TELL ME SOMETHING FUNNY

By Dode Sescri

WORDS TO ELATE.

Eighteenth Agenda

Copyright © 2016 DODE®

Smashwords Edition

No part of this book should be redistributed without prior permission from the author, both in print, portable digital format and online.

Disclaimer

All readers are welcome to challenge the contents of this book, and should process them with their uttermost intellectual capabilities before they can assess them for reference purposes because they are largely a work of the author’s own imaginations.

The stories given as examples in this book do not represent Factual or historical events but have been used fictitiously to bring out the literal aspects of discussions and also demonstrate authors intended thoughts and ideas exemplarily. Do not take them too seriously.

This book is stacked up of numerous mini chapters the author refers to as pranks. Each prank stands for each idea or topic of discussion.

You will also find some non-English words, the author has used them only for the sake of enhancing description. They are not a result of typo.

Table of Contents.

Contention

Prank-1-Fresh Funnies

Prank-2-Comedy roots

Prank-3-Joke Spices

Prank-4-Qualities of a good comedian

Prank-5-Why won’t People laugh at my jokes?

Prank-6-What is international Comedy?

Final Clause

More of Wotes

Footnotes

Contention.

This is not a book of jokes

For the purposes of universal comprehension, I have decided to leave out all practical jokes I could have used in this text with only the exception of a few that help elaborate more on the points.  I have a thousand jokes at the back of my head which I could not tell here.

The book emphasizes humour as a way of enhancing communication and building good & strong social relations. Humour is to be used for heightening conversations.

After you are done reading this text please try not to remember everything I have said, lots of stuff is really silly conversation. This is a serious book with an occasional gleam of humour.

Prank-1-Fresh Funnies.

What is the most recent time you had a good laugh?

At one moment or the other people happen to find things they really laugh at, sometimes they laugh so much till their ribs ache and hands go numb. With that then can we confidently say “it’s the real laughter?”

From a comedian’s point of view a successful entertainer prevails because they understand very well things people laugh at. Let us take a look of a handful of these small hints

a) Through language

I) Past hard-luck tales

This mainly common with narrated tales of past events especially misfortunes. A skillful description of your past experiences and more importantly the unpleasant encounters with other things, people and places to your listeners can be a rich source of humor blurbs. Your listeners are more than ready to laugh at you over these disadvantages you previously went through

ii) Creating anticipation

When you tell a story in such a way that it creates surprise as you juggle around with the plot storyline, climaxes and down loops all the way towards the ending, a significant weight of interest piles up among your listeners. A story I transformed from a simple ordinary that exhilarating short type

b) Actions

I) Goofy behavior

When individuals who are naive have difficulty in doing things most people regard as common sense or perform the tasks in a clumsy manner, they easily become targets of mockery. Witnesses of such incidence swill tend to spread the news as far as they can with the intention of wishing the whole world could just hear about it.

For instance, an individual who’s new at something, probably having very little or no knowledge of the subject tries to appear as an expert in that field. Since everyone around knows they are not specialists at anything, so the more they try to appear smart the more they happen to act goofy.

ii) Silly mistakes

A mistake is said to be silly when it was unexpected of the person responsible or not supposed to happen in the first place. The mere sight of a fellow fumbling around with a rather easy duty quickly draws the attention of those around as many will be filled with desire to make fun of then even more, for as long as they wish till when they are fully contended.

Prank-2-Comedy Roots

They are a reliable source of ideas for humor. Where does a funny person’s limitless creativity in comedy originate from? Can we attribute it to the natural source or some sort of intuition? These fellows are always up with something new, they manage to keep on track at all times despite the continually changing circumstances. It appears they never run out of what to say on nearly any known topic, their sense of humor is always fresh and up to standards.

An enormous part of this game depends on the source, the comedy roots,” the main source of ideas. It has been considered a factor that when there is a firm link between the trunk and the roots (the supplier of new resources) then the trunk can never have shortage of nutritional materials. (A known fact to zoologists)

Comedy roots are social links in our midst. Things one experiences and people you happen to meet in some way impact positively on your sense of humor. The more association one has had with other individuals the more flexible and at ease they are at crafting comedy. With a simple interaction you get to gather abundant tools to use in the most appropriate ways and situations because you got nearly all types.

This reason is behind top comedians interjecting trending stories in their performance because they are certain every listener will be ready to welcome it. To a comedian/as a comedian, every single happening around counts. Ordinary activities, simple events, social gatherings, meetings and celebrations taking place at a given time, each possesses at least valuable portions that can be extracted and used to remodel a new figure of fun. It’s therefore a good idea for aspiring comedians to get socially linked well enough, probably a handful of acquaintances is a good start.

“So you are asking us to be know it alls? Right, are you asking us to go chasing out for things of no value? I bet that’s what you were about to ask. Nice question over there, my answer is …

“NO! Not exactly, even a bit.” That’s not what I mean. My argument inclines steeply towards your social life. The aim is to diversify your social activities as much as you can handle. That for sure will channel in an endless supply of fresh ideas and stories to tell. Your comedy roots can never go dry when you have plenty of things to remodel.

Conversely whatever stories you search for, never go too deep by trying to know every single detail of a story inch by inch since it’s like to strip you of your enthusiasm. A better alternative action to take here is to get the general information that ensures passion needed to transform that into humor is maintained. People can only be excited to talk about or do things they least know of. The greater in detail one understands something the less thrill they’ll have in passing it on to other people

However, if your expertise or profession doesn’t   give room for this kind of time-consuming lifestyle, you can still maximize the little you have acquired so far by refining the few story fragments you get on a daily or weekly basis to come up with outstanding and highly exhilarating gags depending on the listener and the atmosphere. Only a couple of refinements are needed to give what’s necessary. Any tale as small & irrelevant it might look like will produce outstanding results if refined proper, no story is too inappropriate to be used in a joke, it relies heavily upon the artist’s skill to craft it into a better form.

Comedy roots are endless, they can touch any field in life and stretch out into an unlimited number of localities close by or far away.

Whichever direction they spread out to, ensure you are able to trace them back with ease because they are a rich source of ideas of comedy ideas.

Prank-3-Joke Spices.

These are some vital ingredients the funnyman uses to tell funny jokes. Many times, people have poked fun at their friends, partners, neighbors and close associates. Others have been known to joke frequently. A lot of individuals have great ideas for comedy, they can easily think up a hundred things that can make people laugh. They seem to fully understand the four corners of fun, its connection with human nature and value in the society.

Quickly before going into that we would like to put it this way, jokes are of a significance to human life and its social well-being, they are pleasant to listen to on account of amusement unleashed especially when it’s the perfect time

Telling jokes is a relatively easy thing to do, a natural trait found in primarily every human. However, we should not forget some important ingredients…

The spices

One needs to add few flavors to jokes before calling it a work well accomplished. Catch a glimpse of these minor but active ingredients.

A) Use of uncommon vocabulary

As you speak, ensure you insert unpopular phrases in somewhere in between your words at least one per story. Phrases that are less known serve the purpose of creating that fun vacuum in mind, it ignites laughter. I don’t know of a very appropriate word to use as an example in this, although here’s what I am trying to get across.

Have you ever listened to people talking in a language you don’t understand just next to you, say as foreign language? I guess at some point you said to yourself “what a strange and difficult language this is?

What are these people saying or, ‘’What do they think they are talking about anyway?”

People laugh at unfamiliar language because of how it sounds. Uncommon vocabulary tricks the mind into interpreting it as funny in turn making it believe it’s humorous.

These words don’t necessarily have to be rare or extremely difficult. what I mean by uncommon is that they are somehow ordinary, people understand their meanings, maybe have once come across them a number of times before only that they are less frequently used in the day today conversations

Whenever about to utter a word think of an alternative, an equally applicable synonym, especially ones that sound long or odd. Say it out loud enough paying attention to your voice as you lean back and observe the amusement it creates.

b) Mimicry

Imitation of some body motions is also a favorable spice. It draws the listener from just hearing what you are saying to seeing the actual thing. It helps in visualization.

Mimicry involves copying someone else’s actions mostly unique body movements to create humor. It might be about how they talk or do things. We consider mimicry as a valuable spice because it helps in creating a clearer visual impression. Mimics exaggerated a little bit produce even better results.

However, the imitated person’s character should first be put into consideration. Who is the target? Is it everyone that happens to find their way into your vocals worth imitating?

The answer to that is yes, but to a certain limit. The best people to copy are fellows often branded as stone faced, difficult to deal with, too rigid and mechanical at doing things. When those irritated by these people’s actions see you imitating them, they take your side and join you in making fun of them. Your jokes are welcome here.

Cheerful and happy people are difficult to mimic because it’s hard to find in them a character trait you can openly criticize.

c) Paraphrase

Repeating someone else’ saying word by word especially with varying tones fuels laughter. It sounds more fascinating to hear firsthand information through a straight narrative than to listen to a story being explained, more so speaking directly makes it alive and active and in turn the boredom associated with long boring descriptions is minimized. Paraphrasing lets a listener imagine how it could have been, if they had witnessed the actual incident taking place.

d) Funny face

Putting up a funny face after you are done telling you joke reinforces humor. It gives your listener a push acting like a spur to laughter which keeps cheering up your listeners “come on, this is the part where you are supposed to laugh, the opportunity is all yours, what are you waiting for? Go on…”

A funny face can be any of the following

- A sarcastic smile

- A clownish look

- A broadened facial expression or even a…

- A light chuckle

With these few spices our menu is now complete, we can proceed to the jokes contents, focus on other parts of your story   & confidently give the results of the overall work produced. As long as we have the spices included in our joke telling sessions and as part of every single piece of humor we create, we can always be sure of making it more intriguing.

Prank-4-Qualities of a good Comedian.

Would you like to try out some comedy? Are you passionate enough to leap into the world of wits a little bit? Probably want to know what it feels like to be a humorist

Anyway, there is no talent or special skill required of comedy, all you need is pick up some few qualities of a great comedian. With them you can create as much humor as you like.

What characteristic property entails an outstanding comedian? An entertainer of any kind whether on-stage or offstage, from a local less known to a prominent performer should at least possess one of these valuable attributes.

a) A great story teller

Comedy roots back to the divine inspiration of yarn spinning. He/she spices up her stories with captivating scenes, figures of speech and exhilarating climax points with the help of sound sense of humor. They keep their listeners glued to their words till they are done talking. No listener can afford to miss out even a single word.

b) Creative

He/she recreates the story afresh by bringing far-away tales close to the listener’s attention, understanding and levels of experience. They have good memory for funny stories too. A good comedian create creates humor rich gags from rather boring and non-comical ones. She creates something out from nothing.

c) Enthusiastic

No one loves his comics more than he himself. He truly delights in his work of entertaining others. That excitement sparks from deep within each time an opportunity pops up.

“I just can’t wait to get it across, they’ll laugh their bellies out on hearing this,” a common thought associated with passionate comics.

There’s always that optimistic perspective lingering close to their heart.

d) Bold

All fears and doubts regarding how people might wrongly interpret your joke before one starts to speak slowly fade away from the time they begin towards the end and throughout the process of narrating a humorous strip. He finds his way through for the rest shall take care of itself. He does this knowing very well that the remaining lessons shall be learned from feedback.

e) Persistent

This person never gives up. No magnitude of discouragement can tie them into inactivity. Even though the audience seems not to respond, they still keep on and on and on till they find a favorable spot. Every minute they come up with several overlapping versions of the same story till they get it right. Their plot narration improves and gets much better plainly because she holds the…” Qualities of a good comedian”

Prank-5-Why won’t people laugh at my jokes?

Have you ever told a joke but people didn’t laugh as you expected? Perhaps you heard that from some sort of funny person. It could be one of the funniest you have known so far, but why didn’t they laugh then?

Honestly there is nothing wrong with your joke, in fact it’s perfectly fine just the way you acquired it from firsthand information. It has simply undergone some little interference in the process. A few dynamics influence the success of humor, be it in action or through words, planned or unplanned, the level and degree of laughter achieved in your audience varies intensely. So here are a few things to look out for.

1. Nature of jokes

Some kinds of jokes will earn you very little credit [if there is any] no matter how good and interesting they may seem to the teller. People simply ignore them once they notice your jokes are heading towards that direction/most common of all being unrealistic or dirty jokes.

a) Dirty jokes

There are words and phrases considered a taboo by a lot of people of which if someone keeps mentioning near them where they are it’s likely they’ll get offended.

They may be okay with friends one shares interests with but the fact remains; a good majority find them embarrassing,” additionally not even worth laughing at.

b) Unrealistic jokes

These are made up stories that do not make up sense in the listener’s mind. Your listener is neither able to visualize nor mentally draw a picture of what they have just heard.

In many occasions, jokes slowly interject themselves into a speaker’s words in the process of giving a speech or during a normal conversation. As they show up one after another, they get added to what one is saying thus spicing up the talk.

On the other hand, when one all of a sudden decides to set out on a mission of making people laugh then begins searching their minds for something funny to tell as a joke to fit in the current topic of discussion, some people end up creating stories that form an odd view in the listeners’ mind.

A similar thing happens when an expert tries to explain complex scientific mechanisms by giving examples in a layman’s language. The unrealistic jokes just like such descriptions are stories that actually make sense, but since they don’t happen anywhere around your social life, they can never draw that visual impression in the listener’s mind.

2. Unfamiliar Portions

The closeness of things mentioned also have an impact on the outcome of humor created. Some people talk way too much about themselves. Their families, how their little baby said something unusually funny and expect others [especially strangers] to laugh at them. IF the people you are telling your jokes do know the person you are talking about pretty well, then you have the infinite chances of scaling high on the comedy meter.

3. No mood zone

This is probably the most important aspect influencing intensity of laughter evoked in your listeners by jokes. People are less likely to laugh at anything when emotional, depressed or simply concentrating on something else. You can’t force them to laugh no matter how great your joke may be. A common rule defines all these, “A good laughter best comes about when you are eager to entertain and your listeners are willing to laugh.” [Technically a form of team work]. People laugh loudest during leisure because their physio-psycology yearns for entertainment. They are absolutely ready for fun time.

4. Speech shortcomings

Some few communication draw backs can also reduce the level of understanding of your joke by your listeners of which most common being regression. Unnecessary delays, stops or repetitions in a speech can be irritating to your listeners so much, like a CD with scratches. Thrive to make your speech as fluent and flawless as possible. Eliminate any speech drawbacks that are likely to tamper with your jokes, Endeavour to sharpen every angle of your communication skills because sooner than you think, your audience is going to burst into laughter as they listen to every single joke you tell.

Prank-6-What is international comedy?

We are now zooming out of local entertainment, it’s time to go international. Can there be international comedy some day? One that cracks up whoever comes across it regardless of their beliefs or background? Comedy that goes beyond borders of geographical difference and Nationality, more so breaks the barriers of language, culture and varied social settings.

When it comes to comedy, different people have their own ideas of what is funny. A joke that makes one person laugh in a given place cannot even put a smile on someone else’ face in a different social surrounding. In nearly every place you’ll find groups of people with their own set of entertainers who know their audience’s interests. Their work though little and unsatisfying is wholly appreciated. How are we supposed to create the so-called international comedy then? To get that done without much sweat, we simply

1. Pick your topic of choice

2. Set all the requirements in place

3. Prepare the performer (yourself) or entertainers in case you have several to begin the action.

But still one more thing needs to be done, the final and most important indeed step indeed. Just before sending off to fly international, remember this procedure…

“Remove any form of spoken communication. Substitute verbal with non-verbal, pluck off every descriptive word from it to eliminate all hurdles that limit easy understanding, so that your audience just take a look and they get enough clues to understand what is going on. Watching is enough, message is then smoothly channeled across through vision plus few sound effects.”

That’s all, you have it

- No need to know your audience very well or be aware of their interests in any way

- No need to spice up your language with great talking skills

- No worry over theme topic turning out to be unfamiliar to your audience

- No need to be careful with words you utter because you have produced a very flexible product.

International comedy!

END OF PRANKS.

##

Final Clause

We have come to the end of our conversation, looking forward to connecting to you soon. We shall have more to discuss.

Please leave your thoughts & queries about this text in the comments section, if you have something that needs further elaboration or have got some burning question, you can always text me and I shall be more than happy to respond appropriately.

Write to me,

DodeSescri@gmail.com

*NB

Make sure you have the latest version of this text; you should check for newer versions at your favourite stores in order to get instant access to free content updates.

Thank you for your time.

More of WOTEs…

A Full list of other titles in the sequel.

WORDS TO ELATE.

- Where is my inkpot?

- Media Moner

- The Laments of a Lumberjack

- Mundi Politica

- So you still do that?

- Hand me that take this

- A world of fakes

- Show me some lab ethos

- Flying above five feet

- Techno Chimps

- Dazzling riches

- Your highness let me speak!

- Mechanical revolts

- My mirror is a liar

- The beauty of Languages

- Darwin and the apes

- Tell me something funny

- Sweep thy planet

- Savage amusements

- Hello King James

- Be Patient please

- My Adventures to great unknown

- Can you colour a rainbow?

- A deer's diet

- Speed bones

- The Roman Cultures of today

Footnotes.

My most used/favourite stylistic features

- Sharp contrast

- Heavy metaphor

- Extravagant exaggeration.

The reference to masculine characters In the above stories is not a biased motive to discriminate against any gender, it's just for the purposes of description, the authors repeated use of words such as he/him/man/king are just for the purposes of enchanting the narrative, if you feel offended by them then  feel free to replace them with whatever words you choose as you read along, these pronouns are NOT put in place to intimidate, you can also contact the author directly and specify which part should changes be made to and to what particular effect, the author respects all readers and will not misrepresent members of any class, age, status or gender. All readers are precious.

I am trying to avoid the inconvenience of having to jump from one side of the group to another as it easily puts the readers off, jumping from side to side, back and forth, here and there is really irritating, take for instance it's better to say, "the king came out of his castle, called the knights and asked him to take him out on a ride through the royal forests and left his son in charge of the castle,"  than to say, "the king/queen came out of his/her castle, called the knight/knightess and asked  him/her to take him/her out on a ride through the royal forest and left his/her son/daughter in charge of the castle"

Textual homogeneity- some aspects of the words, phrases and stories share lots of similarities with one another, the keen reader who repeatedly crosscheck between different tittles will definitely notice this trend, if characters are portrayed in such a sluggish manner that makes the text boring to the reader, then reader please remember to inform the author as soon as possible.

Cover image: Two babies having an interesting conversation in a pram, theme by the Author

Table of Contents

Contention

Prank-1-Fresh Funnies

Prank-2-Comedy roots

Prank-3-Joke Spices

Prank-4-Qualities of a good comedian

Prank-5-Why won’t People laugh at my jokes?

Prank-6-What is international Comedy?

Final Clause

More of Wotes

Footnotes