How to Tell a Good Joke (Explained for a 6-year-old)

You have the power to make friends and family smile and laugh. Amazing! That is the power of a good joke. But getting great at telling jokes will take some serious work. But fun work, not the boring kind.

A joke is like telling about a dot-to-dot picture that only you know what it is supposed to look like.

Steps for Telling a Good Joke

1. Connect a few dots to fool them: The first part of a joke gets them thinking of a word picture in their head.
2. Give them time to think: Don’t rush into the telling them the rest of the joke. Your surprise will work better.
3. Finish the word picture in a surprising way: Here is where you surprise them with the real picture instead of what they thought it was.

People who make money being funny, called comedians, may call these steps: the Setup, Pause, and Punchline.

Fun Fact:

Do you know why the last step is called a “punchline”?

It’s because cavemen could only laugh when they were punched in the stomach.

What if They Don’t Laugh?

If your joke doesn’t get a laugh, don’t frown — turn it upside down. You may not always make a person laugh. Try it again on someone else.

Did they laugh? Great, you got better at joke telling. Did they not laugh? That’s okay; maybe your joke isn’t a good as you thought. Like when you eat a valentine’s heart chocolate but find out it has your least favorite inside.

Joke power is smile power! You can make the world better when you give people more smiles.