Sense of humor. How to learn to joke? — free course from 4brain, training 30 days, date December 4, 2023.

Why does a person need to be funny? This question can be answered in different ways. But, one way or another, any of the answers will lead us to the fact that humor is important in any area of ​​our lives, and is also highly valued by others. If a person has a sense of humor and wit, life is much easier for him than for someone who does not.

People with a poorly developed sense of humor are often rational and straightforward, which is why they often have difficulties with social adaptation and communication. For such people, even minor troubles end in stress. But if there is a sense of humor, then psychological defense mechanisms perform their functions much more effectively. Agree: how nice it would be if we could always easily perceive what is happening and find something funny in any situation? This is one of the reasons why many people want to develop a sense of humor.

Who do you think is easier to communicate: a shy, insecure and timid guy or someone who knows how to funny joke in company, laugh at yourself, cheer up, attract the attention of the opposite sex a joke? In our opinion, the answer is obvious.

The benefits of a developed sense of humor can be listed for a very long time, but we think that two those considered are quite enough to draw certain conclusions, although we have not yet discussed the benefits of humor Let's talk. In the meantime, let's think: is it even possible to develop a sense of humor and wit? Does a person who has never been able to joke or was generally characterized by gloom and lack of cheerfulness have a chance to change and let positivity into their consciousness? We have bad news for you - this won't happen overnight. But we also have good news - if you want, you can do this, and you don’t have to move mountains!

Of course, there is no doubt that a sense of humor is transmitted in genes. However, this is not at all a reason to give up on yourself if your ancestor was not Mikhail Zadornov or Charlie Chaplin. After a person is born, the development of a sense of humor already depends on the characteristics of the environment where he grows up, the subtleties of upbringing and other conditions. But we do not set ourselves the task of getting into the very jungle of influences that reality has on human consciousness.

We want to say that anyone at almost any age can develop a sense of humor and learn to be funny. All that is required for this is to learn the basic laws of the comic as such, and study practical information, including techniques, methods and methods for developing a sense of humor. And this information is right in front of you - in the course, the introduction to which you are now reading.

Our online course on developing a sense of humor consists of six lessons with a lot of theoretical and practical information, interesting examples and exercises available for practical use from the very first minutes studying. Plus, we have selected many examples of jokes, which will allow you to clearly see how you need to joke, what to consider and what to pay attention to on your path to mastery comedian So don't waste your time and keep reading.

What is a sense of humor

A sense of humor is a psychological feature of a person, which consists of identifying all kinds of contradictions in the world around them and then evaluating them from a comic point of view. It begins to manifest itself and develop already in early childhood under the influence of the environment, comic manifestations of other people, funny situations and other prerequisites. If there are no such prerequisites, a person develops a straightforward character, which can lead to many social and psychological difficulties.

Thus, we can conclude that a sense of humor allows a person to:

• It is easier to cope with difficulties, problems and difficult life circumstances
• Find common language with others faster
• Find like-minded people in society
• Don't be too serious

Interestingly, entire studies are devoted to the sense of humor. In many of them, scientists tried to measure the sense of humor of different people, and also relate it to other personality characteristics.

Assessments have been made (and continue to be made) from the perspective of psychology, sociology, linguistics, anthropology and other scientific disciplines. And among hundreds of theories of humor, there are those that say that the task of a sense of humor is to relieve tension and stress, as well as encourage the search for new interpretations of life situations. Based on these theories, all jokes are accompanied by increasing attention as they are presented and a subsequent release when the joke ends. The reason for the emergence of new interpretations is that jokes entail unexpected associations of unrelated and even conflicting circumstances.

There are also theories in which humor serves as a means of defusing aggression and negative emotions. Although in certain circles, for example, among military personnel, doctors, officials, criminals, etc. has its own, special humor, from which it follows that a sense of humor to one degree or another subjectively.

In general, a sense of humor should be understood as the ability to see the funny in situations people, surroundings, stories, etc. The protective function of humor is highlighted by almost everyone researchers.

But let’s summarize: one of the authoritative researchers of humor, Bogdan Dzemidok, in his work “On the Comic,” focusing on the social role of humor, defines several of its main functions:

• Cognitive function. Humor is interpreted as a means of understanding the world and mastering ideas about it. Humor, which is considered to have the greatest educational value, shows reality in its true light, without deforming its phenomena or trying to modify it. The cognitive component of humor deepens a person’s knowledge about the world and other people, teaches them to identify differences between the content of phenomena and their form, and also warns against hasty conclusions.
• Entertainment function. Everything is simple here - humor has the ability to lift your spirits and cause laughter and positive emotions.
• Therapeutic function. It consists in the ability of humor to be a consolation for a person in his personal disappointments and failures. Self-irony is a form of protection both from outside influence and from oneself, i.e. from your own pessimism, despondency, fears, doubts, etc.
  But it would not be superfluous to say about one more function of humor, which the famous German poet and playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing once spoke about:
• Educational function. Healthy humor serves as a measure of moral development, and therefore through it one can instruct, teach and educate children.

All this is just basic information about the sense of humor, and if you go into this topic in more detail, you can collect a large amount of data looking at it from all sides and angles. If you are interested in this topic, the Internet and libraries with dozens of encyclopedias are at your service. We will continue the conversation about the practical side of using a sense of humor.

A sense of humor in practice

After all that has been said above, you probably will not argue with the fact that a sense of humor is one of the most important qualities that a person should have. But it still makes sense to say a few more words about its practical application.

First of all, I would like to point out that it allows you to very quickly win over your interlocutor, and it doesn’t matter whether you like it a girl or guy, a potential business partner, a work colleague or a simple plumber who dissatisfiedly came into the house to change toilet.

A person who can skillfully and colorfully joke will always be distinguished by his wit and attract attention, start a company, and bring a positive attitude to society. Among other things, a sense of humor can also be attributed to the qualities of a leader and someone who will often, if not always, be listened to and his opinion taken into account.

But having a sense of humor means not only being able to joke and make witty jokes, but also understanding the humor of other people, being receptive to jokes directed at oneself, have the ability to behave comically, parry caustic remarks and save face in any tricky situations. It is also advisable to have the skill of expressing humor in writing and even in drawings - these are tangible bonuses for those who have a good tongue.

Practical sense of humor is also the ability to distinguish one form of the comic from another. For example, can you distinguish irony from sarcasm, jokes from banter, stand-up comedy from miniatures? An experienced comedian is familiar with many comic forms, genres and techniques.
As a result, in order to confidently consider yourself a witty person with a good sense of humor, you need to have a number of certain qualities.

For some, a sense of humor is a gift, but for people who work on themselves, it is just another skill that they are able to master. But this needs to be done not anyhow, not spontaneously, not chaotically, but regularly, consciously and systematically. If you have firmly decided for yourself that you want to learn how to joke and improve the quality of your sense of humor, then you are on the right path - we will tell you about everything you need to do.

How to learn it

There is no doubt: the ability to develop a sense of humor and use it to benefit yourself and others does not come out of nowhere. Of course, some people are great at humor and entertaining others and themselves from an early age, because heredity is heredity. Such people, by the way, very often devote their lives to humor and become professional comedians, and They don’t have to learn to be funny (although even they hone their skills and improve their skills, as now They say). The rest need to work to “catch fish out of the pond”, try, study and develop. But there is no need to perceive this process as an impassable obstacle - you can learn everything, and on your own - if you have the desire.

As with any other topic, there are two sides to developing a sense of humor:

1. Theoretical side – includes theoretical information required to create a basis for practice.
2. Practical side – use of theoretical information in practical activities.

The difficulty, however, often lies in the fact that many people, having mastered the theory, give up what they started halfway and never move on to practice. And the reason here lies not only in the individual characteristics of each person. The fact is that any training course, any training, any theoretical material should be created with a basis for subsequent practice. Otherwise, knowledge will simply gather dust on the shelves of memory, become covered with cobwebs, be pushed into far corners and will not bring any benefit.

Guided by this idea, we have developed the presented course on developing a sense of humor. We pursue two goals: the first is to provide you with high-quality material for reading and studying, and the second is to teach you how to use it in life. Therefore, each of the course lessons is distinguished by a two-way focus: they also contain theory, without which practice is simply impossible, and practice - tips, recommendations, exercises and techniques - are the tools to move from words to action.

How to take classes

As already mentioned, our humor lessons are completely adapted for practical activities, and are also suitable for anyone who wants to develop a sense of humor. However, our task is to give you the base, and only you are responsible for what you do with it. We are talking about the fact that you can take at least a hundred courses and fill your head with a bunch of information, but still not do anything worthwhile in your life. Therefore, try to project everything from the area of ​​knowledge into the area of ​​​​action.

To make it more convenient for you to complete the course, break this process into several stages. You can do this - study two lessons during the week:

• One day – study of the first lesson.
• Two days – applying knowledge in practice.
• One day - rest.
• Further - according to the same scheme.

Of course, this is just an example, and you have every right to come up with your own system that is more suitable for your employment. The only thing we want to point out again is that it is important to go through the lessons very carefully and with an understanding of why you are doing it.

As for the practical component of the course (exercises, techniques, tips, recommendations, etc.), they do not imply single, but multiple repetitions - this is the only way you can fully assimilate the material, consolidate and hone the acquired skills.

Try to develop a healthy habit of reminding yourself that you are developing a sense of humor and learn to joke, then in real life you won’t have any experiments on this topic problems. With practice, the application of knowledge will become automatic, and the need for careful self-control will disappear by itself.