartoon character, so that there are a whole lot of Homer Simpsons coming to work for the day.
- Have a paper plane contest, to see who can throw theirs further than anyone else.
- Ask everyone to bring in their baby photos for "guess who" day.
- Book your staff or students into an improvisation show at the local theater, or have the improvisers visit you. In no time at all, your staff or students will be rolling on the floor laughing their hearts out. Now, that's the spirit that's definitely worth bringing back to work or school – the buzz will last for days and it won't ever be fully forgotten!
Try laughter yoga. Laughter yoga has proven to be an amazing source of health and spiritual well-being, with the effects lasting up to 45 minutes after a session. Since it occurs within a group setting, it's not long before your laughter is setting off someone else's laughter, while someone is setting off your laughter, and on and on in a chain reaction. If you'd like to learn more, you can read How to Do Laughter yoga for the complete story.
Do a laughter switch for an angry moment. This can be an amazing exercise in reducing the level of a confrontation with another person. Say you're arguing with someone about something trivial but clearly neither of you wants to give ground. You can feel the anger welling up within you. Instead of giving in to that feeling, switch into laughter mode instead. Find something funny about your increasingly frustrating and argumentative situation, express the funny thought, and then switch to laughing at your own behavior in the situation. It's sort of like catching yourself out, and making a deliberate choice to unwind the coil gently, letting it unfurl through laughter and allowing the other person see that you're cool with whatever has passed between you and that it's over now. Hopefully, the laughter will be shared when the angry event passes completely.
Laugh at yourself when others are around. It does people good to see someone goofing about using their own personal foibles as the fodder for the joke. It helps people to relax and to see the sillier side of our pride, ego, and territoriality that often get in the way of good relations between people. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself; just make sure you're genuinely being funny and not putting yourself down out of desperation – a healthy sense of humor shows the difference between poking fun at oneself playfully and degrading oneself. When you stop taking all the trivial things in life so seriously, it really is a funny world out there and your own actions are often contributing to the silliness of it all.
Laugh out loud even when there's nobody to laugh with. Chuckling at a newspaper story or at finding something hilarious in the bookstore shelf can have people wondering what's so funny that they're missing out on. Open the funny greeting cards and have a laugh out loud; share a few lines with a passing stranger or two to put a smile on their face. Naturally, take care not to terrify people with your ebullience but do seek to draw in people who seem to be in the general vicinity through being genuinely happy and laughing freely.
Give an impromptu performance in a public place. If you have a thespian or a performer background, or your internal performer is simply waiting to burst forth, why not put on a short funny monologue or amusing improvisation in a public place like the local cafe you often frequent, or out in the mall. Try to relate it to something that everyone is thinking about at the time, like a seasonal holiday, something that's happening in the public arena, or even just relate it to the daily happenings around you. If you're really good, get members of your impromptu audience to join in and help out!
Visit a local hospital and help the patients laugh. Being stuck in hospital feeling sick all day can be hard, and sometimes those visiting sick people don't feel very much like laughing. And all that lack of laughing can get a person down and can even stymie the healing process. See spreading laughter as a way of enabling healing; if you'd like to know more, you can't go wrong checking out Patch Adams and the Gesundheit Institute,[1] where laughter, humor, and joy are a prescription for treatment of patients.

Video

Evidence of just how contagious laughter is...

Tips

If people give you strange looks, tell them you're a humorologist and it's your job to brighten people's day!
If you're naturally happy, people will catch on and feel good about themselves too. Try to make yourself happy first, then try it on others.
Deep belly laughs are good for you. Try to have them often. Watch funny things if you can't get started; immerse yourself in humor and reap the benefits.
Be nice. A nice person is often well liked and leaves happiness wherever they go. While it sounds trite, it's actually one of the loveliest things on Earth to be genuinely nice.
Laughter is an "honest social signal" because faking it is very hard to do; most of us can tell the difference between a fake laugh and a real one just by sensing it. So when someone is having a genuinely good laugh with you, both of you are truly connected.

Warnings

Some situations simply shouldn't have laughter in them. Make sure you can tell the difference.
Be smart. Know when it's okay to laugh and when it would be better to stay quiet; common sense is something people with a sense of humor are not short of.
Unless you're really good and your memory has no holes, avoid telling overly complicated jokes that go on and on and on. Laughter needs you to get to the point, fast.
Don't lump sarcasm in excessively. Sarcasm isn't necessarily a tool for laughter but in cases where it is utilized properly, the results can be effective.

Things You'll Need

A joyful attitude
The will to spread it

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

↑ http://www.patchadams.org/

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Spread Laughter. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

How to Spread Laughter

Steps

Prepare yourself. In order to help spread laughter, you should limber up your own sense of the funnies and help release the laughter. While it might sound easy enough, it isn't always if you're feeling particularly pressured, stressed, or down. So give yourself some time out to relax, unwind, and think lovely, happy thoughts. And while you're at it, the following prescriptions also apply:
- Smile. When you smile, it makes other people feel happy. And in turn, that makes you feel happy. While smiling and laughing are different activities, they are both able to lead to the end of engaging others to feel better and happier. A smiling face evokes happiness and opens the door for a laugh. Most people find it hard not to return a smile, so this is a really great start.
- Think of funny things. Laughter needs to bubble up from somewhere and funny things are your best option. And it's really important to avoid over-analyzing humor - if you spend too much time asking yourself whether something is funny or not, the moment will be lost and you'll forget to laugh. After all, Mark Twain once said that "explaining humor is a lot like dissecting a frog; you learn a lot in the process, but in the end, you kill it." Instead, stay in the moment, react to funny thoughts and situations and let yourself laugh.
- Think optimistically about your current situation. Even in the toughest of times, it's possible to find something to laugh about. And what's really important when you're aiming to spread laughter is that your optimism can be as infectious as negativity seems to be at times, provided you're persistent and seek to draw others in to find out what's worth laughing about too.
- Lighten up. When the others around you see the chips falling down, see yourself finding ways to scoop them all back up again and build something new.
Enjoy the things happening around you and pass comment on how you perceive things either via jokes or humorous statements. Even the mundane has its humorous side; share your humorous thoughts with others. Think about how people have managed to raise a chuckle from topics as wide-ranging as cubicle life to living on the prairie and how much more enjoyable it is to laugh about the ironies of what we humans do to ourselves to get into the situations we do than to whine and bemoan our fate.
- Remember the funniest jokes and stories you've ever been told and share them with others. If you can't think of any, look online or check out one of the many, many joke books around. You might even be clever enough to brush up some very old jokes from an antique joke book and give them a modern polish that lets you claim them as your own funnies!
- Instead of forwarding the email jokes, why not retell them with gusto next tea break? Have everyone in stitches at your performance and the funniness of the joke.
- Draw silly mustaches on people in the newspaper, magazines, or even in the staff bulletin and leave it for others to find and have a giggle at.
- Be an example of joy.
Encourage others to see the funny side of their life. There are a lot of serious people out there, an awful lot. There is a convention in our society that "taking things seriously" marks us out for being the smart, intellectual, focused and dedicated person, while the person who jokes about tends to be put down for not taking things seriously enough, and by implication, not putting the effort into the daily grind of life. And yet, the irony is that psychology study after psychology study keeps on revealing what we all know deep down anyway, and it's that people who see the funny side of life often live longer, they don't get their knickers in a knot over trivial things, and they're actually more likely to be taking the right things seriously while every overly serious person is taking their own self rather too seriously instead! Very wisely, Robert Frost once noted that "if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane." Help the overly serious see that being funny won't dent their image and might just provide them with the flexible edge needed to really get ahead in this world.
- Life is filled with contradictions and absurdities. Assume that it is better to laugh about this reality than to weep about it and encourage others to feel the same way. It makes some of the confusion a little easier to bear, and humorous attitudes can often head off hardline responses to situations where people feel threatened. Laughter eases the tensions, reduces the threats, and creates space for seeing that while things might not be how people wish them to be, the situation is manageable after all and that there is no need to emotionally inflate things.
Help your friends and family to have a good laugh. Audrey Hepburn once said: "I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person." Prove your importance to your loved and cherished ones by helping them laugh a little more. Shout them to a cinematic or theatrical comedy, read funny stories to them, or tell them jokes. Remind them of funny memories you share together, including those times when things weren't quite going as hoped but turned out all right - and funny - in the end. Help the people you care about in life to have a good laugh and feel the joy of sharing good moments with one another.
Be a funny boss, leader, teacher, or business owner. If you are in charge of people, ease their day with laughter. Introduce things into the workplace or place of learning that will lighten up the daily grind in fun ways. This doesn't have to take a huge chunk out of the day or week but when you do implement something funny, make sure it's good. Things to think about doing include:
- Invite a clown squad in to roam the halls one day and spread mirth through the offices, work spaces, and cubicles.
- Invite everyone to come to work dressed as a favorite TV character. Make it even funnier by specifying a precise cartoon character, so that there are a whole lot of Homer Simpsons coming to work for the day.
- Have a paper plane contest, to see who can throw theirs further than anyone else.
- Ask everyone to bring in their baby photos for "guess who" day.
- Book your staff or students into an improvisation show at the local theater, or have the improvisers visit you. In no time at all, your staff or students will be rolling on the floor laughing their hearts out. Now, that's the spirit that's definitely worth bringing back to work or school – the buzz will last for days and it won't ever be fully forgotten!
Try laughter yoga. Laughter yoga has proven to be an amazing source of health and spiritual well-being, with the effects lasting up to 45 minutes after a session. Since it occurs within a group setting, it's not long before your laughter is setting off someone else's laughter, while someone is setting off your laughter, and on and on in a chain reaction. If you'd like to learn more, you can read How to Do Laughter yoga for the complete story.
Do a laughter switch for an angry moment. This can be an amazing exercise in reducing the level of a confrontation with another person. Say you're arguing with someone about something trivial but clearly neither of you wants to give ground. You can feel the anger welling up within you. Instead of giving in to that feeling, switch into laughter mode instead. Find something funny about your increasingly frustrating and argumentative situation, express the funny thought, and then switch to laughing at your own behavior in the situation. It's sort of like catching yourself out, and making a deliberate choice to unwind the coil gently, letting it unfurl through laughter and allowing the other person see that you're cool with whatever has passed between you and that it's over now. Hopefully, the laughter will be shared when the angry event passes completely.
Laugh at yourself when others are around. It does people good to see someone goofing about using their own personal foibles as the fodder for the joke. It helps people to relax and to see the sillier side of our pride, ego, and territoriality that often get in the way of good relations between people. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself; just make sure you're genuinely being funny and not putting yourself down out of desperation – a healthy sense of humor shows the difference between poking fun at oneself playfully and degrading oneself. When you stop taking all the trivial things in life so seriously, it really is a funny world out there and your own actions are often contributing to the silliness of it all.
Laugh out loud even when there's nobody to laugh with. Chuckling at a newspaper story or at finding something hilarious in the bookstore shelf can have people wondering what's so funny that they're missing out on. Open the funny greeting cards and have a laugh out loud; share a few lines with a passing stranger or two to put a smile on their face. Naturally, take care not to terrify people with your ebullience but do seek to draw in people who seem to be in the general vicinity through being genuinely happy and laughing freely.
Give an impromptu performance in a public place. If you have a thespian or a performer background, or your internal performer is simply waiting to burst forth, why not put on a short funny monologue or amusing improvisation in a public place like the local cafe you often frequent, or out in the mall. Try to relate it to something that everyone is thinking about at the time, like a seasonal holiday, something that's happening in the public arena, or even just relate it to the daily happenings around you. If you're really good, get members of your impromptu audience to join in and help out!
Visit a local hospital and help the patients laugh. Being stuck in hospital feeling sick all day can be hard, and sometimes those visiting sick people don't feel very much like laughing. And all that lack of laughing can get a person down and can even stymie the healing process. See spreading laughter as a way of enabling healing; if you'd like to know more, you can't go wrong checking out Patch Adams and the Gesundheit Institute,[1] where laughter, humor, and joy are a prescription for treatment of patients.

Video

Evidence of just how contagious laughter is...

Tips

If people give you strange looks, tell them you're a humorologist and it's your job to brighten people's day!
If you're naturally happy, people will catch on and feel good about themselves too. Try to make yourself happy first, then try it on others.
Deep belly laughs are good for you. Try to have them often. Watch funny things if you can't get started; immerse yourself in humor and reap the benefits.
Be nice. A nice person is often well liked and leaves happiness wherever they go. While it sounds trite, it's actually one of the loveliest things on Earth to be genuinely nice.
Laughter is an "honest social signal" because faking it is very hard to do; most of us can tell the difference between a fake laugh and a real one just by sensing it. So when someone is having a genuinely good laugh with you, both of you are truly connected.

Warnings

Some situations simply shouldn't have laughter in them. Make sure you can tell the difference.
Be smart. Know when it's okay to laugh and when it would be better to stay quiet; common sense is something people with a sense of humor are not short of.
Unless you're really good and your memory has no holes, avoid telling overly complicated jokes that go on and on and on. Laughter needs you to get to the point, fast.
Don't lump sarcasm in excessively. Sarcasm isn't necessarily a tool for laughter but in cases where it is utilized properly, the results can be effective.

Things You'll Need

A joyful attitude
The will to spread it

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Sources and Citations

↑ http://www.patchadams.org/

How to Laugh

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Want to bond with a new group of people? You could cover all your clothing in glue, or, if you're on a budget, you could just laugh with them. If you've ever been the only person in a group who didn't get a joke, you probably already know that laughter is critically important to successful social interactions. Scientists have found that mutual laughter helps people feel at ease around each other, and laughing when others are laughing makes those others more likely to accept you into their group. If you have an extremely loud or a very annoying laugh and it is embarrassing to you to laugh, don't worry: everyone has different laughs. Just try not to annoy others.What's more, research suggests that laughter really may be the best medicine; laughter provides a vigorous workout to tighten your tummy and strengthen your heart, and regular laughing may boost your immune system. Fortunately, just about everybody can laugh. Just in case you need some pointers, though, you've come to the right place.

Steps

Think of something you find funny. Not surprisingly, the easiest way to laugh is to think of something that you personally find very amusing. It seems a no-brainer, but it can be useful for those occasions where everybody but you is laughing at a joke. Why would you want to laugh just because others are laughing? Laughing along with one or more people shows you how to have to amuse yourself.
Smile. If you do want to fake... er, create a laugh, start with a smile. Scientists have found that genuine laughter is almost accompanied by the contraction of about 15 facial muscles, most of which are the same you use when you smile. Remember to smile with your eyes as well as your mouth. Smiling not only is a part of the natural laugh reflex; it can actually put you in a better mood and make you more apt to laugh.
- Smiling has been shown to make you feel good[1]; therefore a smile precedes laughter, as you have to feel good before you laugh.
Laugh at the appropriate time. Genuine laughs almost always begin at the end of a phrase or sentence. That is, they do not interrupt spoken phrases, but rather punctuate speech when the speaker would normally pause to breathe or start a new thought. You have probably noticed that stand-up comedians, for instance, pause at certain times during or after their jokes. These are spaces for laughter, and if a comedian had the lung capacity and the audacity to deliver a two-minute monologue without ever pausing, it's quite possible no one would laugh, regardless of how funny the routine was.
- Learn how to stop laughing at inappropriate times.
- Learn how to stop laughing after every comment.
Match your vowels. A typical laugh consists of short vocalizations, each with the same vowel sound. So, for example, "ha ha ha" will sound like a normal laugh, as will "bo ho ho," but "ha ho ha" just sounds weird. And kind of scary.
Time your vocalizations. Research shows that the individual vocalizations that make up a "natural" laugh are about 210 milliseconds apart. The precision of that statistic is useless, because it varies around four per second, and comedians have made fun of limits in the machine gun tempo.
Feel it in your belly. You've got your timing and vowels right, but if you just say "ha ha ha" people are liable to think that you are either stuttering or mocking them. If this is not your desired effect, remember that sustained or frequent laughter is a proven way to strengthen and tone your abdominal muscles. The reason, of course, is that a good laugh uses those muscles to rather forcefully expel short bursts of air. Practice this by doing your best belly laugh—it doesn't necessarily need to be loud—for one minute. You will feel the burn. You may want to be seated if you try this, however, as laughter is characterized by irregular breathing and is actually similar to gasping for air.
Taper your laugh. The typical laugh starts relatively loud and then tapers gradually off. While this isn't always the case, laughs that increase in volume or that stop abruptly are generally suspicious. And remember, laughing is showing people that you're happy. So, have fun with it and don't worry about what people think of your laugh. Everyone has his/ her own unique laugh, and everyone will love to hear yours!
Watch one of your favorite comedies, or ask your friends for a funny movie they have recently watched. You could go watch it with them for more laughs.
Talk about something cheerful or funny. When your friend insults the teacher, or when your sister reminds you of the time she did something funny.

Tips

You don't have to laugh at everything that others say.
Have your own sense of humor too. Make your own joke- something that is truly funny to you.
Although the best laugh is generally from a person, it is helpful to go online and search for funny quotes, jokes, pictures, stories, etc.
Make sure that the way you laugh is acceptable to others by looking around while you laugh. (If so, good. If not, work on it.)

Warnings

While scientists believe that laughter has a whole host of health benefits, it's not recommended for some people, such as those who have recently had certain surgeries or those with certain medical conditions. Sometimes people laugh at sneezes or hiccups; however after surgery either can causes severe groans; which may seem funny to the innocent bystander but not to the one groaning: " `Hic' , awnh-aaaawnh-aah-awh!".
Always follow the advice of your medical professional, and if you ever experience pain or discomfort while laughing, especially if the discomfort persists after you have stopped laughing, consult your doctor immediately.
As is the case with other forms of body language, it's difficult to fake laughter, and if you're unconvincing, people may suspect there's something phony about you. Often laughing louder than can be handled, as we often do while faking laughter, results in a big cough leaving your throat in an almost 'choked' condition. Better be original than be sorry.
Too much "laughter" may cause people to believe that you have serious mental problems.
Some jokes online contain mature content.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

MSNBC Why do we laugh?
University of Washington Information about research into laughter

↑ http://www.diy-stress-relief.com/smile.html

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Laugh. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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