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You Know, You Can Make Your Own Jokes Too

I am sure you do not believe, that it isn’t difficult to make anyone laugh. Before everything, I should concisely clear up why something’s funny, from the side psychologists look at it. Every time when we learn something we have not known previously, our mind builds a new path that leads from one neural cell to the new one.

That route is called the synapse and it works, for example, like this:
Presume we think about food, and recollect that the bananas are food, the brain shall compose a synapse (that gets tougher & thicker), connecting the brain cells that acquire all of the info we have about food, and the ones with the given fruit. The next time the food pops up in your mind, there are good chances the apples will come along, as well. What you're probably thinking is that this has nothing to do with humor. Well you're wrong, as this is in fact the way humor works.

The whole process starts with someone telling you an ordinary story. Stand-up comedians call this a setup. After this, you should be thinking about this story in a certain way. And then, your brain makes paths from the given setup to a punch-line that you see as the most logical one. But that person will not tell the same punch-line, but something completely different,
and then you will laugh. If you have not understood this, don’t worry, just read example below.

The Setup:
What is the most satisfying thing next to being shot at and missed?
The Punch-line:
An income tax refund.

What punch-line did you have in mind? I am positive you thought the car was being driven by one of the three. It's natural, as our brain works that way. You surely noticed that the punch-line is very different than the one you had in mind. Be sure to remember this, as this is the main principle of humor.

The most important thing is a good setup. Good comedians will always have a setup that only delivers the basic facts, so that there are many possible punch-lines you can think of. The more you think your punch-line is the most fitting one, the more will the actually punch-line make you laugh. In case you have already heard the joke, it will probably not be as funny, simply because your brain knows the punch-line, therefore it won't create any new routes.

This should prove helpful in case you want to create some brand new funny jokes. When a person tells a story that all the people thinks about in the same way, but you figure out a different way to understand it. Now, if you tell this to others, it should be very funny.