Essential Humor Tips

While experimenting with humor, remember these important tips:

• Be Relevant. Affiliative humor works when you share experiences you have in common with the audience. That includes keeping your speech culturally relevant. Learn what you can about a culture before commenting on it. When you go directly to the source for meaningful topics, your jokes won’t be lost in translation.
• Be Kind. Remember, of the four comedy classifications, self-enhancing and affiliative jokes are safest because they focus on positives in their punchlines. Make people laugh while creating a feel-good environment at the same time.
• Be Flexible. Table Topics® in club meetings offers excellent opportunities to develop better listening and improvisational skills. Practice the improv technique of saying “Yes, and …” in your club Table Topics so you are ready to respond to any question.