The Essence of Humor in Dialogue

A friend of mine wrote a college paper on humor in conversation, specifically business conversation. What she discovered was delightful, educational, and inspirational.

Elizabeth Mistretta wrote a paper, Humor in Conversation Analysis, a 10,000 word dissertation that looks deeply into why we attempt humor, different ways to accomplish it, and what can be done to save face when the humor fails.

Some upcoming columns will include excerpts of her paper. She dissected, analyzed, and translated key elements of the humor and situations we see every day. This is significantly indicative of how much an active attitude contributes to one's motivation and inspiration for writing.

In addition to having humor as a hobby (we have a great time verbally sparring with each other), Elizabeth is also a public speaker on various topics.

Public speaking and training are a couple of areas I've discovered to be great training grounds for material. You're trying to get points and serious information conveyed to the audience, but also working to make the sessions interesting, particularly if the topics may not be. Infusion of humor helps greatly to accomplish this.

As a writer, I am constantly playing the improviser by trying new lines on diverse audiences. Most of the time, those audiences are family, friends, or people at their day jobs. As any experienced improvisation player would do, I look for opportunities every minute of every day. You never know what will happen.