“Humor is tragedy plus time.” ~ Mark Twain

Seriously. It’s pretty bad out there these days. Natural disasters, job losses, gas prices, and another Transformers movie soon. We’re not waiting for the next shoe to drop anymore — we’re waiting for it to hit us upside the noggin. Hard. How do we deal with it? Well, sometimes with a good laugh…

April 14th is International Moment of Laughter Day. It would be a nice time to open up another browser window and sneak peeks at one of those “Not Safe For Work” sites. Go ahead, do it. Because you are starting to worry people, and it’ll do you some good.

You could also use this day to calibrate your funny bone. How’s your sense of humor these days? Do you have problems laughing at the shows that used to give you a lot of pleasure? How many times have you actually made others laugh — and I’m not talking about that time you picked up that dropped sheet of paper and a fart slipped out.

If these tough times make you feel your life is moving from a sitcom into a Shakespearean tragedy, perhaps you should take a little time and redevelop your sense of humor.  It’ll do you a lot of good.  I’ve compiled a few techniques below to help out…

How to Develop Your Sense of Humor

What kind of humor do you like? Realize there are many styles of humor, and each appeal to different people.  There’s dry humor, sarcastic humor, slapstick, puns, exaggeration, irony, etc.  Which one of these hits you at a visceral level, making you snort out whatever you are drinking in a micro-second?  Your favorite type of humor is likely the type you’re going to feel the most natural sharing in your interactions with others.  Just make sure it isn’t offensive to your target audience…  Jenny in Accounting might not appreciate the blonde jokes.

How do others do it? I know this is going to be difficult, but you must muster the courage to spend endless hours on the couch.  You have to learn from the masters of comedy, so watch a lot of comedies, read a lot of funny books, and visit local improv bars.  Watch for timing, timeliness of content and delivery, and how the audience reacts to the conversation.

What do I think? Spend some time in developing a journal, or starting a blog.   Don’t worry about whether or not anyone is reading your writing – this is an exercise for you.  Think about humorous events from your past, and write down your own personal slant on them.  What made them funny to you or others?  How could you discuss these events in such as way as to wring from them every possible laugh?

How do I start? After you have a ton of good one-liners that you think would be humorous all on their own, wait to pounce, you comedic leopard. When conversation allows, begin adding these zingers into your daily conversations with others.  Pay special attention to how they are received, and don’t overdo it, even if you leave them in stitches in the break room.  Everything has a limit, and you will have to learn it, as well as how to steer clear of those who simply can’t take a joke.

How to keep it natural? Comedy works best when it appears to come naturally from the person who is speaking.  Surround yourself with people who you feel are almost always funny. Over time, you’ll begin to see that they are keen to the irony in situations, or to sex-filled double entendres in common conversations. Watch how they naturally slip their commentary in, or how they use timing perfectly. You can learn a lot from observation, and you’ll ultimately be challenged to keep up!

Whom do I approach? Everyone, and often.  You’re never going to be seen as funny if you never have conversations. Begin talking to more people around you, making a point to simply have conversation, funny or not. Compliment others on their outfits, hair, accomplishments, new car, etc. Congratulate people when they have anniversaries, birthdays, children or grandchildren. Pay attention to others and begin to become a part of their lives by simply talking to them.  The humorous banter will come out over time.

Mark Twain had it right, in his realization that humor is a survival skill of sorts.  Through humor we show a sense of relief for having survived something together.  For a lot of us, it’s how we cope with something that otherwise might be difficult to deal with, whether in our own lives or in the lives of others.  By getting more familiar with those around us in our daily lives, we feel a greater sense of having weathered challenging situations with them.  By developing our ability to laugh about our lots in life, we draw closer to each other.  We bond.

I know times are tough right now, but it’s high time you got started on this.  It’s about time you laughed.

You’re a hard worker, trying to either shine or hide in this tough economy.  You keep your head down at your cubicle, type softly, sipping your coffee with all of the abandon of a nervous hummingbird.  Unless, of course, you achieve something worth marveling at; kicking in the bosses’ door and singing like you’re Adam Lambert and it’s down to the final two on American Idol.

Not today, my blog-reading friend.  Because April 13th is Blame Somebody Else Day.  It’s time to put your neck out there and take chances.  You can do it and still keep your employment status safe, because I’m going to share with you 4 ways to blame the guy next to you if something goes wrong, thus ensuring your evil success!

How to Pass the Buck at Work

1. You’ve finally been given a work project.  Go and form up your team, and begin brain-storming already!  Just make sure you keep your sharp mind finely tuned as to how something could go wrong.  Today, we say positive thinking is for the naive, the mindless! You must keep your mental fuel burning in such a manner as to enlighten that clear vision of pending doom.  In this manner, you will see the weak points before all others on your makeshift team.  Hide these points, assigning responsibility for them to team mates, if only in your mind…

2. Put off making a decision on everything important, even though you are the person in charge.  Ultimately, someone on the team who can’t stand your hemming and hawing any further, will offer a decent suggestion.  Go with this new bright idea, ensuring you are seen taking charge again.  Bask in the warm purple glow of your plausible deniability.  It’s the other guy’s fault; after all, it was their idea not yours, right?  Repeat when necessary.

3. On your journey to project failure, create dark alleys of confusion for your coworkers to get lost in.  Describing what needs to be done to your cubicle-mates?  Make sure the instructions lack definable objectives, with a multiplicity of vaguely defined goals.  Ensure responsibilities merge between individuals, because it will cause friction between them.  They’ll get too mad at each other to question you…

4. Once the investigation into what went wrong begins (and it will,) you must step up immediately, donning your Inspector Clousseau persona.  Be shocked!!! and angry!!! that things did not occur to the satisfaction of your boss.  Promise to the Heavens that you will get to the bottom of things.  Yank your co-workers out the dark alleys you created, offering them up for public derision.  If you have done your work properly, your co-workers will actually blame themselves for not understanding what needed to be done, and you will shine as the person who “gets to the bottom of things,” who “sets things right.”

Oh, this is soooo evil.   Perhaps too evil.  But I didn’t make up this holiday.  So if you decide to do this, it’s your decision, not mine.  It’s alllll in your hands….

You see how I did that?  Pure evil…