# From Boring To Hilarious: A Student's Guide To Humor # Titles - The Ultimate Guide To Humor In College - Ultimate Guide To Becoming Funnier In College - How To Become Funnier In College - How To Become More Humorous In College - Want To Become A Funny Person? Do This - Want To Become A Humorous Person? Do This - From Boring To Hilarious: A Student's Guide To Humor # Thumbnail - Aidan is smiling at the screen pointing up. The text says "Ask This Question To Be Funnier" # Script "How can I make this into something funny?" This is the one question you should ask in every situation to go from boring to hilarious in college. The problem is you don't let yourself. You might be scared of looking like an idiot. You might not know what to say. You might take yourself too seriously. I experienced all of these things when I first came to college. I didn't see myself as a funny person. I thought humor was something you were born with. God zapped you into existence, rolled a D20 and if it was above 19 you were bestowed with humor. I took myself way too seriously. - Tell the first Stand Up Comedy session story with brother. I realized humor was like a video game. Like in a video game, you could break down the skill of humor into discrete skills and goals to build them. I realized there were a set of first principles for becoming more humorous. So I set out to build those first principles. I began to see the world differently. I saw it as a funny place. I began to ask the question mentioned above in every situation. ## Why Should You Become Funnier? - Makes you more likeable - Makes you more attractive - Deepens your relationship with others because humor connects people - Makes you better at persuading - Makes you a better leader - Bonus: makes you happier. To be humorous you have to change the way you perceive the world. You stop being so serious. You see things more positively. ## Mindsets For Becoming Funnier - See the world as a funny place. There's opportunity for humor in every situation. Men are often too logical and serious. - Realize nobody cares. Recognize the spotlight effect. Get rid of your filter. - Develop a growth mindset. ## Humor First Principles: The fundamental humor theory: [[Benign violation theory of humor]]. - Build a world - Story of halloween party bantering with girl about her pet salamander. - Give a crazy compliment - "I just wanted to say, you have the most beautiful toes I have ever seen. Fairys are jealous over these toes. They were blessed by celestial beings from the dawn of creation."~ - Implement irony - Fire station gets destroyed by fire. - Use sarcasm - Showed up to a lunch with a girl friend in the rain. "Isn't it beautiful?" - Sarcasm backfiring with mom saying one of her videos was trash. Have to smile while doing it. Make it obvious. - Body humor - Dancing to Dancing Krone funnily. - Accents - Scottish accent. Saying there are so few things to eat we are going through a famine. - Russian accent. Ju Jitsu story trying to intimidate people by using Russian Accent. Didn't work, Lincoln irradiated me. - Odd timing - "I am, the, fastest, talker in the world." - Incongruence - "A happy Cornell student." - Exaggeration - Talking to cute girl at 90 mile canoe race few days ago. I asked her what other outdoor activities she had done and exagerrated. If you have done the 90 miler, what else have you done. Hiked Everest in 3 hours? Walked to the moon. Swung like Tarzan in the Amazon Rainforest? - Rule of Three - Traditional Thanksgiving rule of three. My family and I celebrated a very traditional thanksgiving this year. "We cooked a turkey, some stuffing, and then gathered our neighbors and murdered them." - Character bit - Russian accented assasin viking - Comparisons - "That's like if Michael Jackson came back from the dead..." - Saying normal things in new words - Went to Chipotle a bit ago: "Could I get that metal circle with some land meat in it?" - Roleplay - I'm a professional - I'm the sober police - Misdirection - Story of library with Lauren saying "I'm really good at focusing. Woah what's that book." - Commit to your joke a little longer than you think. - Tell joke about fasting for the first time in Eurail. ## Action Items - Start asking “How can I make this funny?” in every interaction. - Do ten minutes of sentence crafting for three months. Say a sentence. Then immediately say another sentence using the first word of that sentence. - Take 1 of the humor first principles and work on it for a day. Then choose another on the next. Do this over and over again and repeat the cycle once you have finished but start doing more at once.