Someone forwarded a joke to me last week. It was pretty funny, and I laughed. What did I do afterwards?
Did I get on the phone, call up three buddies and tell them the joke verbally, practicing the punch line, getting better and better until I dominated it? Or did I copy and paste it to some friends, sharing it with others through email?
Though I did neither of these, what most people do these days is the latter – sending it along online. Joke telling is a lost art. We don’t get with people face-to-face as much anymore, engage in conversation, and say, “Oh man, have you heard the one about?”
That saddens me because humor is a connector. Laughing together is a good thing. It’s why bowling is fun. You’re with people, everyone has a different style, we all do goofy things when we throw a gutter ball, and that causes laughter. Plus, there is beer. Let’s not forget that.
Years ago, my editor taught me the art of joke telling. I had no idea how to become an expert. Every once in awhile our dad would tell me a joke, and I’d try to retell it a few days later and fall flat.
My editor demonstrated to me the guidelines of success. He would get on the phone after a buddy shared information for a story, then that person would tell him a joke. He would get off the line, call three other sources, tell them the joke, then ask what was going on, and ask for documents, reports or quotes for a story he was working on. It worked marvelously.
He got people laughing. They opened up to him. They sent him information for the stories. And he got really good at the jokes.
It took me multiple years of hearing this before it registered on me that like any other skill set, you had to practice it. If you want to make people laugh and have just the right pitch on the punch line, you better work on it to get it right.
I started down the path, stealing from him, going to my sources and telling jokes face to face, changing the pitch, working on the delivery, gauging reactions. It was fun. Others shared jokes back. It became a connection, and to this day I have multiple close friends because of that.
Online joke sharing eliminates that. Instead, in an impersonal manner, we share the written word. Nothing wrong with that per se, but body language, tone and inflection are lost, so it’s not the same.
I think that’s something we’ve lost in general since the turn of the century, when email truly became ubiquitous. It’s accelerated since then with texting, instant messaging and Snap Chat. Because it’s easier, we forward the joke along rather than memorizing, thinking about it, practicing it, then actually calling or seeing a few people and relating it to them.
Face-to-face joke telling is spectacular. When you’re around masters, it’s hard to find a situation that’s funnier than jokesters trying to one-up each other.
Put it on your weekly to-do list. Take that next forwarded joke and don’t forward it. Call your three best friends and tell it to them over the phone. Maybe you’ll crash. Or maybe you’ll start your stand-up career.
Did I get on the phone, call up three buddies and tell them the joke verbally, practicing the punch line, getting better and better until I dominated it? Or did I copy and paste it to some friends, sharing it with others through email?
Though I did neither of these, what most people do these days is the latter – sending it along online. Joke telling is a lost art. We don’t get with people face-to-face as much anymore, engage in conversation, and say, “Oh man, have you heard the one about?”
That saddens me because humor is a connector. Laughing together is a good thing. It’s why bowling is fun. You’re with people, everyone has a different style, we all do goofy things when we throw a gutter ball, and that causes laughter. Plus, there is beer. Let’s not forget that.
Years ago, my editor taught me the art of joke telling. I had no idea how to become an expert. Every once in awhile our dad would tell me a joke, and I’d try to retell it a few days later and fall flat.
My editor demonstrated to me the guidelines of success. He would get on the phone after a buddy shared information for a story, then that person would tell him a joke. He would get off the line, call three other sources, tell them the joke, then ask what was going on, and ask for documents, reports or quotes for a story he was working on. It worked marvelously.
He got people laughing. They opened up to him. They sent him information for the stories. And he got really good at the jokes.
It took me multiple years of hearing this before it registered on me that like any other skill set, you had to practice it. If you want to make people laugh and have just the right pitch on the punch line, you better work on it to get it right.
I started down the path, stealing from him, going to my sources and telling jokes face to face, changing the pitch, working on the delivery, gauging reactions. It was fun. Others shared jokes back. It became a connection, and to this day I have multiple close friends because of that.
Online joke sharing eliminates that. Instead, in an impersonal manner, we share the written word. Nothing wrong with that per se, but body language, tone and inflection are lost, so it’s not the same.
I think that’s something we’ve lost in general since the turn of the century, when email truly became ubiquitous. It’s accelerated since then with texting, instant messaging and Snap Chat. Because it’s easier, we forward the joke along rather than memorizing, thinking about it, practicing it, then actually calling or seeing a few people and relating it to them.
Face-to-face joke telling is spectacular. When you’re around masters, it’s hard to find a situation that’s funnier than jokesters trying to one-up each other.
Put it on your weekly to-do list. Take that next forwarded joke and don’t forward it. Call your three best friends and tell it to them over the phone. Maybe you’ll crash. Or maybe you’ll start your stand-up career.
