The Funniest People Aren't Born Funny.

Here's What Sets Them Apart (Comedy Mindhacks #63)

When we’re around certain family and friends, most of us are funny. To be funny in front of strangers, however, is a different ballgame. I don’t believe comedians are born funny just like I don’t believe surgeons are born with scalpels in their hands. But I do think there’s something that sets good comedians apart from others. I have five degrees, including a PhD, and I’ve spent years studying rhetoric, language, and humor theory. I also write jokes and perform. And here’s what I’ve learned: the funniest people are pattern-recognizing machines who trained themselves to spot gaps.

In my view, funny happens when the brain recognizes a pattern and either a) that surprises the brain, or b) that pattern is established then broken, which surprises the brain. Patterns, not infinite mystery or divine inspiration, are at the heart of humor. The Incongruity Theory alone, one of the most prominent theories in philosophy and psychology, explains why this works. You use a pattern to create or set up an expectation, then you violate that pattern.

And, as I’ve written about on this site recently, the gap between what people believe (the pattern) and what’s actually true (the surprise) creates the space for laughter. In a nutshell, it’s learnable structure. I heard somewhere (I can’t recall where), that neuroscience suggests this, too, in rather fascinating ways. Professional comedians show more activation in the temporal lobe when creating humor, while amateurs and non-comedians show more activity in the prefrontal cortex (the part that handles complex planning and decision-making, if I’m remembering correctly). Translation: experienced comedians process humor automatically, while beginners have to think harder about it. The point? That’s not talent; that’s training.

I remember in one of my linguistics classes working through the communication stages of children. It turns out that infants are often able to laugh at peek-a-boo by around 9 months old. As they develop, the patterns in their humor become more complex until they start understanding linguistic jokes. Again, the point: humor follows a developmental learning curve from birth, which means you already started learning this skill decades ago.

I’ve taught stand-up comedy classes taught to teenagers with zero comedy experience. In a span of less than 10 hours, I helped these students develop tight 90-second sets by teaching joke writing fundamentals, editing techniques, and basic act-outs. What I’m certain of is that the structure exists, the patterns exist, and the training methods exist. I teach these patterns because comedy is a skill you build, not a downloaded-at-birth type of gift you’re given.

My mission is simple: laughter over outrage (Laughter > Outrage). My method is academic rigor applied to practical performance. And it works. But the uncomfortable truth is often this: almost everyone is probably funnier than they think. They just haven’t trained their brain to recognize the patterns fast enough yet. But…they can. You can. One way is to check out the joke writing course just below. Or, if you’re interested, you can book me for 1-on-1 joke writing, editing, workshopping, etc. I can also review videos and give feedback. And, in the near futured, I’d love to run a joke writing course and have you join.

JOKE WRITING COURSE: By the way, if you have any interest at all in learning about your persona, how to write some jokes, or doing stand-up comedy, check out my online joke writing course, “The Joke Writer’s Lab,” HERE.