speak humor, be humorous

Chapter 37 Humor Method (3)
Therefore, the setting of suspense should be done in a eloquent way, not too fast, so that the audience has wrong expectations about the result, and there is a time for buffering thinking, and then speak out.But it can't be too slow, so slow that the audience forgets what he expects and anticipates.Let’s look at the following piece of humor, which lays the groundwork and sets up suspense in different ways.

The postman delivered a telegram, and Xiao Fenfen held it with chopsticks, walked into the house carefully, and said, "Dad, your telegram." Seeing this, her father asked strangely, "Why did you hold it with chopsticks?"

Xiao Fenfen said, "I'm afraid of getting an electric shock!"

In this humorous piece, Xiao Fenfen used chopsticks to hold the telegram to lay the groundwork and set up suspense. In the end, Xiao Fenfen said, "I'm afraid of getting an electric shock."

Innuendo: Higher Than Irony
Rossini was a famous Italian composer in the 19th century.Once, a composer brought a manuscript of a piece of music to him for advice.During the performance, Rossini kept taking off his hat.The composer asked: "Is it too hot in the room?" Rossini replied: "No, I have the habit of taking off my hat when I see acquaintances. In your music, I meet so many acquaintances that I have to take off my hat repeatedly. "

Rossini was obviously very dissatisfied with the patchwork of music manuscripts brought by the composer who asked for advice, but he did not point out the other party's "plagiarism" or "patchwork", but used a humorous "can't stop taking off his hat" His actions and his explanation of "meeting so many acquaintances" euphemistically hinted at his sharp criticism. Although this kind of criticism is not as sharp and sharp as direct speaking, it is not only vivid, but also humorous, implicit, and full of richness. Ironic and intriguing.

There was a young man who liked to plagiarize other people's works. One day he came to a magazine and asked if a poem he had submitted could be published. The editor asked him, "Young man, did you write this poem yourself?"

The young man replied: "Yes, of course I wrote it myself."

The editor stood up very politely and held out his hand to him:
"Then, Mr. Shakespeare, I am very glad to see you. I thought you were long dead!"

Here, the editor implicitly hints at severe criticism of the other party's plagiarism of Shakespeare's poems, but he is so wise and foolish, and he behaves so politely and enthusiastically that it is believed to be true, which has a humorous effect.

Counterattack: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

He took over the other party's words, as if he was about to give in to the other party, but suddenly he went against the trend and forced the conclusion that the other party didn't want to accept to him with deductive logic.

The most important thing about humor is to restrain the edge of attack. This refers to the general situation, but it is not the case in special cases.Especially in front of extremely despicable things and people, or when you can't bear external attacks, teasing too easily will not only appear weak and incompetent, lacking a sense of justice, but will also lead to more aggressive attacks by the other party.

In this case, if you don't retaliate with an eye or an eye, you will lose your personality.At this time, the attacking edge should not be blunted, but should be sharpened.The more sharpened, the more incisive and vivid, the more on-site effect.The method with the strongest on-site effect is the counter-attack method.

The Scottish poet Burns saw a rich man being rescued from the river, and the poor man who risked his life to save the rich man was paid only a copper dollar.The onlookers were furious and wanted to throw the rich man back into the river.At this time Burns said to the crowd:
"Let him go, he understands the value of his life!"

Pence's humor is very dramatic. On the surface, he reversed the anger of the crowd, but in essence, he despises this rich and unkind guy even more than the others.The beauty of Pence's humor is that he gives a special explanation for the stinginess of the rich, and turns the low remuneration to others into an underestimation of the value of his own life.

The aggressiveness of humor is just right here, and the sense of humor is not inferior to the intensity of the aggressiveness. This is due to Pence's calmness and gentleness, but in essence he has hidden needles in the needle.

In this case, it is not enough to use only humor to deal with such unrighteous people.

When the weak meet the strong, a fierce counterattack can arouse people's sympathy more than a gentle smile.

When Kong Rong was 10 years old, he accompanied his father to a famous person's house in Luoyang.An official surnamed Chen said:

"You were good when you were young, but you may not be so good when you grow up." Kong Rong said, "It seems that you were pretty good when you were young."

Kong Rong's reaction was so fast and so logical, which is really rare.When people appreciate his victory over the strong with the weak, they ignore his sharpness.

When fighting back, we must be good at grasping a sentence, a metaphor, or a conclusion of the other party, and then turn it around to target the other party, forcing the absurd words that he didn't want to say and the conclusion he didn't want to accept with deductive logic. Give it to him, tell him to refuse, complain endlessly, helpless.

German 19th-century poet Heine Heine was a Jew who was often attacked with disrespect.At a party, a traveler said to him: "I found an island. There are no Jews and donkeys on this island!" Going to that island will make up for this shortcoming.”

Rebutting with humorous language and humorous reasoning is much more subtle than direct rebuttals.It is precisely because of the implicitness that some inconvenient and offensive words can be included in it.And these words were taken from the other party's mouth and returned in a logical way. If the other party wants to fight back, there is no other way but to cancel what he just said.But a gentleman says, a four-horse horse is hard to chase, who has such ability?

Reverse causation: go to the opposite side to take advantage of loopholes
The reverse causation humor method is to be good at taking advantage of loopholes in the process of reasoning, especially to take advantage of loopholes in the opposite direction, and take the extremely small possibility of coincidence as the starting point of the argument.

There is a certain normality in life, and there is a certain common sense in thinking. People’s associations are trained to an automatic level for this accustomed normality and common sense, so that when a result comes out, it will automatically associate with the usual cause. .

The characteristic of the reverse causation method is to regard an extremely small possibility as a reality, although it cannot finally cancel another larger possibility proposed by the other party.Even more comical than this type of approach is another approach to humor that completely negates the original causality.

A patient named John asked the doctor, "Will I live to be 90?"

After examining John's body, the doctor asked, "How old are you this year?"

The patient said: "40 years old."

"Do you have any hobbies? For example, like drinking, smoking, gambling, women, or other hobbies?"

"I hate smoking, drinking, and women even more."

"My God, then what are you going to do at 90?"

Originally, the reader's expectation was that a woman who quit smoking and drinking would get affirmative evaluation, but the result was not only the opposite, but also regarded all this as the meaning of life.Negating all of these negates the value of living to 90 years old, that is, the value of all these is higher than the value of longevity.

The value of this humorous method lies not only in the conclusion, but also in the process of deduction, which must be closely linked and in-depth.

Turning a deer into a horse: calling the white into the black
The humor method of referring to a deer as a horse is to use the tacit inconsistency between the two parties to describe the white as black, so as to create a contrast, convey another layer of real meaning, and achieve the purpose of humorous communication.

The reason why people can tacitly understand is that the surface meaning of language is different.Literally, you are referring to a deer as a horse, and you are referring to white and black. From a deep meaning, you convey another meaning.Although the meaning of this layer is not clear, it is already clear in the heart, and the degree of understanding is deeper than expressing it clearly, and it can show a sense of humor.

The effect of humor is often produced in judgments that do not deserve their names.

It is unscientific to refer to a deer as a horse, but if it is not intentional deception, and the two parties are tacitly aware that the place name does not match the reality, it can produce a sense of humor.

After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, the commander-in-chief of the British army, returned to London triumphantly. At that time, he held a very grand and grand celebration dinner. Celebrities from all walks of life, noble gentlemen, and many officers and men who participated in the war participated in the banquet. Soldier.

The dishes for the dinner were very rich, and at the end, a bowl of clear water was placed in front of everyone.One of the soldiers took a sip of the bowl of water generously. Seeing this, the nobles present all snickered.

It turned out that this bowl of water was used to wash hands before eating snacks, and this soldier from a farming family would not understand such court rules, so a joke was made, and the soldier flushed with embarrassment.

At this moment, Wellington picked up the bowl of handwashing water and stood up.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's raise our glasses to this heroic soldier!" After a burst of warm applause, everyone raised their glasses and drank together.

The soldier and everyone present were greatly moved by the character and style of the Duke of Wellington.

The Duke of Wellington's deception not only saved the soldier from his predicament, but also showed his noble character and sense of humor.

Playing Mystery: Create Suspense Cleverly, Win by Surprise
Mysterious humor is to use the psychology of the other party's expected transformation, cleverly set up suspense, explain the suspense, and win by surprise, but the explanation is between truth and fallacy.

Because humor usually has such a rule, it always has a reversal, which always makes you realize that you originally expected something different. Laughter is produced after the expectation is lost.Over time, once entering a humorous situation, people always look forward to a very unexpected answer, which forms a psychological habit, which is called "mental set" in psychological terms.

This is the formality of humor, but humor does not stick to one pattern. Like anything else, if there is a formality, there must be an exception. If there is an expected loss, there must be an expected loss.

The French fabler La Fontaine was used to eating a potato every morning.One day, he left the potatoes to dry on the dining-room fireplace, and they were gone in no time.He didn't know who took it.

So he cried out, "Oh, my God, tell me, who ate that potato I put on the fire?"

His servant hurried over and said, "It's not me."

"that would be great!"

"Why do you say that, sir?" asked his servant.

"Because I put arsenic on my potatoes and tried to poison the rats with it."

"Oh, God! I'm poisoned!" cried the servant anxiously.

La Fontaine smiled: "Don't worry, I just want you to tell the truth."

Here, La Fontaine is using the method of mystification, which is a double disappointment in terms of psychological expectations.The first time it was the servant who said he hadn't eaten, and La Fontaine who said it was great, the servant's easy expectations turned into very serious consequences.Then comes another reversal, and the expected danger disappears altogether: it's a double sleight of hand.

The whole mystery of playing tricks is to take advantage of the other party's psychology of expected transformation.There are many variations of this method, and sometimes instead of giving people a double transformation, on the contrary, they deliberately give him an answer that has not been transformed, so that his psychology of expecting the opposite transformation will be frustrated and he will return to normal.

It is worth noting that the skill of humor is not only to form suspense, but also to explain suspense.To explain suspense, there must be a certain degree of logic in order to be convincing.

Therefore, when explaining suspense, it is often necessary to talk about a little crooked reasoning.From a logical point of view, crooked reasoning is inherently unreasonable, and it is obviously unreasonable, but to make sense, it depends on being cleverly crooked and not giving people a sense of arbitrariness.The key at this time is to grasp any point that is not related to the concept as a fulcrum of reasoning and give full play to it.

Therefore, it can be said that the beauty of humor lies between "truth" and "absurdity".

Pushing boats along the way: Borrowing others' mouths and using them for oneself

The so-called smooth sailing refers to following the opponent's thinking mode according to the situation, or making deductive inferences based on the opponent's core argument, drawing an obviously wrong or absurd conclusion, and then concentrating firepower to launch a fierce attack to subdue the opponent.Among them, "shun" means succession and is the premise of "push"; "push" means reversal and is the result.There are many ways to push the boat along the current, such as the sequential push of cause and effect, the push of choice, and the push of return to error.

Someone has a toothache and goes to the hospital to extract the tooth.The doctor was skilled and pulled out the tooth in no time.Although the patient thought that the doctor was skilled, he also felt that he had earned 30 yuan in just a short time, and he was a little unwilling.So, while paying the money, he said to the doctor teasingly: "Your dentists are really good at making money. You made 10 yuan in just 30 seconds."

The doctor did not directly refute the other party's opinion, but said: "If you want, I can pull out the other tooth slowly for you." When the patient heard this, he shouted again and again: "No, please pull out the other tooth quickly. Bar!"

Facing the patient's sarcasm, the doctor answered very cleverly, without reasoning directly, and followed the other party's 10-second babble, agreeing to slowly pull out the other tooth.Undoubtedly, this has put the opponent in a good position and put him in an active position.

This doctor is using the method of pushing boats with the flow.

For another example, when a writer was talking about his writing experience, someone deliberately made it difficult for him, and imitated chicken crowing below.He stopped and said, "It's not midnight, if I'm not mistaken! But the animal's instinct should be right again."

Pushing boats along the way is to take advantage of other people's mouths and use them for your own use. Instead of confronting them head-on, you should surprise and skillfully control the enemy in words of approval or even praise.

Once, the mullah and several people were walking in the field, when suddenly there was the cry of "moo-moo-".These people said to Mullah maliciously: "The cow is calling you, go and listen to what it has to say to you?"

The mullah went away for a while and came back and told them:
"The cow asked me: Why did you go out for a walk with some wild donkeys?"

For the attacks of those people, the mullah did not directly fight against them, but went along with the flow, using the mouth of the bull to describe the other party as a wild donkey.

A reporter asked President Mobutu of Zaire: "You are very rich. It is said that your property has reached 30 billion US dollars!" Mobutu laughed for a long time after hearing this, and asked: "Have you heard However, a Belgian MP said I have $60 billion!"

The reporter's question was absurd. Faced with the absurdity, Mr. President did not get angry, but "haha laughed", expressing his generosity, and then cleverly transitioned to "Have you heard of it?" The more exaggerated rhetorical questions and the absurd results of course made the reporter consciously slip up.

Darkness: Create a contrast between light and dark

"Building plank roads brightly, keeping Chencang darkly" tells such a historical story: After Liu Bang destroyed Qin, he was named King of Han by Xiang Yu.When going from Guanzhong to Hanzhong, he followed Zhang Liang's strategy and burned the plank road along the way to show that he had no intention of returning east and paralyzed Xiang Yu.Later, Liu Bang built plank roads on the surface, but secretly detoured Chen Cang to fight back to Guanzhong, and won the initial victory in the Chu-Han War.

"Cultivate the plank road brightly, keep the old warehouse in the dark" humor refers to a set of superficial practices to deceive people, but secretly has other plans. The contrast between light and dark gives people a sense of disharmony, which can often produce a strong humorous effect.Because this superficial set often attracts people's attention, the hidden intentions are often realized.Since the ancients could use it to win wars, it is not impossible for us to use it in our lives to achieve our own goals or get out of certain difficulties.And, if used properly, it can have humorous effect.

Chief: "You don't mind if I criticize you bluntly?"

Secretary: "It is an honor for me to be corrected by the leader, and it is a greater spur."

Director: "After I took office, many people reported to me that you used to speak nice words in front of the leaders, which is not good. To be honest, I hate this kind of style the most."

Secretary: "Your opinion is very pertinent! Those leaders like to be complimented and listen to good things. I had no choice but to agree with them. How can there be a good leader like you who doesn't like to brag or shoot?"

Director: "Really?"

Secretary: "Of course. I have been working for more than 20 years, and I have only been a secretary for a year or two. I have never met a leader with a decent style, strong work ability, and excellent leadership skills like you."

Director: "In your opinion, I am better than other leaders in every aspect?"

Secretary: "That goes without saying."

Director: "Good! Good! Good! Let's talk about this today."

Facing the director's criticism, the secretary took his time and humbly accepted it.On the surface, he admitted that he only picked good words because other leaders like to compliment him, which is called "clearly repairing the plank road"; He patted vigorously, and the director was elated.The secretary was so proficient at "building the plank road in the open, keeping the warehouse in the dark" that he not only escaped the director's criticism, but also won the director's favor.And, in our opinion, there's some humor in it too, which really kills three birds with one stone.

"Cultivating plank roads brightly, darkening old warehouses" can be used at any time in life. If you want to praise others for singing well and flaunt yourself, you can say: "You sing so well! You can almost catch up with me. "Of course others will laugh and admire your ability to speak.How about you?Borrowing "You sing so well" and "Mingxiu Plank Road" and "Calmly catch up with me" and "Secretly making Chencang", not only praised others, but also flaunted yourself, and made people laugh. Kill three birds with one stone. How happy is such a thing Why not?

The key to "building the plank road in the open and keeping the warehouse in the dark" is to "build the plank road" so that the other party cannot understand your true intentions, so that you can smoothly "do the work in the dark" and realize your goal. The purpose of "building plank roads" is to confuse the other party. The more similar you are, the easier it is for the other party to be fooled, and the easier it is for you to "secretly hide your position".Moreover, because there is a bright and dark contrast between "building the plank road" and "duchencang", the disharmony between the contrasts often bursts out sparks of humor, making you laugh and letting the contradictions go away in the laughter Freeze, let the mood suddenly brighten up.That being the case, why don't we use "clearly build the plank road, secretly hide the old warehouse" to silence him at the right time?

It's a secret: unassuming, unexpected
(End of this chapter)