Shadowing Practice: The Science Of Being Funny - Learn English Speaking with Video

Some people are what you would describe as funny, humorous, or overall completely stupid.

But why is it that things like naive stupidity, over-exaggeration, and unexpected twists give you a mini-seizure?

Why does it happen anytime Theo van communicates, and how can you make it happen to other people?

Well, there are four big things.

Step one, know what's funny.

At the humor research lab, a few dudes came up with something called the benign violation theory.

This theory states that humor occurs when and only when three things happen.

There is a violation, the situation is benign, and both these things happen at the same time.

Thank you, Eminem.

Also, what sort of posh language is benign, and is it German?

No, it's Latin.

That means kind or not harmful.

Cool.

So if something is funny, it is an unharmful or benign violation.

What is a violation?

In this context, it's anything that threatens the way you believe the world should be, or threatens the norm.

Violations have many fonts, including physical, identity, cultural, communication, logical, and moral.

Let me give you an example.

If I were to come up to you on the street and start punching you in the stomach, you probably won't laugh and may even be upset.

This is a pure physical violation.

If I instead were to start tickling you, that would be even weirder and still a pure violation because you don't know me.

But if a friend tries to tickle you, odds are you're gonna slip a giggle.

Even if me and your friend have the same exact tickling technique, you almost certainly won't find mine amusing.

But with your friend, you know you are safe and the environment is benign, and therefore, you squeal like a little girl.

Other things that may also make you squeal in excitement is the new War Thunder update.

For those of you who live under a rock, War Thunder is an insanely epic, free-to-play military combat game available on PC, Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation.

War Thunder completely immerses you into intense battles.

The sheer amount of iconic, old, and new tanks, planes, helicopters, and ships is just madness.

The detail on each element of the equipment, both visually and in gameplay, will simply blow the shocks off of all of you fans of military vehicles.

Want to demolish your foes on the front line in a tank? you add air support from a chopper

or even dogfight your enemies in the clouds.

But wait, the best part?

These different types of equipment fight together on the same map.

War Thunder also offers tons of customization so you can add new modules to your vehicle and make it unique.

Oh, and forget those unimmersive health bars.

In War Thunder, every hit actually affects the enemy's vehicles like in real life.

With the new update Alpha Strike, Hungarian Aviation is now available along with tons of new equipment.

Visuals are better, the gameplay has been refined, and there's a sick new map.

War Thunder for free with the link in the description.

All new players

and people who haven't played for at least 6 months will get special bonuses including 3 premium vehicles for free

and a free week of a premium account.

And you might want to do this, like, ASAP because the American vehicle bonus season is going to end soon.

So again, download War Thunder for free, link in the description.

Anyways, back to business.

It's almost never as obvious on whether a violation is benign like the example I gave.

So how can you make a violation benign in a joke, for example? ways to not be strongly committed to the violated norm.

This is a slippery slope, and can be overdone.

For example, if I were to say, wouldn't it be funny if, before every joke, everything would be too benign and the jokes wouldn't be as funny because the threat is an absolute zero.

A better method is subtle sarcasm.

You can tell the violation isn't gonna happen, but also no one ever outright said it wouldn't.

Another method is to make the violation psychologically distant.

So jokes about the Titanic today could be funny because the tragedy is very, very distant, and also because there was definitely room on that door.

This is why people might say I can joke about it now a

while after some bad incident like a breakup because while the violation obviously still happened, it was a while ago and it doesn't feel as real.

You can also apply this to things

that are going to happen in the future or things that are happening now on other parts of the world.

And the final method to make a violation benign is if there's some alternative explanation that somehow makes the violation okay.

This explains tickling because it's a mock attack.

Still an attack, but not a dangerous one.

Benign violation.

Step two, know your victim.

You may be thinking, bro, you're talking about humor like it's the same every time, but the jokes I make with the boys won't work on my mom.

And that's true.

Humor is subjective.

This is because everyone has different perspectives or opinions on what is benign and what is a violation.

So before you try that orphan joke on Beatrice, feel it out.

Get to know her first.

She seems like the type, give it a shot.

And when the joke flops, run to your room, slam the door and play some War Thunder.

Step three, good joke qualities.

If you ask a comedian what makes a joke good, they're likely going to tell you three things.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

AKA, get to the point, no one wants to hear you ramble, everyone wants to hear the punchline.

Second, be specific.

Saying, so I told the old grandma, dot, dot, dot, isn't as funny as saying, so I told Beatrice, dot, dot, dot.

Notice too how the specific one took up less words.

You don't have to sacrifice brevity for specificity.

Get creative.

Third, the rule of three.

If you're listing things with the plan to list something drastically different at the end to be funny, list three of them.

Two normal ones to make a pattern and one at the end to break it.

You're establishing what's benign yourself and then making the violation.

Step four, make bad jokes.

If your goal is to become a more funny person, this is the most important step of the whole video and you will 100% fail without it.

Let's talk about neuroplasticity.

When you're learning pretty much anything, there are two results, failure and success.

In order for neuroplasticity to activate in your brain, it needs to have a reason.

This is why ultimately making bad jokes will make you funnier.

It's because you failed, and because of that failure, your brain is really open to making new neural connections, releasing a few specific neural chemicals, or in other words, increasing plasticity.

So when you're with your friends and you throw out five bad jokes before one lands, Because you previously threw out the five bad jokes,

your brain is incredibly keen on subconsciously noting what worked with your success and what didn't with your failures.

Then, technically, the actual improvement happens later during sleep.

If you just make a good joke at the start, your brain doesn't note anything.

It doesn't particularly take into account what just worked.

Those neural chemicals aren't released with that joke, meaning your brain is not in a state of plasticity.

After all, it has no reason to be.

That's why making bad jokes is vital.

And with that said, allow me to hit you with a banger.

100

What did Beatrice say to her grandson?

101

Download War Thunder.

102

Link in the description.

103

Also, since you're funny now, you gotta pay me, so that's gonna cost you one subscribe, and the screen should ask you some questions, so...

104

Yeah.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Science Of Being Funny”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: violation, joke, benign, funny, Thunder. This video has 104 sentences and 1339 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:12. The speaker talks fast, about 216 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
violation noun	/ˌvaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/	An infraction or a failure to follow a rule.
benign adjective	/bɪˈnaɪn/	Kind; gentle; mild.
tickle verb	/ˈtɪkl̩/	To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which typically causes laughter, pleasure and twitching.
humour noun	/ˈhjuːmɚ/	The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
neural adjective	/ˈnʊɹəl/	Of, or relating to the nerves, neurons or the nervous system.
brevity noun	/ˈbɹɛvɪti/	The quality of being brief in duration.
neuroplasticity noun		The state or quality of being neuroplastic, of having a brain that adapts to experience.
plasticity noun	/ˌplæs.ˈtɪs.ɪ.ti/	The quality or state of being plastic.
squeal verb	/skwil/	To scream with a shrill, prolonged sound.
norm noun	/nɔːm/	That which is normal or typical.
threaten verb	/ˈθɹɛt.n̩/	To make a threat against someone; to use threats.
gameplay noun	/ˈɡeɪmˌpleɪ/	The totality of player experiences during a game, such as the gaming environment and the competitive interaction with other players; often with reference to a…
distant adjective	/ˈdɪstənt/	Far off (physically, logically or mentally).
banger noun	/ˈbæŋ.ə/	A firework that makes a bang.
chopper noun	/ˈt͡ʃɑ.pɚ/	A tool for chopping wood; an axe/ax.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
throw out verb	/ˈθɹəʊ ˌaʊt/	To discard; to dispense with something; to throw away.
come up to verb		To approach.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
take up verb		To pick up.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if I were to say, wouldn't it
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has been refined · haven't played
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	has been refined · aren't released

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 28 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, doesn't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: violation /ˌvaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, demolish /dɪˈmɒl.ɪʃ/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, seizure /ˈsi.ʒɚ/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/
Long words — get the stress right: violation /ˌvaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, plasticity /ˌplæs.ˈtɪs.ɪ.ti/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/, specificity /spɛsɪˈfɪsɪti/, stupidity /stuˈpɪdɪti/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like violation, benign, tickle.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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