To communicate is to speak well

Chapter 21 Humorous Conversation: Those who can talk must be good at humor (2)
One day, Lincoln didn't want to meet people who came to the White House because he was unwell.However, a high-ranking official stayed by Lincoln's side, ready to sit down and have a long talk.Just then, the president's doctor walked into the room.Lincoln held out his hands to him and asked, "Doctor, what are the spots on my hands?" The doctor said, "I have them all over my body." Lincoln said, "I think they are contagious, aren't they?" "Yes, very contagious," said the doctor.The visitor thought it was true, stood up immediately, and said: "Okay, I can't stay any longer now, Mr. Lincoln, I have nothing to do, I just came to visit you."

Lincoln and the doctor made a fake show, falsely claiming that "spots" are very contagious, bluffing, and although they were calm, they scared the important official away.This kind of bombastic humor keeps Lincoln out of entanglement.

2. Use puns wisely

"Punting" is one of the most powerful moves in humor. It is not just "humor", but also implies "wisdom". The "pun" is just right, and expresses views on people and things vividly. In addition to making people "can't help smiling" or "laughing", it is also a presentation of "witty life".

The so-called pun means that the spoken words contain two layers of meaning: one is the meaning of the sentence itself; the other is the extended meaning, from which the humor arises.It can also be said that the meaning of the words is here, so that the listener not only understands the words literally, but also understands the meaning behind the words.

There is a fable that a monkey went to Hades after death and asked to be a human in the next life.Hades said, since you want to be a human being, you have to pluck all the hair from your body.After finishing speaking, I asked the kid to pluck the hair.Unexpectedly, only one hair was pulled out, and the monkey screamed in pain.Yan Wang smiled and said, "How can you be a man if you don't take out any hair?"

On the surface, this fable is telling a story about a monkey, but it humorously expresses the truth that "a hairless person is not worthy of being a human being". Although it is very ironic, it is also euphemistic and reserved.

Using the homonym of the word to create a pun effect will appear very humorous.

It is said that Li Hongzhang had a distant relative who was illiterate but keen on the imperial examinations, and wanted to use Li Hongzhang's relationship to get an official position.He opened the test paper in the examination room, but was unable to write because of lack of talent.Seeing that the examination paper was about to be handed in, he "had an idea" and wrote "I am the wife (relative) of Mr. Li Hongzhang Zhongtang" on the examination paper, hoping to be admitted by the chief examiner.When the chief examiner was reviewing the examination paper, he found that he had written "Qi" as "wife" by mistake. He couldn't help but smiled, and picked up a pen to write on the paper: "That's why I dare not marry you."

"Marry" has the same pronunciation as "take", and the examiner made a pun on his typo, "Wrong Appraisal", which is both ironic and interesting.

3. Make intentional misinterpretations

The so-called misinterpretation is to "distort" the object, explain it "absurdly", and use a relaxed and ridiculing attitude to connect two seemingly unrelated things, resulting in a discordant, unreasonable and unexpected effect, thereby creating a sense of humor.It is also possible to deliberately violate conventions, common sense, and common sense, use grammatical means, change the conventional meaning of words, give it a new interpretation temporarily, or even give a distorted interpretation of the problem, pinching irrelevant things together "Lalang match" ", thus causing dislocation of causal relationship or logical contradiction, obtaining unexpected results and forming a sense of humor.

Intentional misinterpretation also includes subversion of concepts.Borrowing concepts used in the other person's conversation and giving them new content can also produce humorous effects.

A wife glared at her husband and said, "I get angry when I see you." The husband replied slowly, "Okay, I haven't felt any breath after practicing Qigong for a year. It turns out that you sucked all the breath in me." On you."

The husband cleverly replaced the "qi" of anger with the "qi" of qigong to amuse his wife, and her "qi" disappeared with laughter.

Another way to sneak in concepts is to "generalize".For questions that are too broad or relatively abstract, only one aspect of them is used to explain, which is not only conducive to answering difficult questions, but also reflects a sense of humor.

Once, a journalist asked Bernard Shaw: "Excuse me, what is the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?" This is a very broad and abstract question.If you make an accurate answer theoretically, you may not be able to satisfy the other party even if you spend a lot of effort.Therefore, Bernard Shaw said: "If there is only half of a bottle of wine left, and the person who sees this bottle shouts 'Great, there is still half', he is an optimist; if he laments 'Bad, there is only half left. Next half', that's the pessimist."

Here, George Bernard Shaw cleverly used the method of "generalizing the whole", chose a vivid example, reduced the big to the small, and answered it easily and freely, which not only has a sense of humor, but also has endless aftertaste.

4. Tell the truth
There is a public service advertisement promoting smoking cessation, which does not mention the harm of smoking at all. On the contrary, it lists four benefits of smoking: saving fabrics.Because smokers are prone to tuberculosis, which leads to hunchback and atrophy of the body, so much cloth is not needed to make clothes.Two can guard against thieves.People who smoke often suffer from bronchitis and cough all night long. Thieves think that the owner is not asleep, so they dare not steal.Three can prevent mosquitoes.Mosquitoes couldn't stand the thick smoke, so they had to stay away from it.Four keep youth.Die without waiting for old age.

The "four benefits" of smoking mentioned here are actually the harms of smoking, but they are very humorous, allowing people to realize the truth they really want to explain from their laughter, that is, smoking is harmful to health.

This is the so-called antithesis, that is, the meaning expressed by the spoken word is completely opposite to the literal meaning.Such as literal affirmation, but meaning negation; or literal negation, but meaning affirmation.This is also one of the effective ways to develop a sense of humor.

In the Qin Dynasty, there was a famous humorous character Youzhan.Once, Qin Shihuang wanted to expand the imperial garden on a large scale and raise more rare birds and animals for his own hunting and enjoyment.This is a waste of money and people, but none of the ministers dared to risk their lives to stop Qin Shihuang.At this time, Youzhan stepped forward and said to Qin Shihuang: "Okay, this idea is very good. If you raise more rare birds and animals, the enemy will not dare to come. Even if the enemy comes from the east, just order the elk to push them back with its horns." It's over." Qin Shihuang couldn't help but smile when he heard this, and made an exception and withdrew his order.

The reason why Youzhan was able to persuade Qin Shihuang successfully was mainly because he used the power of humor.On the surface, what he said agreed with the emperor's idea, but the actual meaning was that if things were done according to the emperor's idea, the national power would be empty, and the enemy would take the opportunity to attack, and the elk was unable to push them back with its horns.In this way, if you agree with Qin Shihuang literally, it is enough to protect yourself; but the real meaning makes Qin Shihuang wake up in laughter, thus achieving his persuasive purpose.

5. Surprise
It is the purpose of humor to speak the language and express the meaning that others can't think of, which is the so-called unconventional and unexpected.This often makes people's language have special persuasiveness and achieve better communication effects.

A customer was drinking in a hotel. After he finished his second glass, he turned and asked the boss: "How many barrels of beer can you sell in a week?" "35 barrels." The boss replied triumphantly. "Well," said the customer, "I've come up with a method that will allow you to sell 70 barrels of beer a week." The boss was surprised and asked, "What method?" Just fill it up with beer."

The customer's original intention was to accuse the boss of selling only half a glass of beer, but he took advantage of the boss's mercenary psychology to cleverly set up a trap for the boss to get in without knowing it, and then unexpectedly accused the boss of his behavior.

In fact, all humor is won by "surprise", otherwise, it will appear bland and ineffective.Although it is mostly used to expose malpractices and satirize vulgarity and stupidity, it is by no means showing its sharpness. On the contrary, it always tactfully points out people's shortcomings, so that people can see their own or others' ugliness or shadows in their laughter, and they will suddenly realize and repent.

In a restaurant, a customer is picking out the sand and stones from the meal one by one and placing them on the table.Seeing this, the waiter shyly said, "It's all sand, right?" The customer smiled, shook his head and said, "No, there's still rice."

The customer did not directly criticize the quality of the rice, but took advantage of the waiter's statement that "there is only sand" and said "there is still rice", affirming that there is a lot of sand in the rice in the form of negation, which seems very euphemistic.Saying this not only expresses his dissatisfaction with too much sand in the rice, but also does not arouse the other party's disgust.

6. Give clever explanations

President Lincoln of the United States was very intelligent when he was studying in school. Once the teacher wanted to stump him, so he asked: "I want to test you. Would you like to answer one difficult question or two easy ones?" "Answer one Problem." "Well, then, how do you get the egg?" "Chicken," Lincoln replied. "Where did the chicken come from?" "Teacher, this is the second question." Lincoln said.

The teacher wanted to introduce Lincoln into the tangled problem of "the chicken lays the egg, the egg lays the chicken", but Lincoln avoided it with clever explanations.

After the famous British female writer Agatha Christie married archaeologist Max Ma Wenluo, who was 13 years younger than her, someone asked her why she married an archaeologist. She said humorously: "For any woman, An archaeologist is the best husband. Because the older his wife is, the more he loves her."

This ingenious explanation not only reflects Christie's sense of humor, but also illustrates the harmony of their husband and wife relationship.

There was a scholar who still kept the habit of reading late into the night after he got married, and his wife was full of resentment.One day, she said to her husband, "I wish I could become a book." The husband was puzzled: "Why?" "Then you can hold me in your hands all day and all night." The husband suddenly understood Knowing his wife's intention, he jokingly said: "That's not good, you know, every time I finish a book, I have to get a new one..."

The husband's ingenious explanation not only expresses his love for books, but also expresses his loyalty to his wife.

The above three humorous stories are a good example of how clever explanations can produce a strong sense of humor, that is, clever explanations of the original meaning can produce humorous effects.

(End of this chapter)