Speaker 1: I think we can all agree that having more humor
Speaker 1: and levity in the workplace is a good thing. But
Speaker 1: maybe you just don't think you're all that funny, or
Speaker 1: maybe you think you're a bit funny, but you want
Speaker 1: to be even funnier. I personally think a lot about
Speaker 1: humor when I'm writing new keynote presentations. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's not enough to just have good content. You need
Speaker 1: to be entertaining too, and often that means making people laugh.
Speaker 1: But there are days when nothing comes to me and
Speaker 1: I think to myself, how can I be funnier? Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out that there are specific things that we
Speaker 1: can all do to be much funnier at work and
Speaker 1: in life. My name is doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an
Speaker 1: organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium.
Speaker 1: And this is how I work, a show about how
Speaker 1: to help you do your best work. On Today is
Speaker 1: my Favorite Tip episode, we go back to an interview
Speaker 1: from the past and I pick out my favorite tip
Speaker 1: from the interview. In today's show, I speak with Naomi Bagdonis,
Speaker 1: who teaches humor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business,
Speaker 1: and she's also the co author of the best selling
Speaker 1: book Humor Seriously, and in this extract of my chat
Speaker 1: with Naomi, she shares some really practical ways that we
Speaker 1: can all be funnier at work.
Speaker 2: So there are some really basic principles of comedy that
Speaker 2: I have found really accessible. And I should back up
Speaker 2: for a second and say that we're sort of going
Speaker 2: at this backwards, because the thing that we say to
Speaker 2: our students first and foremost is this is not about
Speaker 2: being funny. It's not about telling jokes, it's not about
Speaker 2: writing jokes. It's about fundamentally shifting our mindset so that
Speaker 2: we're navigating our lives on the precipice of a smile.
Speaker 2: And we use this analogy in the book of the
Speaker 2: difference between levity, humor, and comedy is similar to the
Speaker 2: relationship between movement, exercise, and sports. So if you think
Speaker 2: of those things like a pyramid, you've got on the
Speaker 2: base floor, levity and movement, these are just the way
Speaker 2: that we navigate our world. So, whether it's our mindset
Speaker 2: or whether it's our physicality, we know that small shifts
Speaker 2: in our you know, whether we're our shoulders are back
Speaker 2: or whether our shoulders are hunched, are going to change
Speaker 2: how people interact with us and how we feel. And similarly,
Speaker 2: if we navigate our lives on the precipice of a
Speaker 2: smile versus the precipice of a frown, it's going to
Speaker 2: change everything. So that first level of levity is really
Speaker 2: what we're going for now. The reason that we spend
Speaker 2: an entire chapter and more focused on comedy, focused on
Speaker 2: the craft and the art of comedy, is that comedy
Speaker 2: is like a sport. There are rules that you follow,
Speaker 2: there are moves that you make to get the outcomes
Speaker 2: you want, in this case laughter, and so our goal
Speaker 2: there is to teach a few of these moves so
Speaker 2: that you can just feel more comfortable getting off the couch.
Speaker 2: Like right, we're not playing sports. We just want to
Speaker 2: know what those moves are so that it comes more
Speaker 2: naturally to us, so that we can craft our humor
Speaker 2: in a way that other people will find funny. So
Speaker 2: that's a long digression to say, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about comedy for a few minutes. But if you are
Speaker 2: not a person who's inclined to comedy, Amantha, I know
Speaker 2: that you are, which is awesome, But for those who
Speaker 2: are listening who are not, there's so much more here
Speaker 2: that's actually important outside of of that, just that comedy element. Okay,
Speaker 2: So that being said, let's see a comedy. One oh one.
Speaker 2: So the two principles I love to share first are
Speaker 2: number one, at the heart of comedy is truth and
Speaker 2: number two, misdirection is key to getting laughs. So think
Speaker 2: about truth. You often laugh because you think, oh, I
Speaker 2: do that, or I've seen people do that. Right, there's
Speaker 2: a recognition that comes that often makes us laugh. And
Speaker 2: then misdirection occurs when we think someone will zig and
Speaker 2: instead they ostriche right, Okay, so we think they'll go
Speaker 2: one way and they go the other way. And so
Speaker 2: one really simple example I give my students is imagine
Speaker 2: that you are at a dinner party. Remember dinner parties,
Speaker 2: by the way, so such quaint times. So you're at
Speaker 2: this dinner party and you're halfway through the second course
Speaker 2: and one of your friends walks in late and she says, sorry,
Speaker 2: I'm late, I didn't want to come. Now this is
Speaker 2: potentially you know, she says it with a smile. We
Speaker 2: were like, okay, that's that's pretty funny. Now the truth here,
Speaker 2: sorry I'm late, I didn't want to come. The truth
Speaker 2: is obvious. We've all felt this way where we don't
Speaker 2: really want to get off the couch. The misdirection is in, Actually, Amantha,
Speaker 2: where do you think the misdirection is in that Sorry
Speaker 2: I'm late, I didn't want to come.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess it's in the I didn't want to
Speaker 1: come because nobody expects you to say the truth in
Speaker 1: that scenario.
Speaker 2: Exactly right, So we expect a thinly veiled excuse. Sorry
Speaker 2: I'm late, traffic was horrible. Sorry i'm late. The link
Speaker 2: didn't work. Sorry i'm late. It's twenty twenty one. You're
Speaker 2: into a pandemic. Does lateness even matter anymore? So what
Speaker 2: this means is two things. Number One, comedy isn't about
Speaker 2: making things up. It's really about being observant, about finding
Speaker 2: truth in our lives. And this is the most important
Speaker 2: misperception we find with our students and executives is they'll
Speaker 2: come to us. You know, an executive will come to
Speaker 2: me and say, Hey, I'm giving a talk. I want
Speaker 2: to be funny. What joke should I tell? And I'll
Speaker 2: say fantastic. I'll push the papers to the side and
Speaker 2: I'll say, tell me about yourself. What is true for you?
Speaker 2: What do you like more than other people? What do
Speaker 2: you dislike more than other people? What areas of contrast
Speaker 2: or incongruity exist in your life? And we'll do this
Speaker 2: sort of genuine truth finding where reminding their lives for
Speaker 2: authentic material that they can then turn into humor. And
Speaker 2: then the second thing that this tells us is that
Speaker 2: structure matters. A seed of an idea often isn't enough.
Speaker 2: It needs to be encased in a way that leads
Speaker 2: us in a different direction. So that's why in the
Speaker 2: book we go through these techniques from comedians, first mining
Speaker 2: your life for observations and then second applying a couple
Speaker 2: really easy frameworks. So I'll give a fly through that
Speaker 2: sort of process that I would go through. So first
Speaker 2: I'm going to make mundane observations about my life. Right,
Speaker 2: it's not about inventing something from thin air. It's just
Speaker 2: about noticing what's true. So I might say, I might
Speaker 2: tell you that my dog is incredibly excited at dinner
Speaker 2: time even though he's eating the same food he always eats,
Speaker 2: or how my kids never listen to me, or how
Speaker 2: I go for a walk every day just to change
Speaker 2: up the day a little bit. So I have these observations.
Speaker 2: They're not funny, but they're just true. And then you
Speaker 2: can apply one or more of the techniques that we
Speaker 2: go over in the book, and the three most common
Speaker 2: ones are exaggeration, contrast, and rule of three. So I'll
Speaker 2: use exaggeration contrast. For example, So Larry David said, I
Speaker 2: had a wonderful child, which is tough because it's hard
Speaker 2: to adjust to a miserable adulthood. Right, So all he's
Speaker 2: doing here is he's creating contrast between how he felt
Speaker 2: about his childhood and how he feels about his adulthood.
Speaker 2: And then also using exaggeration because he probably doesn't have
Speaker 2: a totally miserable adulthood, but you know, he's trying to
Speaker 2: create that. And then the other technique that people find
Speaker 2: really easy is rule of three. So this is where
Speaker 2: you make a really simple list where the first two
Speaker 2: elements lead people in one direction and then the third
Speaker 2: reveals something unexpected. So I might say I miss so
Speaker 2: many things about in person office life. You know, I
Speaker 2: miss the support of eye contact, I miss spontaneous lunches
Speaker 2: with colleagues, and I miss wearing pants. Right, so you're
Speaker 2: sort of going ab and apple. So these are again
Speaker 2: these they seem like really simple hacks. But once you
Speaker 2: start noticing the frameworks, you'll start seeing them everywhere in comedy,
Speaker 2: and then they'll start coming more naturally to you as
Speaker 2: you're trying to turn your humor into something that feels funny.
Speaker 1: And what about collbecks? Because I feel like people knowing
Speaker 1: about collbecks might think that's an opportunity for me to
Speaker 1: be funny, even if I, you know, don't feel confident
Speaker 1: constructing a whole joke. So can you talk about callbecks?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's such a great one, so that the callback
Speaker 2: is the safest joke to make. And this is where
Speaker 2: you just make a reference to a moment that already
Speaker 2: got a laugh. So, as one example, I was in
Speaker 2: a Zoom call the other day and it was a
Speaker 2: group of CFOs and retired CFOs, and they were all
Speaker 2: going around the table introducing themselves, and it became clear
Speaker 2: that it was sort of a ridiculous thing to continue
Speaker 2: introducing themselves as CFOs because everyone was a CFO. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, one person says, I'm a CFO, the other
Speaker 2: person says, I'm retired CFO. The next person says I'm
Speaker 2: a CFO, and then one woman introduces herself and says
Speaker 2: I'm a recovering CFO, indicating that she's like recovering from
Speaker 2: it rather than retired from it. You know, the whole
Speaker 2: call laughs, everyone has this shared experience. Couple people later,
Speaker 2: another woman says, I'm also a recovering CFO. Again everyone laughs,
Speaker 2: and it's sort of this callback that makes the first
Speaker 2: person feel good. A little bit later, a third person says,
Speaker 2: I'm an aspiring recovering CFO. Right, so this is now
Speaker 2: taking that callback and it's building upon it, and again
Speaker 2: everyone laughs. So it's really low risk because it's just
Speaker 2: making reference to something that already got to laugh. It
Speaker 2: makes the first joke teller feel valued and seen. So
Speaker 2: it's incredible relationship builder in that way, and in a
Speaker 2: group of people, it can be a powerful tactic to
Speaker 2: create an in group, and create an in group in
Speaker 2: a way that's that's powerful and safe and good for
Speaker 2: the culture, rather than one that feels exclusive.
Speaker 1: That is eatful today's show. If you are enjoying how
Speaker 1: I would why not share each around with someone else
Speaker 1: that you think could benefit. Maybe you know someone who's
Speaker 1: trying to be funnier, or maybe someone who's not that funny,
Speaker 1: but they could do with an injection of humor in
Speaker 1: their life. So maybe share this episode with them, or
Speaker 1: just tell them about how I work in general. How
Speaker 1: I Work is produced by Inventing with production support from
Speaker 1: Dead Set Studios. Thank you to Martin Nimber who did
Speaker 1: the audio mix and makes everything sound awesome. I'll see
Speaker 1: you next time.