Summarize the following:
You should think about who the joke teller is and why he may be telling a certain joke. A father may tell a joke about fathers to a group of people, for example, that may only make sense to other fathers. This may be because he wants to appeal to the other fathers in the group, and you may not get the joke because you are not a father. This can be applied to other professions and groups, as you may need to try to identify with the joke teller’s perspective to fully understand the joke. It can be useful to consider the joke as representative of the humor of the joke teller as well. A person who has a goofy sense of humor may tell a different joke than a person who is more dry and witty. Aligning yourself with the joke teller can allow you to take the joke as it is meant to be taken, which is often not seriously. If you can’t quite determine the intent behind the joke, you can look to the others around you to determine how you should react to the joke. Often, laughter can be infectious and you can end up laughing with everyone else just by paying attention to their reactions. Gauging the reactions of others can also allow you to take the joke less seriously, especially if the others around you are enjoying the joke. According to studies, we do not choose to laugh. Often, laughter is an automatic response that we do unconsciously. This is why it’s difficult to laugh on command or fake a laugh. Paying attention to how others are responding around may cause you to inadvertently laugh at a joke, rather than remain serious and standoffish. To break through your serious approach, you may want to challenge yourself to respond to the joke with a witty comeback or one liner. You can do this by picking up on a theme or idea in the joke and countering with a line you think is funnier or more interesting. For example, a coworker may tell a joke about his toddler always being sad when he leaves the house. You may then respond with a one liner about how your dog is always sad when you leave for the day. This is a funny response because it builds off of the original joke and presents a funny counter-image: your dog, sad at the door, as you head off to work. This will show you are not taking your coworker’s joke seriously and can be part of the fun. Self-deprecation is when you make fun of yourself as a way to elicit laughs. It can be useful when you are not sure how to respond to a joke or you realize you responded too seriously to a joke. Self-deprecating humor can be a good way to brush off an awkward moment and show you can poke fun at yourself. Use self-deprecating humor whenever you feel awkward, on the spot, or unsure of what to say. For example, your friend may make a joke about how awful he is at a certain sport or game. You may respond with self-deprecation, like how awful you are at most things in general. This will likely cause your friend to laugh and allow you to respond to the original joke in a funny way.
Put yourself in the shoes of the joke teller. Notice how other people around you react to the joke. Respond with a witty one liner. Brush off the joke by being self-deprecating.