How to be Funny
My old man, love him though I do, is not a funny guy. While he tried to crack jokes through every year of my childhood all the way to the present day they’re invariably met with a muted, obligated chuckle followed by an awkward pause and a quick change of subject. It isn’t that the jokes aren’t funny - it’s just that he doesn’t know how to be funny. His delivery is all wrong, and the jokes always fall embarrassingly flat on their face.
The question is, can you learn to be funny? Is it something that you’re born with, or a skill that can be learned? Personally, I believe you’ve either got it or you haven’t. I know for sure that I’m not naturally funny. I’ve fluffed the punchline of every joke I’ve ever told and the majority of laughs I’ve ever had have been achieved entirely by accident - by saying something while drunk, for instance, that nobody can remember in the morning.
However, there are those who believe that learning how to be funny is simply a matter of study. Stanley Lyndon, for instance, believes that anybody can learn how to be witty by following a set of simple rules and learning a few simple techniques - and he’s successfully coached 5,000 humorists. Sounds like a guy whose opinion you should trust.
So, there may be something to his theory. To my mind the most powerful tool in the repertoire of any comedian isn’t jokes but comic timing. Even the simplest of statements can get a laugh if the delivery is well timed. So, considering that timing is something that can be learned with a little practice it may be possible that anyone can learn how to be funny given the correct guidance and a little time to perfect the art. Whether you’re willing to invest the time to do it is up to you, but learning how to be funny sounds to me like one self help technique that’s worth a damn. Might be worth giving it a try.