“Wait! Wait! I’ve got a joke! Give me a second! Here goes!”
Never announce your jokes. But be ready when you have the opportunity to tell a joke.
Jokes are best when we are fooled into thinking that the joke teller is just adding a regular comment to the conversation, or sharing a true anecdote.
None of us owes anything to the joke teller. If you’re not ready, if you don’t know your joke by heart, we’re not going to laugh. We’re not your mommy. Be ready.
Don’t laugh and prepare your audience. Don’t tell us when you’ve reached the funny part. We’ll laugh if it’s funny.
Don’t over-explain the set up or the punch line. We’re smart enough to figure it out.
If we don’t get it, or if we don’t think your joke is funny, then drop it. Don’t try to rescue your joke. Sometimes a joke becomes funny when it bombs, and the teller forgets it as if he never said anything.
Don’t tell your joke like a crazy person. Funny is sane. Jokes are best when told as if they were gospel fact.
Practice with the following joke. Change so that it’s about someone you actually know (invent someone). Don’t say that it’s happening to “some guy” or “this guy”. Or you can even say that it’s about you. Change the place to some other place that could be a lonesome, boring place to live. Change the marriage part to taking in a roommate. Change it up and make it work:
A man hears from his doctor that he has cancer and only has six months to live. The doctor recommends that he marry an accountant and move to Montana. The man asks, "Will this cure my cancer?" "No," said the doctor, "but the six months will seem much much longer!"
