How to be FUNNY in ENGLISH!

You know, when you meet someone and you want to say

Wow, you are very funny.

I don't have the vocabulary, but you are very funny.

Today I'll teach you how to talk about being funny and how to be funny

in English.

Now, some of these expressions Americans won't understand

because it's British English, not because they're stupid.

but most of these expressions everyone understands.

But don't worry if it's specifically British English.

I'll put a flag so you completely understand.

I want to start with “I'm not being funny, but...”

it's a very, very British expression and it doesn't mean what you think.

I think

If someone says this to you like:

That's your girlfriend?

I'm not being funny, but...

If someone says this to you,

they are going to insult you.

Say something offensive, but

they don't want you to be angry about it.

So they say this.

I'm not being funny, but she is way better looking than you are.

So in this context, funny isn't “haha” funny

It's more like weird or strange or more

specifically offensive or insulting.

So yeah, if someone says I'm not being funny, but

they are going to say something insulting or offensive to you

and they don't want you to be like, what the fffffff, dude?

Actually, we can try this in the comments.

Try your best insult to me, but start with “Aly,...

I'm not being funny, but...”

that's how you're going to start.

And then you can insult me. It's okay, it's fine.

I can completely not cry at this task.

You just have to say that you're fine and you're not really fine,

Also, the word “funny” is very useful to describe when someone is being different

or weird or not acting the way they usually act.

For example.

Usually she is very, very friendly.

Very nice with him.

But today, no, something is different.

So he will say to his friend.

Did I say something wrong?

She's being funny with me!

We don't mean funny. Ha ha.

We mean funny.

Weird in this case, different to usual.

Usually she's very nice. But today. No.

It's different. It's very funny.

and notice two things one we stress the word funny.

She's being FUNNY with me.

Two we used continuous here.

Usually she is happy.

He is sad.

But when someone is behaving acting a certain way,

it's completely fine to use continuous.

She IS beING funny with me.

She's being really funny today.

I think she's drunk.

okay.

But this lesson is about being ha ha funny

because you want to make people laugh and feel good, right?

So how can we talk about. Ha ha. Funny.

now if someone makes you laugh because they're very, very funny.

Use the extreme adjective “Hilarious”

Notice the stress on “hiLARious”

Say it with me.

Hilarious. Good.

Oh my God, you are hilarious.

I'm not being funny, but if your face looked better, you'd be perfect.

don't forget.

If you like my English lessons, you can get my ultimate English e-book.

The finished final ultimate version is on my website papateachme.com.

You can get it here

or the link in the description or the other thing in the description.

Okay. This next expression.

Sense of humor.

Everyone thinks they have one.

Hands up in this audience who thinks they have not got a sense of humor.

I think an interesting question is what is a sense of humor?

It's a way to categorize which things you find funny.

For example, if you find this thing

funny and your friend finds the same thing funny,

you would say we have the same sense of humor.

Or if you laugh at depressing things,

you might have a dark sense of humor or a wicked sense of humor.

No, not that type of wicked.

if you have a dark sense of humor, you might make fun of death, for example,

to make fun of.

This is the expression you need to talk about the target of the joke.

So to make fun of literally means

to make a joke about something Or someone.

For example, if someone does something

embarrassing like they fart in public.

And then later.

You call them “Farty Bum”

You are making fun of them.

Or you're making fun of what they did.

And sometimes it's good to make fun of things.

Like making a sad thing happy.

But sometimes, yeah, not so much.

But if it's really funny, you might.

This is called

Well, this action is to burst out laughing.

To burst is like a balloon.

But imagine the balloon is your emotion.

So we only really use this for a sudden explode fusion of emotion.

So it could be burst out laughing

or it could be burst out.

Crying.

so question for you?

When was the last time you burst out laughing?

When was the last time you burst out crying?

Notice as well.

Burst out laughing.

Crying.

You need the ING form for these verbs.

So if someone is so hilarious, you are crying with laughter.

And this person bursts out laughing.

You might ask, like, why?

Why is she laughing?

She just said hello really stupidly and I burst out laughing.

She's hilarious.

I don't know, I was just making fun of how she says hello.

She says it like, hello.

It's really ridiculous. So to recap.

To suddenly laugh or cry in a big way.

You burst out laughing, burst out crying.

Okay.

We also need to talk about the target of someone's joke.

The thing that you're making fun of.

Another word for target of a joke is the butt of a joke.

Like a cigaret butt.

The thing that receives the ridicule, the insult, whatever.

It's the thing that people laugh at.

if people are making fun of you, you are the butt of the joke.

And no, that's not a good thing.

So we need to talk about that too.

okay.

Now some of you will have had this experience.

Maybe you were at a party or with people

and you said something that you thought was really funny,

but everyone else reacted like this.

Oh, come on, man, that's not cool.

Don't say that.

and you were like. Oh. Wah wah.

You guys don't have a sense of humor these days.

I can't say anything.

Come on. It's the 90s.

Now, probably it's because of the target of your joke.

The butt of your joke.

The thing you're making fun of.

so universally, we all understand that

if you make fun of someone in a high up position,

then you someone with more power than you.

That's acceptable.

That's fine. Right?

your boss. Idiot, right? The president.

Total douche.

The royal family. Bunch of idiots.

They will be fine.

They won't be affected by your jokes.

By your words.

And this is what's called punching up.

Think of it like boxing, right?

If someone is taller than you, they have more power than you.

You're physically punching up because they are stronger than you.

This is an acceptable form of humor.

But if you make fun of someone

whose situation is not in their control

and is maybe a sad situation, or maybe you have power over that person

and you make fun of them in a way they can't fight back.

This is called punching down.

Imagine you're a boxer fighting a child.

You literally physically punching downwards.

That is not acceptable.

Not in boxing, not in humor.

And I promise you, if that situation happened to you,

ask yourself, was that why were you punching down or were you punching up?

You were probably punching down.

so who is the funniest person that you know?

Let me know in the comments and try to use all the vocabulary from today's lesson

in your stories.

I'm really excited to see what you write and I'll give correction when needed.

What would you like to see in the next quick English class?

Again, let me know in the comments and I'll see you in the next class. Bye!