speak humor, be humorous

Chapter 38 Humor Method (4)
Therefore, the art of humor is an important technique of humor, and it is also a humorous method that is relatively easy to master.It refers to the use of exaggerated language and dramatic plots, accompanied by provocative actions, so that the audience will follow your train of thought consciously or unconsciously, and then make a point at the end to shake out the unexpected ending, thus creating a strong sense of humor. Humor effect.It requires the speaker to be quiet before the last key words are spoken, cleverly sell the "closed key" to let the audience "understand the truth", and then open the "closed key" to shake out the truth, and the humorous effect will be produced.In other words, the more skillful your "guanzi" is sold, the better the ambush, the deeper the audience enters the "Tao", and the stronger the final humorous effect.Please see how the following humor uses the trick of humor.

A famous tenor said to his friends: "My singing saved my life once."

"Tell us about it."

"I practice my voice every morning in the city. One day, my neighbor said to me: 'If you keep singing, I'll cut your throat!'"

"What happened next?" asked the friend.

"Later? I won't sing."

This example was later used in reverse by some smart people. Although the general idea is the same, the language is different and the humorous effect is similar.The singer boasted to his friends that his singing had saved someone's life, and the friend asked him to tell the story, and he said that when he practiced his voice one day, the neighbor said to him: "If you keep singing, I will commit suicide." !” Then the singer stopped singing.The two have similar approaches but equally satisfactory results. In comparison, the "Guanzi" setting of the previous story is more ingenious.At the beginning, the singer's words "my singing once saved my life" attracted the audience.Then when it comes to "If you keep singing, I'll cut your throat!", the audience has completely entered the Tao, and their hearts are raised to their throats, and they can't help worrying about the fate of the singer. There was a small climax, but the suspense reached its climax, and it was indeed suspended, that is to say, the ambush has been laid, and the next step is to "reveal the bottom".According to the conventional thinking of the audience, the singer will definitely have a fierce conflict with his neighbors, and even think that the singer will call the police or something like that.But the singer followed up with the sentence "Later? I won't sing." It really caught the audience by surprise. At the same time, they immediately thought of the true meaning of the singer who said that his singing had saved his life, and couldn't help laughing.Like a balloon, the singer in front kept blowing it up until it was blown up. Suddenly, the last sentence was like a steel needle piercing a hole in the balloon, and it was deflated immediately, and the humorous effect followed And rise.In any case, both of them use the trick of humor, and they are very successful, and the sense of humor comes out.

When using this kind of humor technique, we should pay attention to two points: one is not to make a fuss, otherwise the trace of "axe and chisel" is too heavy, which is not only not humorous, but will make people disgusted; the other is not to rush for success.If you reveal the "mystery" too early, you reveal the surprise, and you lose your sense of humor due to insufficient foreshadowing and immaturity.

Therefore, when using this method, be sure not to be in a hurry, and talk in a fluent manner, so that the audience has time to think, thus generating wrong expectations, and then you're done.

Percussion on the side: the answer lies deep in the mystery
The insinuating method is to use humorous language to hit back or refute some erroneous views, which is a more subtle and roundabout method.

The humorous effect of the insinuating method depends to a large extent on the audience's meditation and repeated taste, because its characteristic is that the answer to the riddle is deeply buried under the riddle.Therefore, after listening to the words, the audience must have a period of aftertaste in order to appreciate the subtle connection between the riddle and the answer.Therefore, a person with a real sense of humor must not only be good at speaking, but also be good at comprehending the humor of others.

Consider these two examples:

"What kind of fool can be considered incorrigible?" a philosopher was asked.

"He who stumbles twice in the same place," answered the philosopher.

The philosopher seemed to answer the question. He didn't specifically answer what kind of disease the incurable person was, but he pointed to the person who stumbled twice at the same place, suggesting that these people would not learn their lesson and would be incurable.With this kind of insinuation, the meaning is much richer.

In 1937, the central topic of conversation in Vienna was the danger of mergers.

The geography teacher asserted: "Hitler will never attack Austria, otherwise there will be a big war. Please pay attention to this globe. Germany is here, so small, and around it, there are Britain, France and Russia. , are bigger than Germany. Not to mention America..."

The history teacher shook his head and said, "I know this too, but brother, did Hitler know this too?"

The implication of this sentence by the history teacher is that Hitler, the fascist leader, is a war madman, and he will never do what he can.

In modern communication, when you need to criticize or remind others and it is inconvenient to ask him directly, you can consider using this humorous insinuating method.Put forward some seemingly irrelevant topics from the side, so as to achieve the purpose of enlightening, reminding, dissuading, and educating others.

When using the insinuating method, you should pay attention to before speaking, you might as well use your brain first, think about it from the front, back, and side angles, find out a variety of different ways of expression that can inspire people, and choose one of the most Okay, so as to achieve the intended purpose of communication.

False to False: Use the Spear of the Son to Attack the Shield of the Son

The absurd humor method is not to correct the opponent's absurdity immediately, but to imitate his reasoning method to upgrade the joke.

In interpersonal communication, there are two ways to express humorous attacks on each other.One is purely joking, mainly for the purpose of showing affection and arousing resonance with the other party, or to show wisdom and guide the other party to appreciate it.One is to fight each other's wits, as if they are competing for the upper hand in a non-humorous competition. At this time, the teasing and aggressiveness is more important.Sure, the aggression can be ferocious at times, but the form is lighthearted.Regardless of whether it is offensive or not, the escalation of jokes is mainly based on the escalation of jokes, and making mistakes is a common way to escalate jokes.That is to say, knowing that the other party is wrong, not only does not deny it, but affirms it.The result of an affirmation is a more thorough negation.

A lady is chatting with a gentleman.The lady thinks that the sharpest thing in the world is this gentleman's beard.The gentleman was puzzled.The lady said: "You have such a thick skin, but your beard can still protrude."

This is obviously playful because the relationship between cause and effect is absurd.Rather than showing the thick skin of the gentleman, it is better to say that it shows the articulateness of the young lady.In a playful mutual attack, the playfulness must be increased, but in the opposite direction.Just as it is said in ancient Chinese books, use the spear of the son to attack the shield of the son.

However, this gentleman took the absurdity as the absurdity and deduced the lady's absurdity to be even more absurd.

He asked back: "Miss, do you know? Why don't you grow a beard?" Naturally, the lady didn't know.

"Because you have a thicker skin, even a sharp, sharp beard can't break the skin." The reason for the gentleman's counterattack against the lady was not a separate idea, but derived from the logic of the lady's attack on him.That is, I have a beard because the beard is sharp and penetrates the skin, but you don't have a beard because your skin is thicker, and no matter how sharp the beard is, it is useless.The same premises lead to opposite conclusions, pointing to different goals.

The characteristic of this kind of humor that attacks the wrong with the wrong is that it hits people late.The point is not to expose each other's mistakes, but to share a dose of humor in an escalation of the absurd.To achieve this goal, you must have the ability to imitate your opponent's reasoning mistakes.

When you say no to someone's unreasonable request, saying no outright can lead to unnecessary tension.If you use the method of repaying absurdity, it is much more elegant to let the other party understand the inadequacy of your request than to push back head-on.

pretending to be stupid: occasionally acting stupid on purpose

The method of pretentiously stupid humor is to hide one's embarrassment with superficial stupidity or embody extraordinary wisdom by deliberately pretending to be stupid, so that people can taste the hidden humor through twists and turns through the appearance.

Usually, people pay great attention to their external image, and strive to leave an impression of being extremely smart. If they do a little "stupid" thing, they will try their best to cover it up. Few people are willing to expose their "stupidity" to others. Everyone look.It's almost become a mindset.It is this formula that provides us with the space to display our humorous talents.Occasionally pretend to be stupid on purpose, and expose your own flaws in a serious manner. People will be surprised at first glance, and they will inevitably have doubts about you, and then they will think about it. Wit and humor.

A tramp broke into an orchard and picked whatever he saw.I picked a lot of apples and pears.Pick it up and stuff it into your arms and pockets.

The owner of the orchard came over suddenly, grabbed his skirt, and asked, "Why did you come into my orchard?"

The tramp was taken aback, and had to reply, "I'm sorry, man! It's been windy these days, and it's the wind that brought me here."

The owner asked: "Then why did you pick my apples and pears?"

Homeless man: "The wind is so strong that it blows me up and down, so I grab whatever I touch, or the wind will blow me away!"

The owner asked, "Then why did you put the fruit in your pocket?"

Tramp: "Sorry, I was thinking about this when you came!"

The homeless man who stole the owner's apples and pears was caught on the spot. Of course it was very embarrassing, but he had to find some reasons to defend himself.He was thick-skinned, talking nonsense, but he couldn't justify himself, and was caught by the owner of the garden, forcing him to have nowhere to go.Suddenly, out of desperation, someone deliberately pretended to be a fool, hiding his extraordinary agility in the appearance of dementia and dullness.The owner of the garden would be startled when he heard his last words, and then he would naturally laugh, admiring the tramp's humor, and of course he would forgive him.

Stupid humor requires you to reveal your "stupidity" in a quiet and vivid way, so that people will be surprised because of the unexpected: "What's wrong with this guy, is he really so stupid?" , as the doubts are cleared away, and your true intentions are exposed, it will bring people an indescribable pleasure, and the spring breeze of humor will blow through people's hearts.

In interpersonal communication, there is a strong playfulness in pretending to be stupid.People don't laugh at a person's cleverness, and they don't pay attention to cleverness that is deliberately played.But stupidity is the focus of people, whether it is true or not, people are happy to laugh at it.What's more, pretending to be stupid is a product of high wit. Both the other party and yourself understand the "stupid" element in it. Both sides are tacitly aware of it, but they can't resist the temptation of its playfulness, so they laugh more happily and naturally.

It should be noted that the real meaning hidden behind pretending to be stupid can be understood by the other party after a little thought.That is to make it easy for the other party to understand that your "stupidity" is fake, and that you deliberately use it to create humor.Otherwise, the other party will be puzzled by your "stupidity", not only will not understand the original meaning of your humor, but will really think you are a stupid person, which is really bad.

Returning Humor: Soft to Soft, Hard to Hard
The method of returning humor is to understand or infer according to the other party's logic, from one to the other, and return the property to the original owner, so that they can lift a stone and shoot themselves in the foot, and reap the consequences.

The method of returning humor is to be good at grasping a sentence, a metaphor, or a conclusion of the other party, and then take it over and target the other party, that is, to return the absurd language or behavior and unacceptable conclusions given to oneself by the other party after logical deduction. Give it to him, treat him in his own way.

A customer in the restaurant stopped the boss: "Boss, this plate of beef is simply inedible!"

Boss: "What's none of my business? You should complain to the bull."

Customer: "Yes, that's why I stopped you."

According to the absurd logic of the boss, the customer deduces that the boss is the "bull", making the other party dumbfounded and reaping the consequences.

The humor method used by customers here is the return humor method.

The method of returning humor is generally to fight back with the same weight as the opponent's attack has.Soft to soft, hard to hard, do not overweight at will, overweight will affect the humor.

There was a young man who was new to social occasions, shy by nature, not good at words, and very nervous.Once, a newly appointed leader asked him to meet, and he was so nervous that he broke out in a cold sweat.Seeing this, the leader said: "Seeing that you are sweating from the heat, let me turn on the fan for you."

He suddenly had an idea, and he took the topic of "sweating" and said: "I am really worthless. When I meet strangers, my whole body is sweating except for my fingernails."

How strange!After saying this, his mood quickly calmed down, and he stopped sweating.In the future, on such occasions, he would find a few humorous words to say, and now he can talk endlessly in front of the public, without changing his face or heartbeat.

The method of combining solemnity with harmony is to say something very solemn and serious in a joking way, so as to produce a humorous effect.

The humor of "Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty looks at his birthday" is such an example.

In the Western Han Dynasty, Dongfang Shuo was witty, witty and eloquent.One day, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty said to his ministers when discussing longevity: "In my opinion, there is a very reasonable sentence in "Xiangshu": Whether a person lives long, you only need to look at the length between the nose and the mouth. If you grow an inch, you can live to be a hundred years old."

All the ministers responded, "Yes! Your Majesty has a great opinion." Dongfang Shuo looked up to the sky and laughed.

A minister accused him of being so bold that he dared to make fun of the emperor.Dongfang Shuo argued, "I'm not laughing at Your Majesty, I'm laughing at Peng Zu's face!"

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked, "What's so funny about Peng Zu's face?"

Dongfang Shuo said: "It is said that Peng Zu lived to be [-] years old. If the "Photography Book" is really accurate, then according to the calculation of one inch long in a person and a hundred years old, Peng Zu should be eight inches long in a person, and his face is not It will be more than a foot long."

After hearing this, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty thought for a while, and couldn't help laughing.

Dongfang Shuo's calculation made the angry Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty laugh out of anger, which indeed achieved a humorous effect.Express solemn and serious truths in a relaxed and cheerful form and humorous language, so that people can accept the truth and obey each other in a joyful and harmonious atmosphere, thus showing a sense of humor.

Black Humor: Using Comedy to Express Tragedy

The so-called black humor is actually a kind of humor that uses the form of comedy to express the content of tragedy.

Black humor emerged in the early 20s. In 60, American writer Joseph Heller published a shocking novel "No. 1961 Catch-20 Rules".As soon as this book was published, it attracted the attention of American readers, and it caused a sensation in the literary world in the 20s.With the spread of this book, the term black humor has also become a household name.Black humor exists as a genre of literature.Here we take it as a form of humor, a humorous technique.

Black humor is a kind of humor that is different from traditional humor.Traditional humor is bright, outgoing, confident, and aimed at others, while black humor is melancholy, introverted, sad and desperate, and mocks oneself.The characters and events in black humor are almost absurd and impossible in life.Moreover, the black humor always tells the troubles under the cruel fate with a smile, and uses self-deprecating to reflect the puzzling psychology and the small consciousness of life.It is expressing the most helpless psychology and emotions in a seemingly relaxed and optimistic tone. Although it is laughing, it is a kind of "developing moral pain into comic horror and making things absurd to the point of laughing".This kind of laugh is a painful laugh, a horrible laugh, a laugh that penetrates the absurd reality.In other words, black humor is a kind of "apocalyptic" humor, or, more expressively, "the humor of the gallows".

And look at the following example:

On a day when a public hanging was carried out, a large audience gathered around the gallows, but no prisoner was brought.The prisoner, the executioner, and those around him grew impatient with the wait.Finally, the jailer led the prisoner to the execution ground. The prisoner couldn't help laughing when he saw people's anxious and greedy eyes, and proudly said, "Without me, you can't do anything."

This kind of humor is a typical "black humor".

Heller described the wounded soldiers of World War II in his "black humor" masterpiece "No. 20 Catch-[-] Rules":

Clear fluid poured into his body from a clean bottle.From the place where the plaster was applied to the groin, another fixed zinc tube protruded, and a slender rubber hose was pulled, through which the excretion of his kidneys flowed seamlessly into a tube on the floor. In a clean, sealed bottle.When the bottle on the floor was full and the bottle that fed fluid from the elbow was empty, the two bottles quickly switched places, allowing the excrement from the bottle to re-inject into his body.

This is not about a prisoner about to go to the gallows, but about a wounded soldier.It is indeed rare and special for the writer to describe the pain and misfortune of wounded soldiers in such a cruel and appreciative style.But it is this special style of humor that has a special effect. It reveals the pain and misfortune brought by the Second World War to mankind in a wry smile, and expresses the author's anger and war weariness in a humorous way.

self-praise: praising oneself

Self-mockery can produce humor because it runs counter to people's usual psychological habit of extreme self-respect.Self-flattery can also produce humor because it runs counter to people's usual modesty and prudence.

Let us appreciate some passages in Wang Shuo's novels.

Liu Meiping squeezed forward, holding a small notebook in her hand. "Mr. Feng, please sign me for that kind of wild grass."

When Feng Xiaogang signed her stroke by stroke carefully, she said again: "Mr. Feng, you really moved me today. I haven't heard such a good truth for a long time. You are really knowledgeable. What you said is better than me. I don’t understand it, and I can’t write a lot of words—you are really learned.”

(End of this chapter)