Putting Some Funny In Persuasive Communication Part One

Want to hear something funny? Here's why humor is an excellent tool when you try to persuade others. Now, I admit, it sure seems obvious. Humor speaks the truth about the human experience. Humor invites people to laugh at themselves. Humor invites others to laugh at ourselves. And we can even use humor to laugh at others, blissfully ignorant that the joke is on us.

Everyone loves quotes. And all speakers use them. What is so funny about quotes? How about quoting myself? Because, as I say quite often, "United we stand, but divided, we can not stand each other!" And I could not agree more. Humor breaks down the barriers that keep us divided and polarized. Humor builds bridges to bring us together. The use of humor puts people on common footing, it attracts and holds interest. And it creates a positive atmosphere, goodwill to all, that is helpful when you want communication to be particularly meaningful. The use of humor can get past stubborn resistance and set the table for dialog. Humor has such a positive impact on people that more and more businesses (not the dead-serious ones though!) use it to train and retain employees. Humor is a powerful tool for the person serious about creating positive change. Why? Well, in case I haven't made the point, not because I say so. It's a fact. Humor is persuasive.

But let's be honest. Not all humor is equally funny. In fact, bad humor is also one of the fastest ways to put people in a bad mood, undermine relationships, create hard feelings, offend sensibilities, poison an atmosphere and destroy what could have been a great event, project, team, business, or community.

I'm saying that it is safe to say that what is funny to some is not funny to all. In-jokes are usually only funny to the people in on the joke, the people who shared the experience with you. They tend to leave everyone else drawing a blank. But sometimes, you tell an in-joke, the people who are in start laughing, and the people who aren't in on the joke start laughing too! All the while, they are wondering, and maybe even saying, "What's so funny?" because they want to know why they are laughing.

Still, you just can't please all the people all the time. If it is tasteless, spare us. Unless you know us and know that our taste runs all the way to tasteless. To know for a fact what is and is not funny to others, you want to find out as much as you can about the people you are talking to and what they find amusing.

That can't be too hard to do. All you have to do is notice what gets people laughing. More about humor in persuasion can be found in the second part of this article series. In the meantime, remember. There's no such thing as a stupid question. Just stupid people!

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