Casanova's Guide to Humor

I will allow the mods to beat the everlasting piss out of me later, since this is really more of a tip than anything else, but I know this topic has been discussed here and I wanted to ensure that it gets seen.

Today we're going to talk about humor. Humor is one of the biggest, most important DJ skills. If you have humor, it easily leads to the other skills and traits you want to cultivate as a DJ, such as a positive attitude, confidence, and a general aura of being "fun." Luckily, a sense of humor can be refined and developed, and it can be learned. I'm going to try to teach you a few of the basics.

BE OBSERVANT

Keep your eyes open and look around. There is plenty of funny stuff going on constantly, if you are just open enough to look for it. Look for things that are out of place, embarassing things that other people are doing, or anything that just doesn't seem "right". Such as going to the mall and seeing a "Dress Barn" store, and then next door, seeing a "Dress Barn for Women" store. Makes you think. Read, watch, or listen to some George Carlin for more examples of this... he's one of the best.

EDUCATE YOURSELF

Humor and intelligence often go hand-in-hand. Keep up-to-date on world current events. Read the newspaper, watch the news. So often, you will read about or see something in the news that will give you plenty of material for humor. For example, your girlfriend has a lot of shoes. You can say, "Damn you've got a lot of shoes." Or you can say, "Jesus, did Imelda Marcos move in without anyone telling me?" This is also why Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Jon Stewart use the news for laughs, to great success. Also, having a good vocabulary helps a lot. Word choice is important to humor. Some words are funnier than others.

BE SPECIFIC

When you're making fun of something, and you will often make comparisons or talk about other objects. Use specific examples and name brands. For example, if you're getting asked a million questions by a girl, just say, "What is this, a freakin' Starbucks?" Remember, there's a big difference between "We went shopping" and "She couldn't pry herself out of The Gap."

BE HAPPY

While depressed and sour people might be fun to laugh at, they aren't funny. Smile, laugh, and enjoy yourself. People will see you as fun-loving and cheerful and the humor will flow much better.

DO THE UNEXPECTED

Humor is all about shattering expectations, surprising people, and exaggeration. Jack Handey is a pro at this. Take a look at one of his quotes: "I hope someday, if I ever become rich and famous, that I'm not mean to poor people, like I am now." The first part, before the comma, is expected. The second part is the surprise, and it's what makes the quote funny.

With a little practice, anyone can be funny. Take a look at what the masters do, but don't copy them. Work on your observation, your attitude, and your ability to be unpredictable, and you'll be among the funniest people around.



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CASANOVA

"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."
Eric Hoffer

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
Voltaire

"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it."
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"Look for things that are out of place, embarassing things that other people are doing, or anything that just doesn't seem "right". Such as going to the mall and seeing a "Dress Barn" store, and then next door, seeing a "Dress Barn for Women" store. Makes you think. "

*Gaaasp* Can't..... Stop...... Laughing..........



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"Head games only suck if you don't know how to play" - Unknown

A great tip, Gio. I've found that being happy and confident is the best way for me to be humorous. When I'm feeling miserable, my jokes are just a cynical man's depressing observations about the problems of the world. When I'm happy, it's lighthearted, and puts other people at ease, and they laugh with me.

Something else that's good. Get around happy people, who are inclined to laugh. It's contagious, and before you know it, even the saddest motherfvckers think you're the funniest basturd in the world.

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"For anybody who's on the downside of advantage and relying purely on courage... it's possible."
- Russell Crowe

Hey Giovanni and Galactus, are you guys dating?

Sorry but l could lost this opportunity, and like you told me, l am just doing the UNEXPECTED.

Good post.

ESPN

[This message has been edited by ESPN (edited 03-12-2002).]

Unexpected doesn't necessarily mean funny. You putting a bullet in your head would also be unexpected, but only a few of us would find it hilarious.

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"For anybody who's on the downside of advantage and relying purely on courage... it's possible."
- Russell Crowe

Awe that's so cute. ESPN is neg hitting Giovanni and Galactus. ESPN you are a trip.

Did I achieve ****y+Wussy?

They make a good couple, don't they?

I really like George Carlin's humor... sometimes he tells you how he thought of the joke too!

I think that an attitude of playfulness is really key to having a good sense of humor.

Coolbreeze43

and ESPN... if your interested in galactus or giovani... you should just ask them istead of trying to find out if their available!

Thanks Giovanni! This couldn't have come at a better time!

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"No More! God-Damn! Regrets! No More! God-Damn! Disrespect!"

"Remember, it's better to be a smartass, than to be a dumbass."

and ESPN... if your interested in galactus or giovani... you should just ask them istead of trying to find out if their available!

Click to expand...

Dammit! How this ***** discovered my intentions, but l am more smart, gonna get a new nick.(hehe)


And TrimReaper: ****y+Wussy is not list of methods and tricks, ANYONE can memorize 'techniques', but FEW can change the way HOW they think.
A ****y+Wussy is a state of mind, not a list of methods and tricks.
You must think and BELIVE that you are The Great Crap.

Get it?


[This message has been edited by ESPN (edited 03-12-2002).]

Hmmm...

After reading this post, I spotted the post on dating in the Republic of Korea, and couldn't help but think "REPUBLIC of Korea?!?!?"

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The proof of the pvssy is in the eating thereof.

Big G, thanks for the timely and thoughtful post! I expecially liked the "Be specific" & using name brands. Now that was a SPECIFIC tip

Good post! And here's one thing I've learned from observing this "class clown" type of guy who always manages to be the center of attention:

Learn to tell stories!

No matter what the situation, this guy always has a funny story to tell related to the current topic, and cracks people up all the time. They are mostly personal stories. Whether or not these stories actually happened (ie true stories) is besides the point. Having said that, I need some pointers! I don't see the guy anymore so I can't learn more from him. A short while ago I tried to get people to post their funny (true) stories here, and I think I only got one response. Maybe I should bump up that thread again.

Giovanni (or anyone): how skilled are you in telling stories? Can you analyze the structure of a funny story and figure exactly what makes a story so funny? Like, how can you TELL a story to make it interesting and elicit laughter? I'm convinced the WAY that you tell a story is more important than the actual story itself. (ie the type of wording, physical gestures, intonation, etc). Of course, inserting a story at just the time is a skill unto itself. If I become skilled at it, I believe I can take any story and make it funny. I have the basic structure, but I need your help in filling in the contents, and tying them together coherently.

Lets see this discussed!!!

Originally posted by Bonhomme:
Hmmm...

After reading this post, I spotted the post on dating in the Republic of Korea, and couldn't help but think "REPUBLIC of Korea?!?!?"

Click to expand...

That IS funny.



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CASANOVA

"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."
Eric Hoffer

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
Voltaire

"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it."
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I missed an important aspect of humor, so allow me to append.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

This is important. Different people are amused by different things. The same thing that is *hilarious* to me is stupid and offensive to my grandparents. The stuff my grandparents crack up about (old Benny Hill stuff, Red Skelton, etc.) I think is dumb. If you tell a joke that makes your girl cry with laughter, you might find that telling her parents the same joke would get you smacked upside the head. You can make fun of your friends, but if you're at a staff meeting it's probably not a good idea to make fun of the boss. It seems like common sense but a lot of people don't get it. There is a time and a place for humor, and a good comedian knows when and where that is.




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CASANOVA

"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."
Eric Hoffer

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
Voltaire

"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it."
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Yeah, funny things are all around, eh?

Excellent post/tip/whatever, GC!

Tips forum.

Originally posted by nibun:
Giovanni (or anyone): how skilled are you in telling stories? Can you analyze the structure of a funny story and figure exactly what makes a story so funny? Like, how can you TELL a story to make it interesting and elicit laughter? I'm convinced the WAY that you tell a story is more important than the actual story itself. (ie the type of wording, physical gestures, intonation, etc). Of course, inserting a story at just the time is a skill unto itself. If I become skilled at it, I believe I can take any story and make it funny. I have the basic structure, but I need your help in filling in the contents, and tying them together coherently.

Lets see this discussed!!!

Click to expand...

I think the ability to tell funny stories is good to have, and I think I can do this pretty well, but my own personal style of humor involves coming up with sarcastic or witty responses and one-liners to things that are happening or things that are said. Most people aren't patient enough to wait for you to tell a whole long funny story. But it can be done.

I have fun at work, and I can get away with telling funny stories sometimes. Our boss is a real cool guy, and I work with a bunch of crazy people who are pretty nice and have good senses of humor. Working with computers and the people who use computers, you have to have a good sense of humor or you'll just go nuts. I had a problem with a user who used a Palm Pilot (you know, one of those little notepad-sized devices that stores email, address book, calendar, etc.) not that long ago. We write out work tickets describing what steps we take to correct problems, and I like to have fun with them a little bit. Here is what I wrote in the ticket for the Palm Pilot problem. Again, it's all about word choice and being specific here. I also happened to know my audience, which was helpful.

"Went with Linda to try to figure out what was wrong with this thing. The thing would turn on using the power button but it would not power off using the power button. The only way to get it to power off was to wait until it went through its automatic shutdown. Linda tried to contact Palm a couple of times but couldn't get through; she was put on hold for 30+ minutes. I called Palm and eventually got through to a live human being (if you can call them that) who asked me a whole bunch of inane questions and then proceeded to tell me that they couldn't help me because I needed to talk to technical support. So of course I'm wondering who in the $#@%& I've been talking to all this time. They gave me a spectacularly worthless phone number to call. Instead of calling them right away, Linda and I tried to reset the Palm. Well, because the power off doesn't work, the Palm is now basically frozen at its little startup screen until it shuts itself down because the power is drained out of it. Excellent. Time to call Palm's Technical Support. The first couple of times I tried to call this number I got disconnected. About the fourth time I called the number I actually managed to navigate through their "Option Menu of Death" (if you choose a wrong option it hangs up on you, so think fast). You finally end up at a seemingly impossible fork in the road. "For support with the Palm 705, press 1. For support for the Palm 7 series, Press 2." Well, what about the Palm Vx!? Huh? What about that!? I pressed 1. I got one of their technical support trolls. He told me that he didn't support the Palm Vx. Oooh, what a surprise. He told me to hang up, call back, wait on hold for another 45 minutes or so, and select a different option so that I might have the honor of speaking to someone who knew what they were talking about (HA!). Since the people at Palm apparently live in some undeveloped country, they have not yet achieved the amazing technical marvel of "call transfer". So I had to hang up and call the number back. Since I had pressed 1 the first time, I pressed two this time. I finally got connected with another one of their hell-demons in technical "support", who proceeded to tell me that he does not support the Palm Vx. Anyone seeing a pattern here yet? He basically told me to hang up, call back, choose a different option, wait on hold again, and talk to an entirely different person who will likely tell me the exact same thing -- that he doesn't support the Palm Vx. So when I get back to that same fork in the road, I choose option 1 again. If nothing else I just wanted to get their address so I could get in my car and drive to them and shove this Palm Vx in an inappropriate place. This time the guy tells me that he will listen to the problem. After a brief description of part of the problem, I can tell that this guy is in way over his head. He agrees that the Palm is messed up. This is like going to your doctor because your arm is hanging off your shoulder by a couple of strands of ligament and your doctor just sitting there, nodding and saying, "Dude, I bet that hurts." We negotiate a deal whereby I will send them the messed up Palm and they will send a new one back, and I won't come down there and wait for him in the parking lot. We made the arrangements and the old Palm was sent out and a new one has been received. Yesterday, the Palm was not powering on. This problem resolved itself later in the day and was hopefully a fluke. Today, I have heard rumors that the Palm is not syncing. I will check on this in just a bit."



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CASANOVA

"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."
Eric Hoffer

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
Voltaire

"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it."
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Did I say something that offended you? Click here

bump

Good job Giovanni.

That Palm story really had me laughing.
You going to your doctor with your arm hanging on by a few ligaments and your doctor says" Dude, I bet that hurts."

Haha...that's hilarious man...