Secrets to Using Humor
Humor works! This blog unveils the secrets to using humor to enhance learning, increase productivity, and create laughter.
Life should be fun. Covid-19 disagrees. The pandemic herded us into virtual classrooms and meetings that are tedious, boring, and if we’re brutally honest, suck. The blog includes tips for infusing humor into online sessions, transforming them into engaging, enjoyable, and memorable experiences.
As for me? I’m a psychology professor, death educator, and humorist – but my most cherished title is “dad.” My musings on single parenting are at Grown & Flown, Fatherly, Your Teen, and BLUNTmoms, and right here.
Feel free to explore the various posts. They might nibble into your TikTok time, but you’ll leave feeling more enlightened and amused. Maybe. Hopefully.
Other Things
I co-authored a piece for the special humor issue of Writer Digest and I recently presented at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop.
My professional interests are weirdly different. I’m a psychologist who studies and teaches about the power of humor. I’m also a thanatologist, and I help others cope with life’s absolutes – grief, death, and dying.
There’s nothing funny about loss, so what do death and humor have in common?
Perspective.
Both death and humor are ways of seeing life in a different light. Death is the big dope slap for reminding us that we, nor anyone we love, have control over our journey’s destination. Humor is life’s daily coping tool for helping you reframe situations, lighten your mood, and connect with others.
Together, death and humor enrich our lives and keep us humble to the journey by reminding us to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
Perspective.
There’s an infamous story about a character actor who, on his deathbed, allegedly said, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”
Whether the tale is a fact or an urban legend, the idea is on-target. Comedy is hard; it takes years of practice, commitment, and rejection to be a successful humor writer.
I dedicate this site to the crazies – writers, educators, or humorists – trying to be funny. Comedy is brutal, and I’m here to help with my advice and experience as a humor educator.
When writing funny becomes a chore, I reflect on one of my childhood traumas. Bullies relentlessly teased me using vowel substitution with “Shatz” to invent new curse words. While I begrudgingly admired their creativity, it hurt my feelings. I would run to my mom for comfort, and she always had the same advice: “Get over it – it’s just a f’n joke.”
Perspective.