If you think back to your school days, or if you’re still in them then think back to last year, then can you tell me the 1 moment that you remember the most?
In most cases, you’ll recall a hilarious moment when someone did something that you couldn’t even imagine being done and then watching them face the consequences of their actions. It doesn’t matter how many years it’s been since that moment, that’s something you’ll vividly remember forever.
But why do these hilarious moments stay with us years later and why do we repeat them to our future friends who don’t even know the original characters? What made that moment so funny that it became burnt into our brains until the day we die? How could you use the same principles to make hilarious moments that people will never forget?
The 3 Parties Involved in a Funny Moment
In all funny moments, whether between friends, something you see on TV, or in any setting, there are 3 parties required to make a joke work. They are: the clown, the victim, and the audience.
I break it down to these 3 connected parties because if just 1 of the party isn’t there then the joke is lost. In every hilarious moment there needs to be a clown or someone that’s doing something out of the ordinary. There then needs to be someone that reacts to the clown’s behaviour, in most cases being a person of authority. The joke is then a 3rd party witnessing the entire event.
Not all of these parties need to be present at the same time, and especially in today’s age of everyone having a camera on them so moments can be saved for later, but all parties need to witness a part of the event for the moment to happen. If the clown mucks about in class and nobody reacts then it’s not funny. Furthermore, if it’s only the clown and the victim then nobody will see the event. Every party needs the other party in order for the joke to work.
How to be a Workplace or School Clown
The clown takes on the role of writer, director, and actor, in a hilarious moment and has to perform consistently throughout. This can be quite tiring but the results, which are what drives a clown, can last a lifetime.
If you want to be a workplace or school clown then you need to learn how to visualise a moment, how people will likely behave in said moment, and people perspectives of the moment. The key to being a good clown is that your goal isn’t to annoy someone, but to have someone else witness you annoying someone. Remember, the comedy is for the audience.
Most moments will happen purely in the moment, and it’ll be your wit or autopilot reactions that create the comedy. To get around this, you should keep a mental database of how people will likely react and who might do what. This comes down to analysing people and their behaviour which you’ll need some time together to do.
When it comes to the victim, you need to understand what their current goal is, how your actions might disrupt or get their attention, and then how you’ll please them again. For example, a teacher trying to teach a class won’t be happy if someone keeps fake sneezing really loudly because it disrupts them from their goal of teaching the class. As a general rule, people in an authority position to you will always question or appose your actions if they’re loud.
How to Choose a Great Victim to Make the Moment Funnier
Almost everything in a funny moment relies on the victim and their reaction to events. It’s for this reason that you need to have a good idea of how the victim will react beforehand and then plan for that. For example, if you have a teacher who’s really chill and is unlikely to react to your actions then you need to change your act. This could be to repeat a joke several times until the teacher is frustrated or maybe to just confuse them and that be the joke.
You need to have some idea of how they’ll react, so the joke doesn’t end too badly for you. For example, if you embarrass your boss during an important moment with clients then they won’t find it funny and will just fire you. The right timing is crucially important to ensure that you’re not disrupting something important or upsetting people.
The victim should be someone in an authority position however this doesn’t always have to be a teacher or boss. This could be a shop worker, or someone else who has a higher position than you in their establishment, because their role in the moment is still the same. As long as they react to you then the moment can happen.
For example, imagine if I went into a shop and asked a worker for an item that doesn’t exist. They might give me a confused look or start looking for the made up item which would be the reaction. As long as they react, then they are a good victim.
How to Visualise what Your Audience will See
The joke is for the audience and their role is arguably the most important. If they can’t see or hear everything happening then the joke is lost so you need to consider them at all times.
Believe it or not, we all have a photographic memory. The majority of us don’t have the superpowered memory of being able to remember everything, but we often use our minds to visualise moments in great detail. If you want an example of this, then describe the inside of your bedroom. You would have imagined yourself in your room looking about and then describe out loud what you saw in your mind.
You can use this power to visualise what the audience will be seeing in the moment and even how they’ll likely react (if they’ll move around). Think of what their point of view is of events, particularly the angles and if they’d be able to hear or see you depending on where you are. Their point of view can actually have a massive impact on how funny they find the moment so make sure to consider it.
You can also use this exercise to make the moment funnier as you can envision yourself through their eyes. Lets imagine that you’re going to hide from the manager at work and the audience is other workers. Imagine them witnessing the managers reaction to you not being around. Imagine them witnessing the manager getting more confused or frustrated with your absence. What you’re imagining is what the joke will be.
There Needs to be an Absurdity Amongst Normality
Buzz Aldrin was once interviewed by Ali G and he said,
You can remember those moments from school so well because those events weren’t meant to happen in a school. At no point in a normal day of school are you expected a student to rip up a bit of paper that’s just been handed to them and then ask the teacher for another piece of paper because theirs “fall apart”. This is an absolutely absurd event which is why you can remember the moment for the rest of your life.
School and work are the best places to be the funny man because it’s where people are not expecting to meet them. Work is generally quite boring and to have something weird or hilarious happen will immediately improve anyone’s day. This is why The Office is so funny because everyone has been in an office, just not with that level of absurdity.
But there needs to be a balance which is why I implement the 3 party system, so you always have the goal in mind. As a clown your goal is not to annoy/upset the victim, but for the audience to witness you doing it. The joke is for the audience and annoying the victim is just a part of the joke, not the whole thing. This is also why it’s important to tread near to the line of acceptability but to stop if you see yourself going over the line.
How to Stop a Joke from Going too Far
If you’re mucking about at work or school then you’re aiming for some consequences, but you’ve got to make sure that you don’t end up excluded or fired. This is where you need to know what the line is and how not to cross it.
As said earlier, the right timing is crucial but so is the tone of the joke. Whilst you are trying to disrupt or get a reaction, you shouldn’t aim to upset anyone. The best way to ensure you’re not upsetting anyone is to plan everything with an excuse in mind that you can always fall back on. For example, “I was just mucking about” or “I was making a joke”, will almost always work as you can claim you overstepped or are misunderstood.
Having an excuse in mind also means you can work backwards from that to make sure that the excuse will work afterwards. If you’re sent out of class then the teacher will come outside at some point to speak to you and you’ll have to explain yourself. The better you can explain yourself, the lesser consequences you’ll face.
The most important thing is if you’re told to stop, then you stop. It doesn’t matter when you’re told or who tells you or whether the moment has happened yet, if you’re told to stop then you stop. This way you’re never pushing a joke too far or infuriating anyone too much.
In Summary
- A hilarious moment requires 3 parties: A joker, a victim, and an audience
- There needs to be a reaction for the moment to happy, the viewer seeing that reaction is the joke
- Use visualisation to plan out your moment as much as you can
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