Post: #26

There's the "funny guy in the office", who usually just repeats shit he's heard on television. Then there's actual funny, which my definition is: you can make strangers laugh, consistently.

It's easy to amuse your friends. How many girls do you know talk about their girlfriend who is JUST HILARIOUS. But then you meet her and she is cancer.

I think funny is something you're born with, but you can improve. If you have funny thoughts that barely make it out of your mouth, you can get better. People thought the guy who sat next to me in high school was hilarious, because he would just loudly repeat the things I said under my breath.

Most standup is indeed bad. That's because a) it's really fucking hard and b) crowds can be very different.

That's a whole different conversation, with different categories of comedians. The awful cruise ship comic doing material from the 90's makes 200k a year. He is successful with his audience. Russell Peters, a super nice guy that I'd classify as a club-level comic, has a private island. He kills with his audience.

It's also the only art form where your rehearsal is in front of drunk people. You can't just say the shit in your living room, you have to get up and test it.

Also, to the OP---what the fuck are you talking about? Kids are hilarious. My little niece says funnier stuff than most of the comics I know.

Post: #27

It's interesting how some comedians become super famous and some don't.

Oten the unknown club comic is funnier than the guys that become super famous.

Look at Louis CK - his key breakthrough was not slowly braking through to the mainstream after 25 years in the game.

It is was a YouTube clip that went viral - back in 2008.

Everyone says Louis CK is the best comedian in the world - yet his breakthrough came about quite randomly. Indeed - one of the TV companies actually pulled down the YouTube clip for about a year (due to copyright or something). And it was only after a fan put it back up that it went on to become viral.

Post: #28

Here is Louis CK discussing how his YouTube clip went viral.

Post: #29

To be funny, I think you mostly need to "notice things quicker than the person you're trying to make laugh"
To me, being funny is being able to observe & deduct what happens around you before anyone, and expressing that insight in a clever way.

you won't learn to be funny by staying on your computer that's for sure.
You mostly need to get out and interact with people. Learn to read them.
Detect their personality/what could make them laugh...

I'm no master humorist, but one thing I learned, if you got nothing good to say, better STFU.
Tasteless unfunny dudes who try too hard are really at the bottom.

but like I say, with a fair volume of social interactions, your wits should get better
and really, to me, being funny = being witty

Post: #30

Jim Norton is very quick - but not so funny.

As such - he is funny when riffing with the guys on the radio - but when it comes to his stand-up comedy - it sucks.

Post: #31

(04-13-2014 12:33 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Jim Norton is very quick - but not so funny.

As such - he is funny when riffing with the guys on the radio - but when it comes to his stand-up comedy - it sucks.

I find game context is more similar to a radio show than stand up.
It's more of an interview, than a show.
I don't need to be obnoxious, loud, or even overly talkative.
And you know what, I don't even need to TRY to be funny.
Fuck this bitch.
I AM funny.
I AM THE PRIZE.

Acting like a fool/clown/doing anything for a glimpse of laughter is pure beta shit, to be honest.

Post: #32

The most important -- and most overlooked -- attribute needed to be truly funny is creativity.

Plenty of intelligent people are clever or witty. This means they can readily manipulate already available information in a patterned way that is recognized by others. This competent regurgitation of patterns is sometimes mistaken for humor, yet it has very little to with real humor.

This is why puns, as cardguy noted, are the lowest form of wit, and wit itself is a quite secondary form of humor.

Clever and witty people are usually not truly funny.

Real comedy, the thing that gives the purest and deepest laughs, comes from creativity -- from people who have the ability to just make shit up out of the whole cloth, to construct a new and inimitable persona, to invent and lavish surprising and effortless detail on a narrative, to seize on some objects in the world and bring them together.

The proliferation of things and details lavished with unaffected relish within a narrative structure becomes deeply funny in and of itself because it is a surprising and promiscuous eruption of rude objectivity into the life of people who are always distracted from the world and absorbed in their own psychology. Laughter is the response of the mind to this sudden invasion of its more or less amiably dull routines by the difference of the objective world in all of its obdurateness. This difference shatters the mind's self-absorption and puts it in front of a new fact.

That is why slapstick in all of its varieties is much closer to the sources of pure humor than the most accomplished wit. Stubbing your toe, spilling your drink, or taking a spectacular fall when you are deeply absorbed in thought is something that people of all cultures and backgrounds will find very funny -- especially when it is observed at the remove of happening to someone else . Of course slapstick is a pretty low form of comedy as well -- but it has more in common with the best and purest humor than its apparently more clever instances, and is therefore a better context in which to think about what makes things and people funny.

To give an example close to our hearts, el mechanico is one of the consistently funniest guys on the forum, not because he is especially clever or witty, but because he is at his best a truly creative guy. He is able to come up naturally with thoughts and ideas that strike you as very funny without you ever quite knowing why that is -- but it's really for the reasons outlined above: he just creates a little vision or narrative out of nowhere that is lavished with enough originary energy to assert itself in one's mind and displace other things for an instant -- and suddenly you're laughing at the vision of old Mech and Putin as two 5'7'' dudes drinking and fishing together in Tampa Bay.

Post: #33

Humour and the ability to use it and deliver it to be universally funny takes intelligence, cultural sensitivity as well as TIMING.

I went to yuk yuks in Toronto twice in Toronto in between maybe four year gaps and I saw one guy who was the most unfunny guy I have seen live in a long while.

The first time I saw him, he was booed by some audience members. Second time, I saw him, he had the same energy and although the audience was more polite, I heard no laughs.
I always wondered why he hadn't changed in four years and why his slot was the longest? He probably had some kind of hookup.

He had actually said something that I thought was funny but his tone of voice and delivery was bad and he killed what could have a decent joke.

Post: #34

improv classes helped me a lot

Post: #35

The problem with "funny" is that not everyone finds the same things funny. Sometimes I find that I can say something to one person and they will burst out laughing, and then say the same thing to another and they will turn away with disgust.

I guess one of the keys to being funny is being able to read the situation and people. That is a hard part and I often struggle with it.

Post: #36

I disagree about kids not being funny. I've probably met thousands and thousands of kids in my teaching career. You do meet funny kids, and probably in the same proportion as adults.





Check out the story at 7:30. That story still makes me laugh, even after having seen it several times. (Incidentally, Ricky Gervais annoys the shit out of me in that entire video. I never really found him that funny, and after watching that, it confirmed my suspicions.)

It is also interesting how that story ends. I'd forgotten about that instance, but I was thinking about how that happens to people. My father, when he was younger, used to pull the most outrageous pranks on people. I literally witnessed him pull one off every other week, and most were completely improvised. His friends and colleagues used to tell me about stuff he had done when they were at school or work that was absolutely mad, so it wasn't just me who thought he was funny. He was genuinely hilarious as a young guy. Yet now, all he can muster is the lamest jokes or unfunny rants.

This also seems to happen to professional comedians. There are some guys -- and I'm thinking specifically of Eddie Murphy and Chevy Chase, but plenty of others to a fair degree -- who were absolutely outrageous when they were younger. Yet now they're a complete train wreck. Their movies are just appalling. Perhaps they had different writers then and now, but I think it's more than that. They seem to lose contact with the zeitgeist or something like that, and they seem to lose their hunger and their edge. It's very rare to find guys who stay the distance over decades.

Post: #37

(04-14-2014 07:13 PM)Feisbook Control Wrote:  I disagree about kids not being funny. I've probably met thousands and thousands of kids in my teaching career. You do meet funny kids, and probably in the same proportion as adults.





Check out the story at 7:30. That story still makes me laugh, even after having seen it several times. (Incidentally, Ricky Gervais annoys the shit out of me in that entire video. I never really found him that funny, and after watching that, it confirmed my suspicions.)

It is also interesting how that story ends. I'd forgotten about that instance, but I was thinking about how that happens to people. My father, when he was younger, used to pull the most outrageous pranks on people. I literally witnessed him pull one off every other week, and most were completely improvised. His friends and colleagues used to tell me about stuff he had done when they were at school or work that was absolutely mad, so it wasn't just me who thought he was funny. He was genuinely hilarious as a young guy. Yet now, all he can muster is the lamest jokes or unfunny rants.

This also seems to happen to professional comedians. There are some guys -- and I'm thinking specifically of Eddie Murphy and Chevy Chase, but plenty of others to a fair degree -- who were absolutely outrageous when they were younger. Yet now they're a complete train wreck. Their movies are just appalling. Perhaps they had different writers then and now, but I think it's more than that. They seem to lose contact with the zeitgeist or something like that, and they seem to lose their hunger and their edge. It's very rare to find guys who stay the distance over decades.

That´s a natural process. When you are young you have energy and try new things as you don´t know how the ROI is. I was much funnier too when I was young but sometime you realise that you bring fun to people but you don´t get much back so why should you invest so much? Besides young people are still charming even if they make errors but not many have sympathie for old guys who try to be funny. Being funny is also kind of important for the mating process but old people are facing death more and more every day, difficult to motivate oneself to invest energy to make OTHER people happy to have a slight advantage in the mating process.

Being funny is an art or technic which needs energy investment.

Post: #38

Being funny imo is part quick wit, the ability to quickly "get" a conversation and to respond almost instantly and therefore catch people off guard. This is also very effective in game, I would say almost a necessity in group situations. Second is the ability to vibe with people and understand what makes them tick. Why do comedians get laughs from insulting their audience? Because they figure out what drives these people and how they think.

It's similar to how you are only really part of a group once someone cracks a joke about you (can be good natured or bad natured), which shows that they have at least made an effort to understand you. Controversy or pushing right to the limit of what is socially acceptable, that is social calibration or creating absurd images in the minds of others. Last is not being self aware, you can't be funny and be self aware or anxious. This is also why women are not funny, they are too insecure to risk looking stupid.

Early standup by Eddie Murphy is just golden because he hits all the above.

Post: #39

(04-15-2014 04:09 AM)berserk Wrote:  Being funny imo is part quick wit, the ability to quickly "get" a conversation and to respond almost instantly and therefore catch people off guard. This is also very effective in game, I would say almost a necessity in group situations. Second is the ability to vibe with people and understand what makes them tick. Why do comedians get laughs from insulting their audience? Because they figure out what drives these people and how they think.

It's similar to how you are only really part of a group once someone cracks a joke about you (can be good natured or bad natured), which shows that they have at least made an effort to understand you. Controversy or pushing right to the limit of what is socially acceptable, that is social calibration or creating absurd images in the minds of others. Last is not being self aware, you can't be funny and be self aware or anxious. This is also why women are not funny, they are too insecure to risk looking stupid.

Early standup by Eddie Murphy is just golden because he hits all the above.

I think women are not funny because they don´t need to be funny to get laid like it´s the case with men. We need those skills to make notches. With some energy investment women could be funny to but who needs funny girls anyway? There are thousands of men who invest massive energy to get those skills.

There are arts for women and men. The tougher ones are the jobs for men like painting the easier ones are for girls like singing and dancing because they look and sound beautiful even if they have mediocre level.

The problem with being funny is you lose time on other skills like making money or investing in professional skills that´s why many people do not invest in being funny same happens with game.

Post: #40

I disagree, there are plenty of women who WANT to be funny, in fact some desperately want to be funny, like stand up comedians, yet they simple are not.

Post: #41

(04-15-2014 05:53 AM)berserk Wrote:  I disagree, there are plenty of women who WANT to be funny, in fact some desperately want to be funny, like stand up comedians, yet they simple are not.

That may be right that they WANT to be funny, but they do in general don´t NEED to be funny to the extent men NEED to be funny because of ROI.

Being funny needs only commitment and putting in the hours. Some arts are just more beneficiary for special genders though I am generalizing here.

Think of dancing. Women are in general better dancers than men though on elite level it may be different. The reason is that the ROI is more there for them.

Another example think of Marie Curie who got 2 Nobel prizes. But in general women are not INTERESTED in science because in other fields they get better ROI.

Another example think of Geishas in Japan, they are masters of entertainment they got many years of education to reach the level but you won´t find men who can do that because no one need male Geishas. But theoretically they could become geishas but wtf would that be good for though maybe gay men will be interested.

Post: #42

Nothing makes me laugh from the silent movie era. Or even up until about 20 years ago.

It is strange how comedy is constantly evolving.

And one of my pet hates are people who insist Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton are still funny today. They are not.

Post: #43

It depends in which mood one is. It´s like with porn back in the day the technical quality was worse but if you are enough aroust you can still fap to it ask the guys from the no-fap challenge.

I think either you are a special case or just invested in your rational brain which makes it probably more difficult to laugh at something without enough entitlement. In germany it´s called "anspruch" some high requirements are to be fullfilled to being allowed to laugh at something.

Look at the Africans, ok this is a streotype, but they laugh at all possible dumb things. So the more advanced a culture is the more it needs higher levels otherwise we would laugh ouerselfs to death.

By the way there was this African school where they got a laughing desease and it spread to the whole country and some people laughed to death. It was a serious problem.

Post: #44

I have a lot of dumb habits and low status interests.

I quite like wrestling for example.

So - it is not that I am too proud to slum it with lower level entertainment.

Post: #45

Cardguy, you know I like you. But you sometimes contradict yourself. In case of being proud, ego some things you said in the past contradict.

Like on the one hand you say you don´t have an ego but on the other hand you make some firm statements that when one sleeps with girls under 8 are beta. I mean saying that someone is beta has something to do with ego and entitlement, doesn´t it?

I don´t mean it in a bad way but it´s still looks that you have a pretty big ego like all of us specially at RVF. Aren´t we an entitled bunch?

Reading makes one more rational but funniness needs an emotional basis imho. For example I like to read but try to balance it with other things. But if I read the whole day my mood would go down and funniness would be the last thing on my mind.

I am just making some more or less educated guess here. Maybe I am wrong.

Post: #46

In terms of jokes: I also don't find them funny at all. Whenever someone winds up the motor and begins a rehearsed joke I immediately think "Gah, I'm gonna have to force out a laugh when his mouth stops moving". I don't think there has ever been a joke I've laughed at sincerely.

I usually stiffen up immediately when a person begins a sentence about an invented person placed in a hypothetical situation

On that subject, I don't find 99% of 'funny' Youtube videos funny. I could probably name about two of them I've laughed out loud at.

In terms of TV programmes that make me physically belly-laugh, only Family Guy and Russel Brand's Ponderland come to mind.

And still, I laugh hysterically very regularly throughout my day. Most people at my work would probably complain about my annoying and frequent cackle.

Hence I'm trying to think, what exactly is it I laugh at every day? Well, travel and sex stories form the bulk of it. All other 'non-intellectual' stuff is just small-talk to me, I want to know the interesting stuff about the people I talk to.

Then after that, what makes me laugh the most are dry, grumpy people. I work with the most brilliant grumpy bastard ever. We had a singing contest at the language school the other day. A seventeen year old girl was singing to everyone:

Grumpy co-teacher "Is that June is it? Back in my day we had good music. Nowadays it's...................................Barbie Girl"

He then walked out the room then walked back in a minute later "I bet she's singing one of those 'I'm a slag, I like partying' songs. What she should really be singing is 'My mother doesn't let me drink beer, I'm not allowed out past ten o'clock at night". Then he walked back out. Maybe hard to imagine but this guy fucking cracks me up, he doesn't realise how unbelievably miserable he is haha.

Post: #47

(04-15-2014 12:46 PM)Bill Wrote:  Like on the one hand you say you don´t have an ego but on the other hand you make some firm statements that when one sleeps with girls under 8 are beta. I mean saying that someone is beta has something to do with ego and entitlement, doesn´t it?

Nah - if a girl turns you on - you should definitely fuck her.

I am fussy - so a girl has to be an 8 or above to turn me on. For others - they can dip as low as a 6 I guess.

It is a sliding scale - and I think some guys (if they are honest with themselves) take a bang with an unattractive girl in order to get the notch. The meaningless accomplishment of scoring with another chick seems to outweigh the act itself.

When a market can create a demand for shoddy goods - it shows how effectively the pussy cartel is operating.

And as part of my MGTOW mindset - I always implore other guys to break through that bullshit by not slumming it with fatties.

It gives women a higher opinion of themselves - and I think guys should be honest with themselves. If you are fucking a girl you don't find that attractive then it is worth asking why.

A case in point. And I promise this happened to me today. A fat chick I work with (280 pounds and about 5 foot 6 inches tall) told me today that she found a viagra pill in her bedroom whilst cleaning last night.

She thought it was the funniest thing in the world - and is sure it belongs to a guy she was sleeping with about a year ago.

I actually saw a picture of the guy once and he was fairly good looking (no homo).

Because I can get away with hit at work. I told her that a guy needing viagra to fuck her - says more about her than it does about him.

The hamster ran around it's wheel a couple of time as she sighed and said that whilst she had a hideous body - she made for it with a pretty face.

These were her exact words by the way.

So - my question is this. Why would a fairly good looking guy be fucking a hideously obese chick - and need viagra to go through with the awful deed?

If it were not for the fact that society has brainwashed him as a guy into thinking that 'any hole is a goal' and 'they all look the same with the lights off'. And other male hamster shit like that?

I am MGTOW myself - and thinking like that is something I totally despise.

Every time you sleep with a chick who is below a 6 - it would be more enjoyable having a wank. So there is literally no point to it. Yet - these same hideous chicks are constantly harassed by thirsty guys who want to sell them the lie that 'some guys prefer curvy women'.

This is an important issue which I have banged on about a few times - since I think it needs to be spoken about more often. We need to shame guys who do this - not give them a high five and listen to their bullshit about how they were drunk and it didn't really matter.

That is my take on the whole thing. Is has nothing to do with my ego. Since the only 8's and aboves I fuck are hookers. So it is not like I am trying to lord it over others with how alpha I am! :-)

Sorry for the rant - Bill. It is just the above is an important issue to me - and should not be confused with people thinking I have a giant ego. Which is certainly not the way that I look at this issue.

But yeah, by the way - I really do not have an ego. It is pretty simple getting rid of it. In the same way I don't give a fuck what other people do with their lives and don't give a fuck how much status they have. I imagine others care just as little about me.

As such - there is no point having an ego since we are all just a tiny insignificant part in the lives of those we know. Hell - I don't even know what most of my friends do for a living.

And if that were not enough to deflate your ego. Take a trip to your local graveyard - and see what good the egos are all those lying 6 foot under is doing them now.

Life is meaningless.

Nobody gives a fuck about you.

Then you die.

Post: #48

Cardguy, on the topic of fucking fat chics I understand it. My brother is such a case. It´s depressing. But on the other hand why should I care?


Probably we understand something different about the meaning of "ego".

You wrote:

Quote:We need to shame guys who do this

Now maybe I am to psychological about it but who is "we" or better "I"? Isn´t it always the ego? Without ego you shurely would die as you won´t give a fuck. You have hunger? Why not kill yourself you would solve the problem forever. My understanding is everything you do which helps you to stay alife is controlled by the ego.

Ego is like the government of the society. Without it there would be no nation.

It does not look like that you think or feel that life is meaningless because you did not commit suicide. For a guy who sees life really as meaning less I mean not 90% but 100% would kill himself as early as possible.


On a theoretical level you may think that but your actions show that you are still interested and invested in life.

Otherwise why would you give a fuck about guys sleeping with ugly women? Why care? Why is it your business? I would say it´s your ego who cares for whatever reason. These guys make your ego uncomfortable.

No ego means no life. So you live so you have a ego. Ego creates kategorizations like good and bad, important, right and wrong.

But maybe you understand ego as for example as a guy who has the urge to dominate others. But this I would call having a big ego.

Now we got lost in philophication

Post: #49

"If the universe is the answer, then what is the question?"

If life has so meaning. How should we react to that? You could find it depressing. Personally - I find it a relief. I used to see my Dad go crazy over the most minor pointless shit when I was a kid. And in the back of my mind was the though 'He needs to cool the fuck down - nothing matters - we are all going to die.'

So - the fact of the universe having no meaning is still something that you can react to in any way you want. Personally I find it quite funny since it fits my dark sense of humour and general MGTOW outlook on life.

You should check my analysis of 'Cool Hand Luke' for more thoughts in this area.

/thread-31121.html

It is my contention that Cool Hand Luke and Jesus Christ are essentially the same figure.

Post: #50

(04-15-2014 01:16 PM)LeightonBlackstock Wrote:  In terms of jokes: I also don't find them funny at all. Whenever someone winds up the motor and begins a rehearsed joke I immediately think "Gah, I'm gonna have to force out a laugh when his mouth stops moving". I don't think there has ever been a joke I've laughed at sincerely.

I usually stiffen up immediately when a person begins a sentence about an invented person placed in a hypothetical situation

On that subject, I don't find 99% of 'funny' Youtube videos funny. I could probably name about two of them I've laughed out loud at.

In terms of TV programmes that make me physically belly-laugh, only Family Guy and Russel Brand's Ponderland come to mind.

And still, I laugh hysterically very regularly throughout my day. Most people at my work would probably complain about my annoying and frequent cackle.

Hence I'm trying to think, what exactly is it I laugh at every day? Well, travel and sex stories form the bulk of it. All other 'non-intellectual' stuff is just small-talk to me, I want to know the interesting stuff about the people I talk to.

Then after that, what makes me laugh the most are dry, grumpy people. I work with the most brilliant grumpy bastard ever. We had a singing contest at the language school the other day. A seventeen year old girl was singing to everyone:

Grumpy co-teacher "Is that June is it? Back in my day we had good music. Nowadays it's...................................Barbie Girl"

He then walked out the room then walked back in a minute later "I bet she's singing one of those 'I'm a slag, I like partying' songs. What she should really be singing is 'My mother doesn't let me drink beer, I'm not allowed out past ten o'clock at night". Then he walked back out. Maybe hard to imagine but this guy fucking cracks me up, he doesn't realise how unbelievably miserable he is haha.

I usually don´t like people telling me jokes as I know the best jokes already myself.


I think it depends in which mood or situation of life you are. For example I worked hard after school to make the money. In that time I was at a power mode so "unreal" thinks like jokes were not of interest for me.

But now I am in a time where I don´t have obligations and lead a unstressful life so reading jokes from time to time makes me laugh.

Would you say it´s impossible that when your circumstances change that you will find different more subtil things funny?

I was no novel reader in the past but now as I have stress free time reading novels is much more fun. With different environment one might think and feel different.