Humor

For those of you who like the witty hashtag on Twitter (or X, or whatever you call that), you should have heard of Jimmy Fallon who likes to tweet movie or song title, add one word to change the meaning and tag it to ask for more suggestions. Those humor habits with social media users could have started with Jaz-Z who hashtagged #mylaugh years ago.

If you're anything like me (bad news: you are), you might be less obsessed with hashtag and more old-fashioned. A nerd like me would have prefered  The New Yorker magazine caption contest, which comes up with a blank cartoon for anyone to create funny captions. That would be good exercise to rewire our brain to stress less and laugh more. I learned this kind of writing during my high school days, when a newspaper posted a blank cartoon every week and invited submission of short fiction on that cartoon. To me, back then, the comic story crafting meant a conscious desire to be funny, to make people laugh, and to reward myself with pocket money. 

Another prime example of humor habit, as I recently learned from Paul Osincup, is game called Guess the Punchline. The goal isn't to build six-pack abs (which will be used only when you laugh too much), but to exercise your humor muscle. All you need to do is pause a video after a comedian like Jimmy Fallon made a setup, and guess the possible punchlines. Here's an example of the setup: According to most studies, people's No.1 fear is public speaking. Number two is death.

What's the punchline?

"This means, to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy."