How to Be the Funniest in School

Knowing How Humor Works

Know your audience. To be the funniest in school, you have to know what your classmates find funny! Listen to them and see what makes them chuckle. Do they lose their cool when you make fun of your teachers? When you make fun of yourself? How about physical comedy? Or do they prefer jokes that make references to TV shows, comedians, and all of pop culture? And even within your group of friends, different people are going to find different things funny. Try to take note of each of your close friends' tastes. How are they different? Know how to handle your teachers, too. If you were assigned to write a variation of the famous "to be or not to be" speech from Hamlet and you go up and recite the lyrics to "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by the Clash, some teachers may find it hilarious. Others? Not so much.

Know a few basic set-ups for humor. Turns out all humans are kind of the same. There are a few basic premises we have always found and will always find hilarious: Pain. If you've ever seen even just one cartoon, you know this concept. Think Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. Garfield. Bugs Bunny. Mickey Mouse. They all do the pain schtick. It's timeless. The unexpected. It's only when we don't see things coming that they have the potential to be anything -- surprising, scary, funny, you name it. So take any normal circumstance and go somewhere else with it. Cloudy out? Put on sunglasses. No one laughed at your joke? Bust out laughing. Trying to hide? Hide behind a small plant. Be as ridiculous as you feel comfortable! Wordplay and puns. More on this bit later, but twisting words can be a great way to make people laugh.

Be aware of timing. For most jokes, it's pretty much all that matters. This is something you sort of just have to feel, so we'll skip the wordy explanations. Just be aware of it -- the next time someone else cracks a joke, think about how the timing effected how funny it was. Think about dead silences. Take the line, "Who wants the last mozzarella stick?" Not funny. But when you and your friends are sitting at the lunch table and no one's talking, everyone is totally awkward, and no one has anything to say (cricket, cricket, cricket), and you bust out a nervous, eye-shifty, "So...who wants the last mozzarella stick?" while creeping your fingers along the table to eat it yourself.

Try poking fun at your friends -- carefully, of course! This article has covered making fun of yourself -- now it's time to make fun of your friends! In nice ways, though; you want to be their friend after the joke! Find something you can poke light fun at -- something they can laugh at too -- to get the crowd roaring. Maybe they can dish it back! For example, when your tall, skinny friend walks in the room, ignore them briefly and then say, "Oh, I'm so sorry! I mistook you for a lightpost." They obviously know you didn't think they were actually a lightpost. It's clear it's a joke, so they shouldn't have reason to be offended. Some people aren't great at taking jokes. If you have friends that you know are like this, avoid this tactic with them. Only poke fun at people who you know are okay with it.

Get physical. Slapstick comedy has been around for ages and still gets our sides aching. Anything from pulling your friend's chair out from underneath him to falling out of your own chair because someone made such a dumb comment you couldn't take it qualifies. You don't need actual words to be funny! If you've ever heard of Lucille Ball (one of the most famous comediennes of all time) or the "I Love Lucy" show, you might remember that the most popular episodes of this show were where she was learning how to stomp grapes, where she was shoving chocolates in her face, and when she was eating a meat drink. The most timeless comedy is physical. Dunno who she is? Then think Mr. Bean or Charlie Chaplain! They each have entire bits without words dedicated to the art of physical comedy.

Go for puns and wordplay. Puns can be the worst, but a good pun -- or even better, good wordplay -- gets everyone going. The next time your friend talks about his camping trip, say, "Wow, that sounds in tents!" Did that same friend crack a chicken-across-the-road joke? Man, that's poultry in motion, isn't it? Get clever! Need some examples? wikiHow has that, too!

Developing Your Skills

Establish a reputation. When people trust that you're the class clown, cracking jokes gets a lot easier. They'll be practically ready to laugh at anything you say -- and you'll have the confidence that you will. So start feeding your funny bone now, busting out jokes left, right, and center. You want to be the person that everyone says, "Man, they crack me up!" The only way to do this is keep everything light and funny. So even when you have a terrible test coming up or things are looking a little bleak, be the one ready with a joke to liven up the situation.

Develop the persona. Having the words and the physicality is great, but the look will help too. Make part of your personality eccentric on the outside to match the eccentricities of your jokes! Could you pull off a monocle? Maybe a cape? At least semi-matching socks? Sometimes your image will help your humor. Imagine your boring Aunt Marge trying to tell jokes. Wouldn't it be a lot funnier if she were wearing shoulder pads and a terrible, terrible hat?

Listen to the best. We're not saying to steal jokes, but it's definitely a good idea to listen to comedians to get a feel for the types of humor and styles out there. And if you happen to repeat a joke that your friends don't know is from someone else, well, no need to mention it! Let them think it's from you. Go a little outside the biggest names to get away with murder. Try Tig Notaro, Pete Holmes, Jim Norton, or Nick Kroll on for size. And don't just use their jokes -- take their jokes and make them your own!

Have a joke pool. Having a handful of jokes at your disposal can take the heat of you having to improve something on the spot. If there's some dead air in the room, you can fill it with a joke you have up your sleeve. Listen to those comedians we just talked about, watch some comedy television, and spend some time online building your armory. Try not to use them too often. You don't want people to groan every time you start, "So this Canadian walks into a diner..."

Don't take yourself too seriously. At the end of the day, you need to be relaxed to get away with your humor. If you're so nervous about people finding you funny (or not finding you funny), that'll be the only thing people see -- your awesome jokes will go totally unnoticed. Be carefree about it -- if you think you're funny, your classmates will fall in line, too. If they don't laugh, so what? You'll hit 'em next time with a great line. You don't have to be funny 24/7. Comedy is a process of trial and error. Some comedians hone the same joke for years. Give yourself a break!

Getting the Personality

Be animated and energetic. Even the best of jokes fall flat if you don't deliver it like you believe it's funny. When you can get behind a line with some well-timed arm flailing or by making a face that is so expressive it almost says the line for you, the joke is that much better. Whatever you're saying, say it with your entire body, too. Aziz Ansari has a good bit where he talks about trying to meet girls. None of them like him, so he consoles himself by telling them, "It's okay. My friend Brian likes me." Not an especially funny line! But he delivers it with gusto and almost anger, pouting, scoffing, and widening his eyes. It's his embodiment of his emotion behind the joke that seals the deal.

Be pop-culture savvy. Inside jokes, even if they have you rolling on the floor, will be lost on everyone else. You need to have content that everyone gets and can understand. To make it so the entire room is laughing, use lines with pop culture references. Poke fun at what's going on in the world right now -- that way, everyone is in on the joke. What do you and your friends pay attention to? Do you have favorite TV shows? Favorite music? Favorite celebrities? Allude to these in your jokes! Bust out Gangnam Style to the beat of your teacher's choral music. Stick out your tongue and purr like a cat when Miley Cyrus comes up on your friend's iPod. Quote you and your friends' favorite TV show when an opportunity arises. Be ready for it!

Be sarcastic. One of the most common forms of humor is sarcasm. If it matches your personality, it can be your go-to. It's often dry, biting, a bit absurd, and pokes a little fun at whoever or whatever is the subject of conversation. As long as people know you're being sarcastic and not serious, it can be hilarious! Sometimes you can use it to mean the opposite of what you actually mean. Think along the lines of "George Bush was the best president ever" or "Wow, that's the best idea you've ever had!" Or you could use it to say something a bit absurd: "You like dogs? I like dogs, too. Let's exchange recipes!" A lot of sarcasm comes in the tone of voice. If you say that George W was the best president with a serious face, acting all offended, people won't know whether you're kidding or not. That method can work too -- just know when you need to drop the act to let them in on your joke.

Be observant. Being consistently funny (and you want to be funny all the time, not just once in a while, right?) means you have to stay alert and ready to roll with the punches. Let's say a person you're friends with walks in the room and sits down. Without missing a beat, you turn to everyone else and say, with a furtive glance downward, inching your chair out, "Do you think he saw us yet?" Be aware of your environment so you don't miss any opportunities! Try to take the normal, everyday, mundane stuff and turn them into a punchline. By staying alert and observant, you can do just that. Say your friend is showing you pictures of her on vacation and she says, "Ugh, I look so fat." You respond with, "It's okay; they say the camera adds 10 pounds. How many cameras are on you here?" Just make sure your friends won't get mad!

Be self-deprecating. Alright, so enough with the poking fun at others stuff. It's even funnier to poke fun at yourself. No one will be offended and in addition to you being hilarious, you're down-to-earth and modest. Win, win, win. Need an example? Let's say your best friend just got called on by your teacher. He has no idea what to say, so he goes, "Umm...I...well...huh...yes?" You then slip in a, "God, it's like me trying to talk to girls." Instead of making fun of him, you turn it onto yourself!