speak humor, be humorous

Chapter 5 The Wisdom of Humor (1)
Humor is the embodiment of wisdom.Many intelligent people suffer from a lack of humor, in the final analysis, they lack the wit of humor, they lack the skill of humor.The famous American psychologist Harvey Mendes pointed out in the book "Laughter and Liberation": "Everyone can be a creator of laughter, and everyone can use a sense of humor as an active and effective talent and apply it in life. every aspect."

The most ideal and pure humor is the "knowing smile" of those wise men and philosophers. It is a kind of epiphany of the soul, and it is the spark produced by the collision of their high-level wisdom.They express this interest in a very sensible way, forming witty humor.

The formation of humor requires wisdom. Humor without wit is like a blind man telling nonsense. A monk recites Buddhist scriptures, and the whole world will be eclipsed.Witty humor, laughing and cursing are self-contained articles.

humor without wisdom
Humor is not honest writing, it is an ability to use wisdom, cleverness and various funny skills to make people laugh, surprise or be dumbfounded after reading, and get an education from it.Humor is not only the outburst of wisdom and the expression of kindness, but also a kind of mind and a state.As the writer Wang Meng said: "Humor is a kind of adult wisdom, a kind of penetrating power, and one or two sentences can bring out the deformed and secretive things. It contains both helplessness and healthy hope."

Humor is not glib, mocking or ironic.As a celebrity said: "It is difficult to be humorous if you are impetuous, difficult to be humorous if you are pretentious, difficult to be humorous if you are stubborn, difficult to be humorous if you are too tight, and difficult to be humorous if you are slow and clumsy.

The famous writer Lin Yutang said: "The more humorous the humor, the better it is."

Take tea for example.In the category of the best tea, whether it is West Lake Longjing, Tieguanyin, or Biluochun, they don’t seem to have any special good taste when they first drink it. , unspeakable" beauty.If someone adds milk first and then sugar because the taste of Tieguanyin is not too strong, it can only be said that he does not know how to drink Tieguanyin.

Humor also differs between elegance and vulgarity, the more secluded it is, the more elegant it is, the more silent it is, the more vulgar it is.Although humor does not have to be elegant, but from an artistic point of view, it is better to be subtle than to be revealed.Humor can certainly make people smile meaningfully, laugh out loud, and even laugh "spouting rice" and "hitting the belly", but the most admirable humor is the smile that can make the corners of the mouth slightly upward.

In Qian Zhongshu's "Fortress Besieged", there was such a scene:
"Only two Chinese women can be seen on the deck, and a child who is not considered human - at least the shipping company did not treat her as a human being, and did not ask her parents to buy a ticket for her."

When describing this scene, Mr. Qian Zhongshu violated people's normal thinking mode, causing "people's psychological expectations to be emptied". "A child who is not considered human", what people expect is to explain it in terms of age, but the author reveals it from the perspective that the shipping company did not let her make up the fare. This kind of revelation is unexpected but reasonable, and the meaning of humor is beyond words.

Humor is an expression of intelligence, and it must be based on a wealth of knowledge.Only when a person has the ability to assess the situation and extensive knowledge can he be able to talk richly, make witty words interesting, and make appropriate metaphors.Therefore, in order to cultivate a sense of humor, one must explore extensively, enrich oneself, constantly collect humorous waves from a vast array of books, and extract humorous gems from the essence of celebrity anecdotes.

Here is another example of Mr. Qian Zhongshu.

He once wrote this passage:
"The gust of foreign fever that has been blowing from the late Qing Dynasty to the present did not blow sand and rocks all at once. Opening foreign meat was still an unappetizing thing..."

Here, the "wind" of the abstract "social atmosphere" is compared to the "wind" in the natural phenomenon. Only in this way can the wind fly away.

Developing wit and quick insight is an important aspect of improving humor.Only by quickly capturing the essence of things and using appropriate metaphors and humorous language can people feel relaxed.Of course, while being humorous, it should also be noted that important principles should not be neglected, and different issues should be treated differently.Be extremely flexible when dealing with problems, and be humorous without being conventional, so that humor can provide real nourishment for human spiritual life.

Nurturing Wisdom with Humor
Humor is a product of intelligence.If you compare humor to a beauty, she should be rich in connotation, as gorgeous as a peach blossom, with a temperament like an orchid, and she should be able to bring joy to people.She's more temperamental than funny, and more intriguing.

Sima Qian once explained "funny" in "Historical Records Index" as "can mix similarities and differences".That is, through ingenious association, the one-third or one-fourth similarity between objective things is transformed into all equality.This kind of "reversal of differences and confusion of similarities" or a sneaky change of concepts can create a kind of "tactful humor".

A young woman said to her husband: "Honey, the man who lives across from our house always kisses his wife before going out in the morning, and kisses her first when he comes home at night. Don't you do that?" ?"

The husband replied: "Of course, but I don't know her very well."

This clever husband cleverly replaced his wife with a young woman from the opposite door, secretly changed the concept, and inadvertently revealed witty humor.

Violating people's normal thinking rules, explaining things ingeniously, or telling the truth that people don't expect, will achieve a humorous effect.

A customer was eating in a restaurant, and there was a lot of sand in the rice, and the customer picked them out one by one and put them on the table.Seeing this, the waiter said sorry, "Is it all sand?" The customer shook his head and said, "No, there is also rice."

The customer's ingenious answer, a way of thinking that goes against ordinary people, easily and naturally creates humorous and satirical effects.

A ragged man was squatting in front of a puddle of five centimeters deep to fish, and everyone who passed by thought he was a fool.One of the passers-by couldn't help feeling pity, and he kindly said to the fisherman: "Hey, would you like to have a drink with me?" The fisherman happily accepted his invitation.After they had a few drinks, the man asked the fisherman, "You're fishing, aren't you?" "Yes." "How many fish did you catch this morning?" "Including you, eight gone."

The seemingly stupid behavior hides a joking motive, and once the truth is revealed, it will naturally be hilarious.

The witty humor is subtle but tactful, sharp but honest, making people feel sharp but not bloody, hot but not burnt.Witty humor is not grandstanding, but an optimistic attitude towards life, which enables people to face reality optimistically even in adversity, and have a sense of worry in prosperity.

A good talker must be good at humor

Usually, the people who really know the art of talking are those humorists who are good at leading the topic and turning meaningless conversation into funny at the same time.This kind of person tends to be like a fish in water in the social arena, and can be regarded as a master of humor in social conversations.Monotonous conversation is boring, so a good talker must be good at humor.But this kind of humor does not mean that everything can be used as a joke.For example, about religion, about politics, about great men, about some kind of sympathetic suffering, etc., are never to be laughed at.In some people's opinion, if the words are not humorous enough, it is not enough to show their intelligence. This kind of thinking is unavoidably extreme.

American psychologist Paul McKee believes that a sense of humor plays a pivotal role in the development of people's social skills.

Being with a humorist is like reading a good book, with endless benefits and endless joy.

On one occasion, Mrs Astor, Winston Churchill's political enemy, said to him: "Winston, if you were my husband, I would put poison in your coffee."

Churchill smiled and said, "Madam, if I were your husband, I would drink that cup of coffee."

Here, Churchill used ingenious answers to satirize the attacks of his political opponents, retaliating with fire, but there was no direct conflict, and he taught the opponent a lesson with gentle but powerful humor.This is a speaking skill worth learning by each of us, even a human skill.

Humorous language can release our inner tension and pressure and turn it into a relaxed smile.In communication, humorous language is like a lubricant, which can effectively reduce the "coefficient of friction" between people, resolve conflicts and contradictions, and enable us to calmly get rid of possible difficulties in communication.

In social situations, people who talk humorously tend to win, and people who don't have a sense of humor often lose.In communicative occasions, humorous language can easily open up the communicative situation quickly.

People who are good at talking sometimes need to make fun of themselves.The famous American lawyer Dieter is a person who is good at making fun of himself.

Once, when the president of Columbia University gave a speech on stage, he first introduced Dieter to the audience: "He can be regarded as the first citizen of our country!" Dieter seemed to be able to seize this rare opportunity immediately, and joked proudly: " Listen, gentlemen, the first citizen is about to speak." But if he did that, he would be a fool no one would look up to.

So what should he say?He not only wants to use this introduction to humor, but also wins the audience's favor from it.He said: "I didn't quite understand the term Mr. Principal said just now. The first citizen - what does it refer to? Now I think that he probably refers to the citizen often mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. Principal Sir must be a person with great experience in the study of Shakespeare's plays. When he introduced me, he must have thought of his Shakespeare plays again. You must know that Shakespeare often intersperses many citizens in his plays, and most of these supporting roles are only A sentence or two, and mostly people without eloquence and good sense. But they are almost all good people. Even if the first and second places were exchanged, it would not show any difference at all."

Before he finished speaking, there was a tidal wave of applause from the audience.

If we can use more humorous and wise words in our lives, it will really make us healthy physically and mentally, and smooth interpersonal relationships.Our life will be full of joy and freshness everywhere!

the pinnacle of humor

It is better to seek "naturalness" in everything, and the same is true for humor.Prepared humor can certainly cope with some occasions, but it is inevitable that it will be artificial; humor played on the spot is more ingenious and more elegant.

In 1975, at the doctoral dissertation defense meeting of the University of Paris, the French examiner asked Mr. Lu Kanru a strange question: "In the poem "The Peacock Flies Southeast", why doesn't it say 'The Peacock Flies Northwest'?" Lu Kanru responded Said: "There are tall buildings in the northwest."

He cleverly used the sentence "There are tall buildings in the northwest, and the top is as high as the floating clouds" in the nineteen ancient poems as the reason for the peacock to fly southeast.It is amazing to be able to answer questions wittily in the face of Diao.

Humor is not the product of deliberation, but the crystallization of wit and nature, often connected with quickness and ingenuity.

On the train bound for Geneva, the conductor is checking tickets.A gentleman was frantically looking for his ticket. He rummaged through all his pockets and finally found it.He said to himself, "Thank God, I found it at last."

"It doesn't matter if you can't find it!" A gentleman next to him said, "I have been to Geneva 20 times without buying a ticket."

His words happened to be heard by the conductor standing aside, so after the train arrived at Geneva station, the gentleman was taken to the detention center for interrogation.

"You said that you traveled to Geneva twenty times without a ticket."

"Yes, I did."

"You don't know, this is illegal?"

"I do not think so."

"So, how do you explain the ticketless ride?"

"It's very simple. I came here by car."

This gentleman really has the ability to "turn straw into gold bars".There is no doubt that he is a passenger without a ticket, but he can cleverly use humor to excuse himself. What can the conductor do with him?
Playing on the spot is not only a skill, but also a kind of mind. It requires us to have a cool head and be able to keep calm and calm.In various evening parties and cultural performances, many hosts and actors responded on the spot and made witty remarks, creating a joyful atmosphere for the evening and winning applause and love from the audience.

The key to on-the-spot humor lies in the ability to discover and grasp the "catalyst" in time, so that it can be cleverly associated and played appropriately.

When an actor sang the Leting Dagu, the drum board hit the ground a few times, and the drum fell to the ground with a bang, causing the audience to be in an uproar.The host took advantage of the moment when the actor bent down to pick up the drum and said cordially: "Everyone, this show was added temporarily. The actor didn't have time to bring his own drum. He used someone else's. It seems that this drum is a bit unfamiliar."

One sentence eased the tense atmosphere, and we had to admire the host.

When an acrobat performed "Stepping on Eggs", he accidentally stepped on an egg under his feet. The audience saw it, and the actor changed another egg in embarrassment. The host quickly smoothed things over: "In order to increase the artistic effect, confirm The eggs are real, so the actor deliberately crushed one for everyone to see." Unfortunately, as soon as the host finished speaking, another egg was crushed under the actor's feet.The audience immediately turned to the host, let's see what you say this time.The host sighed helplessly, and said, "Alas, fake and inferior products have been repeatedly banned in the society, and it seems that we will not be able to catch them—even hens produce inferior products!"

This humorous, witty no-nonsense, admirable, instantly filled the audience.

1 minute of little humor and great wisdom
◎ Wheels
"Yesterday, I drove the car so fast that the speed reached 120 kilometers per hour, so that I threw a car wheel away."

"Oh! Didn't you get hurt?"

"No. You know, it was a spare wheel that flew off."

■Life is never spare, it is the last bet in your life.

◎ Roadside scenery

In the Palace Museum, a lady said to her husband impatiently:

"I said why you walk so slowly. It turns out that you always stop to look at these things."

■Some people only know how to run wildly on the road of life, but lose the chance to see the beautiful flowers on both sides.

◎ Zero to zero

With only one minute left in a football match, a spectator hurried to the stands.He asked his neighbor:

"What's the score?"

"Zero to zero."

"Okay! No delay at all."

■If what matters is only the result, what else has happened to people?
◎ Prophet
Someone claims to be a prophet.

People asked him:

"What is the sign that you are a prophet?"

He replied:

"Can I know what's on your mind?"

"What are we thinking?" asked the others.

He replied:
"I know you're thinking 'he's not a prophet at all, he's a complete liar'."

■There can be prophets in this world, not because of how much they know about the future, but because of their insight into existing things.

◎ The rooster does not know the way

Zhuha put some chickens in cages and sold them in the market.He walked for a while with the chicken coop on his back and felt very tired.At this time he thought: "The chickens in the coop may die of thirst or heat, why don't I let them go and drive them to the market?"

So he opened the coop and let the chickens out, and the chickens flew away and ran around.Holding a stick, Zhuha ran after a rooster, complaining as he ran, "You damn cock, it's dark in the middle of the night, and you can call the dawn, but now it's broad daylight, but you don't know the way!"

■Don't ask the rooster to know the way just because it crows, otherwise it will have no effect like driving ducks to the shelves.

◎ Worry about the future
A quack doctor misdiagnosed someone's son and killed him. In order to compensate, he gave his son to the other party as his adopted son.

Then, he diagnosed and killed another maid. In order to compensate, he gave his maid to the other party.

One night, someone knocked on the door of his house and said, "My wife has a lot of abdominal pain, please go to the doctor."

The doctor called his wife out and said, "Good wife, prepare to say goodbye!"

■We should think about how to avoid bad things from happening, instead of always being ready to make some useless compensations.

◎ Difficult to survive
A small acrobatic troupe on Piccadilly Street in London staged a show: a man who was locked in a glass box for 30 days on hunger strike.

News reporter Casey heard about this and went to interview the hunger striker.

She asked through the glass box wall: "Why do you want to perform this kind of program?"

The man replied: "This is also for the sake of eating!"

■Life is sometimes ironic. When you have to bow your head, it turns out that you want to be able to feel proud.

◎ bookshelf
White: "Ah! What a beautiful bookshelf you have, but unfortunately there are no books on it."

Brown: "Yes, I used to have a lot of books. But, to buy this bookshelf, I sold them all."

■The emphasis on form often makes people abandon the content itself.

◎ black sheep
Physicists, astronomers and mathematicians were walking on the Scottish Highlands when they happened upon a black sheep.

"Ah!" said the astronomer, "the sheep in Scotland are black."

"Come on, you can't say that from just one observation," said the physicist. "You can only say that the black sheep was found in Scotland."

"That's not right." The mathematician said, "From this observation, you can only say that at this moment, from our observation angle, one side of this sheep is black on the surface."

■The more precise something is, the less useful it is for real life.

◎ Probability of rain

I visited weather stations and saw many of the latest instruments for predicting the weather.After the visit, I asked the station master: "When you said that the probability of rain is 75%, how did you calculate it?"

The station master replied without thinking: "That is to say, there are four of us here, and three of them think it will rain."

■Every mouth makes money, sometimes, the truth is just the opinions of the majority.

◎ Nuyan
A jester of King Dionysius led Aristipus to his splendid palace and warned him not to spit there.Aristipus spat on the man's face and said, "I can't find a meaner place."

■Dirty in the heart, always written on the face.

◎ read
Friends like to talk about it because they read a lot.Aristib said: "It is not extensive reading but useful reading that leads to excellence."

(End of this chapter)