Humor is to the brain – what beans are to coffee – so why don’t people laugh at your jokes?
Here are 5 no-brainer reasons why humor sometimes comes across more like a stun gun than a funny story. 
1. It’s been told before – and few people other than a parent show interest in the same old gag.
2. You can’t remember the punch line – so you make one up or left it out altogether and hope nobody notices.
3. You laugh hard at your own lines in hearty … sidesplitting belly laughs … so that people can no longer hear what’s funny.
4. The topic has little to do with people you tell it to … and so nobody gets where you’re going with the humor.
5. Your topic hits too close to home and so people feel insulted, intimidated, or angry.
Comedy tends to strike people funniest ... when it triggers a mismatch between what people commonly expect and what they get. What makes people laugh where you work?
Ellen,
This hits close to home.
Because I do lot of work helping execs with presentations, they frequently fall back on the old saw "Shouldn't I open with a joke?"
My response is always the same: "How many people can you name who earn enough to feed their families by being a comedian? Do you want to feed yours this week?"
There are certainly some executives who are genuinely funny, at ease, and have good timing. After 30 years, I can count them on one hand.
After 3
Posted by: Steve Roesler | September 4, 2007 12:18 AM | Permalink to Comment