For example, the question “How would you spend a million dollars?” invites all sorts of creative thinking; responding with “Quite happily” answers it in a humorous way. If you’re having trouble thinking of creative responses, go for a dry, direct approach. For example, you might answer with “the sky” if someone asks you “What’s up?”
Read up on current events, pop culture, and other sources of news and information to give you lots of material to create your own opinion about. Draw connections between words and their different meanings. For example, if you’re talking about Spider Man, create a joke using the word “web,” which could be referring to a spider web or the Internet.
An example of a pun might be, “Without geometry, life is pointless. " To improve your puns, spend time learning new words, practicing rhyming, and read puns in books and online.
If you’re around a group of people who are very sensitive about religion, for example, then try to avoid jokes about this topic. You might use different language and jokes around your close friends than you would with your grandparents.
If you mumble your jokes, people may ask you to repeat yourself and the humor will be lost. Part of being witty is being sharp and quick, so don’t hesitate too long or people won’t understand how your funny comment connects to the conversation.
Listening to others will also help you pick up on funny and witty things that the people around you are saying so that you can learn from them as well.
For example, “Velcro—what a rip-off!” is a good example of a joke that’s simple yet witty. [6] X Research source
If nobody laughs at your jokes, just shake it off and say, “I’ll get ’em next time,” or “Whoops—wrong audience. " It also helps to not take yourself too seriously. That is key to the art of being witty.
Some podcasts you might listen to include Ask Me Another, Free to a Good Home, or Comedy Bang! Bang!
Memoirs from famous comedians are full of wit and interesting stories. Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain are two more examples of authors who used their wit in their writing. Satirical websites like the Onion are known for their humorous articles.
SNL or any other late-night comedy show are great examples to look for. Go online to search for movies or shows with witty characters in them. See if your area has any local comedy sketches that you can watch.
Consider signing up for a free online service that sends you a new vocabulary word each day, or pick up a thesaurus in your free time and look through a page or two.
