This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Humor Habit" by Paul Osincup. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Why do so many adults abandon the natural joy and playfulness they had as children? Could bringing more laughter into your daily routine improve your health, relationships, and even your career success?
Paul Osincup’s The Humor Habit explores how our culture’s obsession with appearing “mature” and “professional” is actually harming us. Osincup explains how to rediscover your sense of humor and create environments where fun and productivity go hand in hand.
Continue reading for an overview of this practical book.
Overview of The Humor Habit by Paul Osincup
Who decided that seriousness is a sign of maturity? The Humor Habit by Paul Osincup presents a comprehensive approach to incorporating humor into daily life as a way to combat stress, support your emotional well-being, and even brighten up your workplace. Drawing from his background as both a comedian and a speaker on workplace culture, Osincup offers science-backed strategies to help you rediscover the joy and humor in everyday life.
Osincup is a speaker and consultant who has worked with organizations ranging from Harvard University to Google to the US Air Force. His background is a unique combination of academic study and professional comedy experience: After building a successful career in stand-up comedy, he became interested in the practical applications of humor in workplace settings. He is now a certified Stress Mastery Educator with the American Institute of Stress, and he also served for a time as the president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, an organization that studies how humor can enhance well-being and job performance.
This overview of the book The Humor Habit will start by explaining Osincup’s concept of chronic humorlessness—people’s tendency to give up on laughter and play as they grow up—and how it harms both individuals and organizations. We’ll then explore how you can cultivate your sense of humor by practicing some of the key principles of comedy and intentionally consuming more humorous media. We’ll conclude by discussing how you can create a work environment that embraces humor and fun.
The Problem: Chronic Humorlessness
Osincup begins by discussing chronic humorlessness, a mindset that people tend to develop as they try to navigate the transition from childhood into adulthood. The author explains that children naturally laugh and enjoy themselves, which is perfectly normal behavior. However, as people grow up—particularly in their early-to-mid 20s—they feel pressured to act serious and “mature.” As a result, they stop looking for the fun and funny aspects of everyday situations. By developing an overly serious mindset, people sabotage their own happiness and to some extent their health.
We’ll begin by exploring the negative effects of chronic humorlessness on both the personal and organizational levels. Next, we’ll briefly discuss some scientific evidence supporting Osincup’s claims.
The Costs of Chronic Humorlessness
First of all, Osincup says that a good sense of humor is essential for your well-being and life satisfaction. As evidence, he cites a palliative care nurse who said one of the most common regrets people have on their deathbeds is not allowing themselves to be happier—when they looked back on their lives, many people wished they’d spent more time laughing and having fun instead of focusing so much on their responsibilities.
Furthermore, chronic humorlessness has economic impacts, not just personal ones. Osincup says that workplace stress costs the US economy 550 million workdays and more than $500 billion annually—costs that could be greatly reduced if companies simply let employees relax, joke around, and generally act less formal at work. Building on this point, companies where workers feel stressed and overworked spend much more on employee healthcare; nearly 150% as much as their more laid-back counterparts. Therefore, putting too much pressure on employees to act “professionally” and perform to high standards can actually make a business less profitable.
We’ll discuss how you can cultivate humor and fun in the workplace in a later section.
Evidence of Humor’s Benefits
Osincup goes on to say that neurochemistry can explain the physical and psychological benefits of humor. When you laugh or find something funny, your brain releases a cocktail of chemicals that boost your mood and support your overall well-being. The chemicals involved in this mixture are dopamine (which creates feelings of pleasure and motivation), oxytocin (which promotes connection and empathy), serotonin (which lowers anxiety and increases happiness), and endorphins (which suppress pain and boost your mood).
Osincup says the numerous benefits of humor are also supported by scientific research. Various studies have shown that regular laughter strengthens your immune system, improves your memory, enhances problem-solving, and decreases pain. The author also says that people who laugh less than once a week have a significantly higher risk of death at any given age than those who laugh more often—meaning the more you laugh, the longer you’re likely to live.
Rebuilding Your Sense of Humor
Now that we’ve given a brief overview of how and why humor improves your well-being, we’ll discuss how you can cultivate your own sense of humor and start enjoying those benefits. Throughout this process, Osincup emphasizes that empathy is the key to good comedy because it’s crucial to understand what others find funny rather than hurtful. It’s also important to recognize how humor’s boundaries can change depending on context and who you’re with. As a rule of thumb, the stronger your relationship with someone is, the more you can make jokes with that person that others might find offensive or hurtful.
We’ll start by sharing some principles drawn from improvisational comedy (improv) to help you find the humor in everyday situations. We’ll then discuss how you can intentionally add more laughter to your life.
Three Key Principles of Comedy
Osincup shares several key principles of improv to help you learn to find the humor in your daily life.
Principle #1: Be Here Now
The first of these principles is to be here now: Focus on the present moment instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Just like improv actors must be fully focused on their performances to notice and capitalize on potential jokes, living in the moment will help you recognize the funny moments that come up in your daily life.
Principle #2: Take the Gifts You’re Given
The second principle Osincup shares is to be on the lookout for what he calls gifts, which are instances that you can easily turn into funny moments. These are often moments when someone (including yourself) makes an inconsequential mistake or phrases something awkwardly, thereby creating an opportunity for you to gently poke fun at them.
Principle #3: “Yes, and…”
Finally, Osincup urges you to keep in mind the phrase “yes, and,” which is the foundation of any successful improv performance. This means accepting what’s happening at any given moment (“yes”) while looking for opportunities to make that moment better (“and”).
For example, if your company is supposed to give a presentation to an important client and your presenter calls out sick, this mindset means accepting reality as it is (“yes, our presenter isn’t here”) and then looking for any opportunities the situation presents. (“And this is a chance for us to show how adaptable we are!”) For instance, you might divide the presentation among your remaining team members so that each of them can brush up on a small section and present it to the client.
This last principle can be especially difficult because it goes directly against people’s desire for control: their urge to say “no” and try to change things, or to compromise by saying “yes, but.” Continuing the previous example, this would mean either cancelling the presentation (saying no) or, perhaps, trying to reschedule it. (“Yes, our presenter is absent, but we could do it another day.”) However, neither of those responses would be as impressive as pulling together your presentation despite a key person not being there.
Training Your Brain for Comedy
To close out the topic of cultivating your sense of humor, Osincup says that comedy will start to come more naturally to you with time and practice. Not only will you hone your comedic skills, you’ll actually change how your brain works by practicing the principles of improv and watching or reading humorous media. There are two reasons why this happens.
The first reason is simple: You’re more likely to notice things that are relevant to your interests. This happens because your senses are constantly taking in more stimuli than you could ever process consciously—your subconscious mind filters out most of that information, leaving only what’s most likely to be useful. This is why, for instance, you might hear about a particular actor for the first time and suddenly start noticing them in numerous shows and commercials.
The second reason comedy will come more naturally to you is a phenomenon called neuroplasticity—your brain physically changes and develops depending on how you use it, just as muscles that you frequently use become stronger. So, if you’re regularly training your comedy “muscles,” you’ll recognize and create humorous moments more easily.
Bringing Humor to the Workplace
Now that we’ve talked about how to cultivate humor in your personal life, we’ll discuss how you can promote a work culture that embraces laughter and fun. Remember that stressed workers not only take more days off, they also cost their employers significantly more in healthcare expenses. As we’ve discussed, humor is a powerful tool for fighting stress, which is why Osincup argues humor in the workplace isn’t just enjoyable, it’s also profitable.
We’ll start by discussing how you can help your coworkers or employees understand that you’re a safe person to joke around with. Then we’ll go over Osincup’s argument that you’ll actually get better results in the workplace if you focus on creating a fun environment, and let the funny elements emerge naturally from there.
Humor Requires Trust and Safety
First of all, Osincup explains that using humor effectively, especially in professional settings, requires you to first earn others’ trust. This is because it’s absolutely crucial for people to understand you’re laughing with them, not at them. He presents several strategies to help you accomplish this. Note that these methods are especially effective if you’re in a leadership role at work, but even if you’re not, you can use these strategies as much as your situation allows.
The author’s first suggestion is to lead by example; be the first one to crack jokes and make lighthearted comments. When leaders actively engage in humor and fun, it makes team members feel safe to do the same.
He also suggests using self-enhancing humor—acknowledging your quirks and experiences in positive ways—rather than self-deprecating humor, which might undermine your credibility. For example, an expert in their field who ends a suggestion with an ironic, “but hey, what do I know?” is actually highlighting their expertise by making a point of downplaying it. On the other hand, a new employee who jokingly calls attention to their lack of proficiency may be sabotaging themselves without meaning to.
Finally, Osincup acknowledges that comedy doesn’t come naturally to everyone. If you’re struggling to create a humor-positive culture, it’s possible to delegate your “humor responsibilities” to people who are better suited for them. This might mean working with a team member to build some humor into your presentations, finding someone with a fun personality to help you run meetings, or even consulting with outside experts about how you can make your workplace more entertaining.
Making Your Workplace Fun, Rather Than Funny
Although we’ve been discussing principles of comedy and humor up to this point, Osincup makes the case that it’s often better to cultivate fun in the workplace, rather than focusing on being funny. This is because a fun environment will naturally create moments of humor and laughter. On the other hand, trying too hard to be funny can make others feel awkward and uncomfortable, and it’s often annoying as well.
To that end, the author provides some guidelines about creating a fun (not necessarily funny) work environment:
1) Make your own fun: Look for little ways to entertain yourself at work and add some levity to your workday. For example, you could get a funny calendar for your desk or imagine an amusing character reading documents to you.
2) Seek out new challenges: People love using their skills to tackle new and interesting problems. Therefore, one of the most effective ways to promote fun in the workplace is to seek out such challenges. For example, you could volunteer to take on a special project or look for opportunities to expand your role within the company. If you’re in a leadership role, think about how you could offer those challenges to your employees—perhaps by asking for suggestions about a challenge the company’s facing, or asking an experienced employee if they’d like to train a new hire.
3) Be inclusive: If you’re organizing something fun for others, whether it’s a big event or just something to enjoy while in the office, make sure that as many people as possible are able to take advantage of it. For example, organizing a bowling night for your team would exclude anyone with health conditions that prevent them from bowling. On the other hand, treating your team to dinner at a casual restaurant would be unlikely to cause any issues.
Consistency Is Key
Finally, Osincup argues that doing fun activities consistently is more important than which specific activities you do. Small daily, weekly, or monthly practices have a much greater impact on company culture than occasional big events. Just like family routines (such as eating dinner or watching your favorite show together) create feelings of structure, understanding, and comfort, workplace routines help employees learn what’s expected of them and cultivate a sense of belonging.
These practices could be as simple as including an amusing anecdote or picture in daily emails to your team, encouraging everyone to wear funny T-shirts on Fridays, or having a monthly theme and encouraging people to decorate their desks accordingly. Just make sure to also give employees enough free time to do so.
Osincup promises that, with time and consistent effort, you can develop both a personal mindset and an organizational culture that embraces fun, reduces stress, and supports everyone’s well-being.
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Here's what you'll find in our full The Humor Habit summary:
- Why so many people feel pressured to act serious as they get older
- How a life devoid of humor affects your well-being, job performance, and happiness
- How to bring more humor into your life and your workplace
