Wit - books and exercises for developing wit

How to develop wit: useful tips

To develop mental acuity, you will have to put in a lot of effort, but I am confident that you will succeed. My useful tips will be a good help:

1. Expand your horizons. Read as many books as possible by writers who introduced humor and irony into their works. For teaching, I recommend humorous literature by the following authors: Ilf and Petrov, Zoshchenko, Chekhov, Bernard Shaw, Bulgakov. You can listen to audiobooks or read, but the most important thing is to notice jokes and witty phrases. Of course, it won’t hurt to watch humorous films, TV series and programs.
2. Practice. Without practice, wit cannot be developed. Try to make sharp and subtle jokes whenever the opportunity arises. Don't forget that a joke works well if it has the effect of surprise.
3. Laugh at yourself. Yes, I agree that this is not the most pleasant thing, because we all have our own complexes. But this is precisely the technique used by famous comedians who make the audience laugh until they cry. Yes, they are witty, thanks to the fact that they use self-irony.
4. Forget about stereotypes. A witty person finds very quickly what to say, and you will have to learn to abandon the cliches and stereotypes inherent in society. To develop wit, you need to use your imagination and speech, look for associations, turn familiar situations around and see the funny in them.
5. Live life with humor. A person with a sharp mind cannot be gloomy and boring. If you have a good wit, then you will always be the center of attention in any company, you will have many friends, and people will come to you for advice. Look at the familiar in a new way and find something funny, then they will also say about you that you have an innate talent for making jokes in any situation.

Remember that every joke has its own time, so it’s not enough to learn how to write jokes, make jokes and humor, it’s important to learn how to do it at the right moment. As an exercise, I recommend that you play association games and apply basic techniques to develop your wit from scratch.

Wit is the muscle of the sense of humor

Here are some more recommendations for those who want to be witty:

• memorize jokes and funny phrases;
• use metaphors and phraseological units;
• do not show negative emotions in public;
• look for relationships between people, animals, plants and different situations;
• learn to draw caricatures;
• Laugh at a joke, even when you don't find it very funny.

Of course, jokes should not flow from you, because you are not a clown! Remember the saying: “Rarely, but accurately.” This is exactly what you should do when inserting some sharp phrase into a conversation. I conduct special training on developing a sense of humor and wit, and I can say with confidence that any skill can be developed. You can read more about training at the Comedy School in the Training section.

Different types of sense of humor

Psychologists Patricia Doris and Rod Martin, after conducting a series of studies, came to the conclusion that there are four types of characters.

Affiliate or partner

• A man jokes about himself.
• The comments are good-natured and friendly.
• Uses different station intonations and non-verbal means of communication (facial expressions, gestures).
• This type is characteristic of kind and warm people, who are often the soul of the company, informal leaders.

Self-sustaining

• A person is capable of laughing at himself. Thanks to a developed sense of the comic, he can easily cope with stress.
• Self-ironic monologues, funny comments.
• This sense of humor belongs to people with high self-esteem. They try not to lose optimism in any situation, but openly laugh out of themselves when absolutely necessary.

Self-deprecating

• Humiliation of the “I” itself.
• Finding reasons to laugh at yourself.
• Sarcasm is inherent and can make fun of one’s own weaknesses. Such a person is accustomed to driving himself into the center of the joke.
• You need the approval of others. For this reason, he is ready to become an object of ridicule, but does not want to correct his shortcomings. Prone to stress.
• The positive side is that during an unforeseen situation, it takes the fire upon itself and mitigates the conflict in every possible way.

Aggressive

• Harsh criticism, sarcasm, ridicule.
• Caustic statements or remarks.
• Beneath the laughter lies anger and irritability. Offensive and indecent jokes directed at those present are permitted.
• This sense of humor is inherent in those who are used to manipulating others, proving their perfection, hurting others, establishing themselves at their expense.
• When making a joke, its author usually adds: “Well, I’m joking, you know.”

How to develop wit: exercises

Any muscle becomes bigger and stronger thanks to regular training. I suggest you practice a little to develop your own wit. Just 7 exercises will help you become a wittier person.

Exercise 1. Finding analogies.

This exercise is based on the Linguistic Pyramids, which help train generalization, dissociation and analogy skills. What are Linguistic Pyramids? This is what you build yourself based on what you see around you.

So let's take a look around. The first thing I saw was a plate. The plate itself is just a plate, but if you think about it a little, it refers to the utensils. Now we already have the base of the pyramid and the first branch from it. Now find another subspecies for the plate. In the photo you can see examples of the branching of the linguistic pyramid.

The photo shows an example of developing wit using the linguistic pyramid

Now do this exercise to develop your wit. To do this, invite a friend and decide who will be the leader and who will be the follower. After this, the follower must point to some object, and the leader will show what can be done with it. Remember that you need to generalize the subject to a higher level or to a lower level. Complete the task within 5 minutes with one object, only using gestures, which are best agreed upon in advance.

Exercise 2. Find out as much as possible about the subject.

This exercise is great for developing wit and creativity in speech, as you will have to use your imagination and creativity. Look around and find some object again. After that, set a timer for 5 minutes and tell everything you know about this subject, even if it seems to you that you are talking nonsense.

What can you tell me?

• Name;
• appointment;
• about application;
• about new application;
• about popularity;
• history.

In general, it can be anything, as long as you have something to say within 5 minutes.

Exercise 3. Interesting story.

And now you have to turn into a teller of fascinating stories. To do this you will have to gather a company of 4-5 people. Try experimenting on your family members first, and then move on to your friends. Say that you want to develop your wit, so you need to practice.

Your audience must set a topic for conversation, and your task is to say something about this topic for 5 minutes. Even if you don’t understand the topic, it will be even easier to use humor. If you don't have viewers yet, I'll ask you a topic:

1. How to choose a steam generator.
2. Why do women put on makeup in the morning?
3. How to change a baby's diaper.
4. Secrets of properly beating chicken eggs.

I think your stories should be interesting, and you will be able to write your first joke.

Exercise 4. Comparing something with something.

If you learn how to create unusual analogies, you can develop your wit much faster. For a successful exercise, you need helpers. Ask one person to name an animal, the second to name an inanimate object, and try to find something in common between the animal and this object.

This method of searching for an analogy is based on the riddle of the famous writer L. Carroll, to which no one has found an answer until now. You can use it for this wit activity: “How is a raven like a table?”

Try making this exercise a little more difficult, but speed up the development of your wit. Find commonality not only between animals and objects, but also between emotions and objects, situations and animals.

Exercise 5. Creativity in speech.

Now choose adjectives for nouns. Let me remind you that the adjective answers the questions: “Which, which, which, which?” That is, you select words that describe the characteristics of objects.

For example, let’s take the noun “bed” and select 5 adjectives that we usually do not use for this word in our speech.

• sour bed;
• crooked bed;
• quick bed;
• effervescent bed;
• lightning bed.

So we endowed the bed with new characteristics. To develop your wit, you need to do this exercise at least 10 times a day and within a week you will notice that you are starting to think creatively and speak with jokes.

Exercise 6. Let's fantasize.

A witty person quickly finds a way out of any situation and does not focus on problems. You should learn this too! Ask a friend/wife/co-worker/husband to tell you about a problem. Your task is to help find a solution to this problem, but in a rather unusual way.

Develop your wit with fictional characters or objects

Your speech must be creative, so come up with some kind of assistant who can solve this problem. Of course it must be a non-existent character! After that, come up with the actions of this character. Try to fantasize as much as possible! Forget about reality and use your imagination. It is best to record the course of action of this character. Now read this story, BUT... In an unknown language. Yes, mix up the letters, distort the words as much as you can. It will turn out quite funny and incomprehensible, but this is how you use new mechanisms in your brain and learn to think witty and creative.

Exercise 7. Journey into unreality.

To develop your wit, you will need another exercise, which is also best done with a partner. It's a bit like a game, so you can practice it on your children or other family members. So, blindfold your partner and take him to the room. Explain that the real world is made of atoms and molecules, but you are going to an unreal world, so everything here is made of socks. Yes, from socks, or hats, or rats, or cats, or balls, in general, from whatever you want.

To do this exercise, explain in detail to your partner how an object is made up of socks or something else. That is, you bring a blindfolded person to the TV and say: “This is a TV and it consists of socks. The screen is made using modern technologies, so the engineers used nylon socks, but the body is made from grandma’s knitted socks.”

All these exercises help develop wit, but to perform them requires a lot of effort. If you doubt your abilities, then I suggest you undergo special training at the Comedy School. Agree, it’s important not only to learn how to make jokes, but also to be able to avoid hurting a person’s feelings. You don't want to cause anger and tears instead of laughter.

Features of children's humor

Every parent wants their child to shine in society with sparkling humor over time. Not all adults know how to develop a sense of humor. This is even more difficult to do in children, it seems at first glance. In fact, for attentive parents, there is no simpler task than to develop a sense of humor in a child. To do this, you should adhere to a few simple but mandatory rules:

• Up to a year old babies are cheered by the mood of their parents. A couple of funny faces from mom and dad a day will bring a joyful smile.
• At 2-3 years old, humorous activities will require physical exercise. Sudden appearances from behind shelters, games of hide and seek (even with face palms), awkward movements with facial expressions are just what you need. But it’s time to develop more complex skills - speech. Rhymes, incorrect words and the good mood of the parents in addition will give the lessons the right direction, and the child will begin to sparkle with such expressions even with himself. Adult jokes that are not yet understood will have to be explained.
• At 3-5 years old, pictures with mixed up possibilities and various confusions become funny. At this age, on the one hand, it is worth supporting the child’s intentions to make him laugh; on the other hand, it can be useful to point out that a joke repeated many times ceases to be funny.

What a pleasant feeling when a child with a sly squint makes a subtle, funny observation from which those around him can derive outright pleasure. Support and example will make up for the lack of a sense of humor at first, you should be patient.

A sense of humor is largely a product of upbringing and social environment. Therefore, even those who previously lacked it can achieve the desired results by working on themselves.

How to develop wit: books

Want to generate ideas on the go, make jokes, and remember more? Then you should read books to develop your wit and train your brain.

1. "How People Think." D. Chernyshev.
2. "Brain Development". R. Sipe.
3. "Brain Rules" D. Medina.
4. "Awareness." M. Williams and D. Panman.
5. "Flexible consciousness." K. Dweck.
6. "Remember everything." A. Dumchev.
7. "Invincible Mind" A. Lickerman.

The main mistake in the thinking of many people is that they believe that abilities such as wit, a sense of humor, imagination, and creative speech are given at birth. These books will help you understand how the brain works and discover your talents.

You should like my selection article: Books for developing a sense of humor and wit