Funny men of reddit, how do you manage to make your jokes land?

18 comments

1. You either just are funny or you’re not. Sorry.

2. Well, my first thought is that you’re not telling jokes. Both of your examples are just nonsensical words with no setup, no punchline, no connection to the topic, you’re just saying random sounds. It’s not even wordplay. Do these translate differently in your native language, or is this something you would say in english?

3. You are trying too hard and probably reek of desperation. Stop trying to be someone else and be yourself. Bad jokes are worse than no jokes

4. I use ‘[deadpan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadpan)’ with very sharp wit. Its sometimes minutes to days that people get the joke. Sometimes I’ll make jokes no one gets and I’ll laugh and just walk away. I’vr had several people say ‘you’re one of those crazy white bois’. But usually when a sledgehammer is involved

5. Dry, dark, sarcastic, deadpan type of shit. I don’t laugh at my own jokes I just always look the same and some people love that shit. A lot of it is just roasting my friends and family but not taking personal shots at them.

6. Get the “Pretty Good Joke Book” by Garrison Keillor. Read it. Then come back.

7. I’ve gotta be brutally honest, I don’t find women remotely funny unless they’re attractive, obliviously stupid, or injure themselves not too seriously.

   If I had to take a shot, just get good at word play and puns. But telling people stand-alone jokes aren’t much funny either. Learn how to tell a story to where people are invested into what you’re saying. Once you notice that people are engaged in your story (typically the more absurd the better but don’t lie too much) then you’re finding gold

8. Don’t force jokes with hopes of them landing. Just give honest responses to whatever the topic is and add a little exaggeration and people will laugh if its funny. Also, don’t make it obvious that it’s a joke because if people don’t laugh, you can just leave it in the past and it won’t be awkward.

9. I read your examples. You’re gonna have to just lift jokes for a while. at least until you get the hang of it.

   that means steal them. there are two ways you can steal jokes.
   First way is you go find a joke that you like , and you literally just quote them as if they’re your own. The cardinal rule is that if someone says, hey that’s a Bill Burr joke, you have to fess up and say you’re right. You can’t just keep pretending it’s your joke. The goal is to try to get away with it as if it’s your joke.

   Second method is a little bit more, let’s say academic, ask your buddies that make all these jokes with you who their favorite comedians are. Make sure you memorize the name of the comedians, don’t make it obvious. go online and go look at their standup material or whatever the hell material they’re producing. Try to see if you can replicate the structure or theme or some kind of resemblance where it’s not clear that you stole it, you just “lifted” the outline.

   The goal of this method is to see if you can get them to laugh naturally, not like a petty left they are giving you currently. Once you kind of see what things they can naturally laugh at, you can adjust your style of comedy to your own personal flavor with the loose outline you already had. The goal overtime is to abandon the outline you store and ideally have your own type of jokes. This practice is a good way to help you “read the audience”

   you might actually have really funny jokes and good delivery and everything but if your audience is not receptive, it doesn’t matter if you’re the funniest guy( or gal) on the planet.

   I do my jokes with a bunch of chill dudes who really want to seek out a good laugh. but I never do my jokes with middle-class women who are into namebrand stuff and spend a lot of time on social media because they’ll get offended by everything. my jokes will not work with both audiences. I can only pick one audience. So I have to pick my audience very carefully.

   I hope this helps. Good luck.

   so, if none of this advice is good, I would suggest you go to the library and pick up books on humor and comedy. There are a lot out there. I’ve written many papers in college about the stuff so I know they’re out there. Mostly the literature is going to be from the 70s and there’s going to be a handful from the early 2000s.

10. Consume comedy, make jokes to make yourself laugh. My style is opportunistic, I usually always have a piece of my attention on what could be funny from a situation/discussion. It’s not to make others laugh, just because I kinda like it, it makes me laugh (internally) even if I don’t say it out loud. Though one of the funniest things to me is messing with people (not in a hurtful way) by confusing them, then finishing with a punch. I’ve been told I’m funny, but I usually just do it for myself, life is boring without it.

    When I grew up I used to consume a lot of comedy, like I’d watch all the stand up I could get my hands on just because I loved it so much. I think it shaped my thought process and opened my mind to some ways to view situations, phrases, words, etc. in a way that facilitates humor.

    TL;DR: Consume comedy, have fun making jokes for yourself.

11. You’re probably not funny. Stop trying to be funny. Saying cringeworthy jokes is much worse than never saying anything funny at all.

12. I just have a tendency to make smart ass comments in context, e.g. someone talking too much and saying “so anyway so long story short” and blurting out, “more like long story long.”

13. About 90% of being funny in a crowd is listening to what other people are saying, to know what will land.

    I do know that the one woman who completes the joke I’ve missed when I run out of steam in a conversation is the one I’m currently just completely infatuated with.

    Most of those are one-liner or one-word jokes from something way earlier in the conversation and I just missed the last connection, but when she nails it it’s gold.

14. Oh man

15. Get to know your audience and read the room.

    Basically, get to know people first. Everyone has their own sense of humor and you’ll be able to tailor your humor. Some people laugh at everything. Some people are very pleasant but not very jokey. Some people are serious but can be derailed with one well-placed joke. In a group setting, pay attention to what’s being joked about and how. You may have a great joke but maybe it ends up being too mean for the vibe, for example.

    Go strike up conversations, get to know people, and embark towards a road of your own inside jokes and references and hilarity.

16. you need to stop using unfunny Amy Shumer type material. she isnt funny.

    Whitney Cummings (creator of 2 broke girls) is funny

    Joan Rivers and Phylis Diller are funny.
    Don Rickles is funny.

    joan rivers and don rickles use quick one liners to be funny.

17. I keep a very serious face so that they never see it coming. Half the time they think I’m serious until the end. This way I get all of their attention.

18. You don’t need to make people laugh in order to get on with them or for them to like you. If throwing out a joke when you’re trying to keep a conversation going isn’t working, maybe try something else.

    In general, though – when you make a joke, throw it away. Even if you think it’s something that merits a laugh, don’t say it *expecting* a laugh. Say it, keep going. If they laugh, fine. If they don’t, fine.