You're Funny. DB Gilles

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СКАЧАТЬ of psychology at the University of Maryland, came to several conclusions:

      

While both sexes laugh a lot, females laugh more.

      

In cross-gender conversations, females laughed 126% more than their male counterparts.

      

Women tend to do the most laughing, while males tend to do the most laugh-getting.

      

Across cultures, men seem to be the main instigators of humor, a tendency that begins in early childhood.

      

The laughter of the female is the critical index of the health of a relationship.

      What does this mean? In lay terms, a guy who can say funny things will do better with most women – provided, of course, that he doesn't meet a woman who requires a higher consciousness of humor. Being witty and strikingly original enters the picture now. Humorwise, it's what separates the men from the boys. Women with a good sense of humor expect smart, imaginative men.

      There's a famous story about the playwright Charles MacArthur and his wife, legendary actress Helen Hayes. On the night they met at a party, he gave her a handful of peanuts and said, “I wish they were emeralds.” Years later, after they'd been married for decades and he had enjoyed great success, he handed her a handful of emeralds and said, “I wish they were peanuts.”

      Romantic? Yes. Sentimental? Yes. Clever? Big yes. But if you're someone who appreciates humor, it's an incredibly witty way for a man to tell and show a woman he loves her.

      In the food chain of funny, getting beyond appreciative nods and approving smiles is the next challenge.

      Welcome to The Shake-Your-Head Giggle. This is when you say something off-the- wall, but not too crazy – just enough to get a positive reaction from your prudish sister or archconservative religious uncle. The Shake-Your-Head Giggle might also be followed by a comment such as, “You're terrible” or “I can't believe you said that.”

      Next is The Sustained Laugh. Not quite an enthusiastic outburst, but a genuine reaction from the heart usually accompanied with a big smile and the nodding (or shaking back and forth) of the head.

      Then comes the big one!

      The Killer Laugh. The one where people laugh uncontrollably to the point of tears and physical pain, i.e., laughing till it hurts. Whether you're a stand-up comic or Greg the wacky accountant in payroll, The Killer Laugh is what you live for.

      As I said earlier, everyone can't tell a joke. But it's fair to assume that even the dullest, most humorless people have tried to tell a joke and gotten a blank stare or an awkward “I don't get it.” If this happened every time they told a joke, those with self-awareness most likely concluded that joke-telling wasn't their forte. And unless they were masochists, they resolved never to do it again.

       You Learn Fast If You're Not Good at Telling Jokes

      And you learn equally fast if you're not good at writing funny lines, dialogue, and situations. Someone reading your lines either laughs or not.

      The toughest decision you have to make if you want to write comedy is if you have the comic chops to do it.

      Steve Allen, humorist and pioneer talk show host, was asked why he was able to say something instantly funny time and time again. His response was, “It might take the average person 37 seconds to think of something funny to say, but that's too long. Humor has to be immediate.”

      The French have an expression, l'esprit de l'escalier, or “the wit of the staircase,” which is the tendency to think of a quick comeback only after it's too late to say it. There are only so many stony silences you can take before deciding to keep your mouth shut.

      The funniest people I know are all quick. Within one second they're able to say something funny. And they do it over and over again. Ironically, most of them aren't comedy writers. They're regular people. And many of the comedy writers I know are hilarious on the page, but in real life are kind of, well, boring and anything but quick.

      The most important thing to understand is to be original. Don't make the same 10 joke or say the same line that everyone else is saying.

      Four hundred years ago, satirist Jonathan Swift said this more succinctly: “What some people invent the rest enlarge.”

      Periodically, catchphrases and expressions trickle down into the pop culture vernacular, usually from the street, television, movies, or commercials.

      Here are a few that had their time in the sun:

      

“Not that there's anything wrong with being gay.”

      

“Denial is a river in Egypt.”

      

“Thank you for sharing”

      

“Oh my God.”

      

“Make my day”

      

“Too much information.”

      

“Don't go there.”

      

“Whazzzzuupppp?”

      

“Get a life.”

      

“Hated it!”

      

“Excuuuussse me.”

      

“That doesn't make me a bad person.”

      

“Yada yada yada!” (which, believe it or not, is in the dictionary!)

      

“Duh!”

      

“No you di'nt!”

      How СКАЧАТЬ