You don’t necessarily want to announce your discovery as soon as you make it, just like a poker player who notices a tell in her opponent across the table. The key to being funny in conversation is to pick your moments, read the room, and strike a balance between speaking and listening. The second secret is related to the first: even the funniest people aren’t always humorous. It is exhausting to perform continuously or simply to watch someone perform continuously. Therefore, it’s often the case that you need to give it and yourself a break if you feel like you’re making a lot of high-caliber jokes or quips but they’re going flat. According to science, superiority (“I’m better than you”), incongruity (“You startled me!”), and the release of stress (“What a relief!”) are the three key reasons that generate laughing. It’s also difficult to surprise someone or calm them down after you’ve been jabbing jabs at them incessantly, so it’s definitely best to save that type of thirst for Instagram. You should work on developing the conviction that you are already hilarious. You’ll be surprised at how different others will perceive you if you give yourself the validation rather than expecting it from others. Consider how a little child offers a plastic phone to an adult as an illustration. The adult will almost always pretend to answer the phone and mumble into it, right? despite the fact that they are well aware nobody is there.
