Developing my sense of humour

[ArcturusXIV]

The title really says everything. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to develop a keen sense of humour? I have one at times, but many times I'm just not fast enough on my toes to say just the right thing at the right time to make people crack up. Anything you DJs can suggest?

 

[englishcrap]

The most affordable way right now to start is to go to www.google.com and then do a search for humour and jokes. Write down a list of one liners that you think might be funny, adapt them then learn how incorporate them into everday conversations.

Example...you might be chatting to your mates about a job and your mate might say well that job does require alot time and patience..and you could say "Oh yeah especially if your a doctor" OK not a brilliant joke but thats just an example..get what I mean ?.

Tell the jokes to your close friends or family and see what works then take note of them and use them in the outside world. Listen to peoples conversations, hook up with a someone who is funny and is humour will rub off on you. Humour can be infectious..

David DeAngelos recommends a book called Comedy Writing Secrets. I just got a copy of it today, havent had a chance to read it just yet.

Might be worth indulging yourself in watching comedy. I love the old 80's stuff like Only Fools and Horses

 

[WhitePimp]

My humor moments are on and off too. I've been getting good at hanging around hilarious people and just studying what they do/how they do it and it's helped. Just study others and find out what makes them funny

 

[Panda 2000]

A good thing to know about humour is that a person thinks something is funny when there are two contrasting or completely different emotions in one given situation, story or observation. It may seem far fetched at first, but when you think about funny stuff and search for contrasting emotions in it, you begin to see what I mean (by the way I myself didn't come up with that completely by myself). The sense of being superior to something or someone also initiates humour and laughter and a sudden understanding of things initiates laughter too - you know how sometimes you're studying something and you don't get it and then someone explains it to you and you suddenly realize that it's easy and you smile? That's also why jokes have a punchline - to build up contrasting emotions but keep them seperated and then combine those (by now stronger) emotions all at once with the punchline.
A nice and obvious example of this is the stand up comedy at the end of every Seinfeld episode - he takes something boring and ordinary from everyday life and then relates them with something different and extraordinary. And then usually acts out a situation involving all that stuff (like when he says how a nose job is called a rhinoplasty, which is kind of like comparing you to a rhino - isn't it bad enough that your nose is big as it is and they have to compare you to a rhino?)
There's also something about this on howstuffworks.com.
I'd say just be confident about your sense of humour and observe everything that goes on around you carefully, you can make lots of funny remarks about that.

Another example from Seinfeld (although I don't think his jokes are really that ha-ha funny, because they are a bit obvious, but that's why they're a good example), I just found this on the net: What is a date really, but a job interview that lasts all night? The only difference is that in not many job interviews is there a chance you’ll wind up naked.
See, job interview - boring, naked or sex - not that boring, he combines those two and also has a kind of a punchline at the end which makes it more sudden and thus more funny.