Friend told me my jokes were too 'set up' and it messed with my head for a week

So my buddy Mike said my jokes sound like I'm reading a script for a crowd, not just talking to people. He said I gotta stop with the 'did you ever notice' stuff and just let things fly natural. Tried it at lunch today and dropped a quick dumb thing about my cat staring at a wall for 20 minutes and people actually laughed. But now I'm second guessing every punchline I've ever told. Do you think it's better to plan jokes or just blurt out whatever dumb thing happens?

3 comments

3 Comments

julia_anderson20d ago

o but wait, did the people laughing at your cat joke feel like they were in on something with you or did it feel like they were watching a performance? Like the difference between telling a buddy about something weird your cat did versus doing a whole bit about it with a setup and a punchline. I think the real trick is figuring out which parts of your natural goofy observations are funny because they're true and shared, not because you crafted a perfect punchline. Are you mostly overthinking the structure or are you worried your actual stuff isn't funny?

the_amy20d ago

Oh man, this hits home. A friend of mine tried doing a bit about his dog at an open mic and it bombed hard, but when he tells the exact same story over beers people lose it laughing. The difference was night and day. On stage he was performing "the funny dog story" with pauses and a punchline, but at the bar he was just sharing something real that happened. He finally figured out the real stuff works better when you just say it like you're telling a friend. The structure kills the truth of it.

the_william20d ago

Did you ever try just telling your funniest story to a friend first and listening to how you naturally say it? That helped me a bunch. @julia_anderson I think she's right about the connection thing, when I stopped trying to sound like a comedian and just talked like myself the room felt different.