Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Analyzing Your Sensitivity to Jokes
• Part 2 of 3: Learning to React to Jokes
• Part 3 of 3: Developing a Sense of Humor and Joking

This is not the first time that you find yourself taking the jokes of colleagues, friends or classmates too seriously? Over time, your relationships with others can be jeopardized by your tendency to take jokes to heart, especially if you act arrogantly and try to ruin people's fun. When a person takes jokes seriously, it often suggests that they are too serious or oversensitive to the humor of others. This may be due to a personal opinion that you do not have the same sense of humor as other people, which makes you sensitive to their jokes, or because you do not understand how to react to jokes in general. Developing your own sense of humor and jokes can help you relax, relieve stress, and become more comfortable with other people's jokes. If the joke you hear is not offensive, there is always a way to warn yourself against being serious about it, so as not to deprive yourself of the opportunity to join in the fun.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Analyzing Your Sensitivity to Jokes

1. 1 Understand the reason for your sensitivity to jokes. Often times, the reaction to a joke is associated with the mental associations that arise in response to it. Perhaps you are interpreting the joke more seriously than it was originally intended, or you just misunderstand it. As you analyze the joke, try to understand why you are taking it so seriously or so sensitive to it. This will allow you to better understand the reason for your sensitivity to individual jokes and to take control of it.
   • Consider if your interpretation of the joke is really realistic and correct. Is your understanding of a joke based on your own speculation or real personal experience? Is the sensitive reaction to the joke caused by past experience or by misconceptions about the joker's intentions?
   • Additionally, you can try to find reasons for not taking the joke seriously and not giving feelings an outlet in the form of anger or negativity. Answering the questions above will help you realize that a sensitive reaction to a particular joke is not warranted and rather has to do with feelings and emotions that have nothing to do with the joke itself.
2. 2 Consider if you are dealing with other emotions, such as stress and anxiety. At times, you may be overwhelmed with other emotions, making it difficult for you to laugh or smile in response to someone's jokes. It can be stress and anxiety due to approaching deadlines, commitments, or obstacles in front of you. Because of this, you're just not in the mood for funny stories or witty comments. As a result, someone else's joke will be taken seriously by you only because your head is completely full of your problems and there are so many things to do in front of you that there is simply no way to see things from the positive side.
   • However, remember that laughing and joking is very effective at relieving stress, especially when you deliberately try to stay positive in a difficult or difficult situation.While your main thoughts may be serious or even sinister, it's important to let yourself loose and laugh at even silly jokes.
3. 3 Pay attention to sensitivity due to discomfort. In some situations, a person takes a joke seriously because they feel uncomfortable with the topic of the joke or simply does not understand what to laugh at. If a joke seems offensive to you, you need to think about why you perceive it that way, and whether your reaction is based on real facts (for example, it can be historical facts related to a racist joke) or personal experience (for example, on personal female experience in case of a sexist joke).
   • It is not necessary to have first-hand experience in certain issues to classify a joke as offensive or inappropriate. Often times, if you feel uncomfortable with a joke that feels rude or wrong, that’s enough to take it seriously and not laugh at it.
4. 4 If the joke confuses you, ask for an explanation. When the seriousness of the joke is associated with a misunderstanding of the original intentions of the joker, you can ask him to explain what he meant with his joke or why he was joking at all. For example, you might hear a scientist joke that only another scientist can understand. Most jokes lose their poignancy when they are too exaggerated, but it never hurts to ask a humorist further to get more information about a particular joke and to better understand certain types of jokes in the future.

Part 2 of 3: Learning to React to Jokes

1. 1 Put yourself in the shoes of a joker. Consider the personality of the joker and why he might tell individual jokes. For example, a child's father might tell a group of people about parenting jokes that only make sense to those who are also the father. This may be due to the fact that the person wants to joke to attract the attention of other fathers, and you just do not understand his joke, because you have not yet had children. The same applies to other communities of people and people of other professions, since you first need to try to understand their point of view in order to fully understand their specific joke.
   • It is also sometimes helpful to consider the sense of humor of the person making the joke. For example, the jokes of a person with a goofy sense of humor can be very different from the jokes of people with a caustic and witty humor. Learning to put yourself in the shoes of a joker will help you figure out how to take a particular joke. Often times, jokes do not need to be taken seriously.
2. 2 Pay attention to how the people around you react to the joke. If you are having trouble identifying the background of a joke, you can look at those around you to see how you should respond to it. Laughter is often contagious, and you will start laughing on your own when you pay attention to the reactions of other people. Assessing the reactions of others will also allow you to take a joke less seriously, especially if people like it.
   • According to research, people don't decide for themselves whether to laugh or not. Laughter is often an unconscious, automatic response. This is why it is very difficult to laugh on command or to fake a laugh. Paying attention to the reactions of others, you yourself can laugh at the joke, instead of maintaining a serious and reserved appearance.
3. 3 Learn to throw witty lines in response to jokes. To break through the wall of your own seriousness, challenge yourself and start responding to pranksters with witty phrases or remarks. To do this, you can take the theme or idea of ​​a joke as a basis and oppose it with your own more funny or interesting statement.
   • For example, your coworker might joke about how his toddler always gets upset when his dad leaves home for work.For your part, you have the opportunity to respond with a line about how upset your dog is when you leave him for the whole day. This is funny, because your joke is based on the first joke and immediately, as opposed to it, paints in your head a funny picture of a sad dog sitting at the door when you go to work. This will allow you to demonstrate that you are not taking a coworker's joke seriously and are ready to have fun yourself.
4. 4 Sweep away other people's jokes with self-irony. Self-irony occurs when you start making fun of yourself in order to make others smile. It is also useful when you are not sure how to react to someone else's joke, or you realize that you have overreacted to it. This kind of humor allows you to easily eliminate embarrassing moments and show that you, too, can laugh at yourself.
   • Use self-irony when you are uncomfortable, when you are not sure what to say, or to instantly respond to someone's joke. For example, your friend might joke about how hopeless he is in a particular sport or game. Which can be answered with a self-deprecating joke about how hopeless you are at all in everything. This will be a funny response to your original joke and will most likely make your friend laugh.

Part 3 of 3: Developing a Sense of Humor and Joking

1. 1 Tell your own jokes. Force yourself to tell jokes and laugh with other people to build a more humorous experience. This will help you develop a less serious attitude towards yourself and show others that you are not afraid to appear funny.
   • Additionally, you can search the net for good jokes and rehearse them in front of the mirror before voicing those jokes in public. You can also try the jokes first on close friends before bringing them out to the general public. Try performing your jokes on stage at your local bar or pub on a humor night to showcase your skills to sympathetic strangers.
   • A good joke should consist of a description of the circumstances and a climax. The description represents the first half of the joke and usually includes an indication of the location and key persons. The ending is often just one sentence that makes everyone laugh. For example, the description might be: "A pastor, mullah and rabbi entered the bar." The ending may be as follows: "And the bartender asks them: Are you kidding me ?!"
2. 2 Practice telling people funny stories.. Funny stories or anecdotes can help cheer you up and show your willingness to laugh with others. Tell funny stories in the same way you tell jokes. Remember to choose the right time, use the right gestures, create narrative and climax. As you tell the story, maintain eye contact with your audience and try to end your speech with the line that will generate the most laughter.
   • Keep your jokes and funny stories short and to the point. The public has a limited supply of attention, and you shouldn't let people lose interest in you before you climax.
3. 3 Watch comedy shows and movies. To get a better understanding of what is considered funny, start watching comedy television shows and movies. Professional comedians are very good at guessing the moment, gesturing and choosing appropriate jokes to make the audience laugh.
   • Try to figure out what type of comedy you like best, for example, it could be black humor, irony or buffoonery. After that, you can find out what jokes will seem funny to your colleagues, friends or relatives in real life. For example, if you respond well to buffoonery in movies or television, then it can be fun and live for you.