#33- 23 Words for Comedy & Laughter

Welcome to episode #33 of The Real Life English with Gabby Podcast! In this episode, you'll be learning 23 phrasal verbs, slang words and idioms for expressing comedy and laughter. Stop feeling confused by American comedy or wondering why everyone is laughing. In this episode, you'll learn how to express that something is funny and how to express opinions on types of comedy. This episode will get you one step closer to achieving your goal of being a fluent English speaker.

Don't forget to download today's Study Guide, where you can get the words and definitions, example sentences, practice activities and transcript for this episode. Get the Study Guide >> HERE <<

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Transcript

On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 23 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms for comedy and laughter. You'll be learning vocabulary like crack up, a zinger, crack a smile, lighten the mood, and more. Let's get to it. Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hello, hello! Welcome to episode number 33, all about comedy and laughter. If you don't know, [00:01:00] I love to laugh. And I love to make things fun and enjoyable.

My students know that I'm a person who loves to enjoy everything that I do. And I really want to make things fun for my students. One of the worst things ever is to have a boring teacher or a boring class or a boring lesson. Which is why I try to be fun and honest while I'm teaching. And hopefully that comes through even in the podcast or any of the other content that I make.

If you've been listening to the past few episodes, you'll see that I did two episodes about emotions. Episode number 30 was about emotions in general. And episode number 31 was specifically about happy and sad emotions.

Here's how it started. I wanted to do an episode about emotions, how to express emotions, how to describe [00:02:00] certain emotions, and when I sat down to make a list of all the words, the list was huge. So I ended up splitting it into two different episodes and then taking out all of the words for comedy and laughter and enjoyment and making one whole episode just for that. That is how this episode came to be.

American culture is a culture that loves humor. You probably know that because there are so many American comedians that are famous internationally. We have so many famous comedy shows and movies. And so I'm sure you know that in any and every situation, Americans love to laugh.

Sometimes we laugh a little too much, as you can see, from certain aspects of our culture. [00:03:00] But if you're hanging out with American people, if you have American friends, if you're living in the United States, you'll see that Americans love to laugh and joke about a lot of different things. And for those reasons, it's very, very important to learn about American humor.

One of the most challenging things for students to learn in another language is humor. And comedic language. I jokingly tell my students, because, you know, my students here in New York City, they often will go to a movie, and then they'll ask me, Gabby, what does this mean? Why did people laugh? Because, you know, you can look on Google Translate, you can ask Apple AI or chat GPT, certain things, but a lot of cultural references and what we call inside jokes—jokes just between a specific group of people—

those things you can't really Google. Those things [00:04:00] you have to be a part of the culture to really understand. And so this is why we're going to touch on this a little bit in this episode.

I jokingly tell my students when they go to see an American movie, in the movie theater, they say, teacher, everyone was laughing and I didn't know why. And so I tell them if everyone else is laughing, you just say, ha, ha, ha. Even if you don't know what other people are laughing at. Just go along with it. And so this is what I tell them. But my hope is that if you truly want to become fluent in English, that American comedy would be something that you eventually learn more and more about.

My goal for this episode is that you can come away with a better understanding of comedic words. But more importantly, for you to have multiple ways to express that something is funny or entertaining to you. Also, for you to describe the multiple ways to laugh and express that [00:05:00] humor or entertainment.

If you like using American media to improve your English, I highly recommend comedies like Modern Family, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Futurama, The Simpsons, and The Big Bang Theory. There are a lot of good comedies in American media, but these are just a few. These types of shows are called sitcoms, or situational comedies, and they're usually about 18 to 25 minutes long per episode. So it's pretty easy to do once a day or at the very least once a week so that you can get that extra practice in for your English.

Let's now take a look at the 23 words that you'll be learning in this episode. We have,

A hoot, burst or bust out laughing, crack someone up or crack up, to keep a straight [00:06:00] face, to crack a smile, to laugh off, whack or corny, a zinger, goofy, snorting, to get the giggles, to goof around, a roast, comedy gold or comedic gold, to be in stitches, to die laughing, to chuckle at, to laugh your head off, kill it, be a riot, have the last laugh.

Also, towards the end of the episode, I'm also going to describe different types of humor and include some examples of TV shows or movies that you can see that show these types of humor.

Before we get to the story, I just want to remind you that there is a free study guide that goes along with this episode. With this study guide, you can review everything I taught you in the episode, [00:07:00] plus practice with some cool activities. Remember that according to science, the best way to learn new vocabulary is by being exposed to it six to seven different times. Listening to these episodes and using the study guides do exactly this.

The podcast and the study guides combined give you all the practice that you need so that you can learn how to speak real American English with confidence like a native speaker. Okay, now let's get to the story.

Last Friday, Marina had a really tough day. She lost her wallet in the morning, and then at work, she made a big mistake and got into a lot of trouble. She was really down. And so her friends tried to think of ways to cheer her up and lighten the mood. Liana, Marina's best friend, had the idea to go to a popular [00:08:00] comedy club that just opened downtown.

All of their friends excitedly said yes to the idea because they really wanted to have a laugh after work. It had been a long week for all of them. The main headliner, Michael Monroe, was a new comedian who had been gaining popularity on social media. They had seen some of his performances on YouTube, and he was a real hoot.

As they arrived and found their seats, the first comedian walked on stage. His opening joke was so unexpected that the entire audience burst out laughing. His ten-minute performance really cracked them all up. Even Liana, who usually is good at keeping a straight face, couldn't help but crack a smile. The next comedian, however, was really whack.

The audience wasn't really laughing at his jokes. [00:09:00] But the comedian just laughed it off and tried to tell more and more jokes. There was a lot of awkward silence during his set and very few people in the audience enjoyed him. They were all so relieved by the time Michael Monroe came to the stage. He immediately began interacting with the crowd, throwing out hilarious zingers and making jokes about everyday life.

Leanna's goofy friend Sarah started snorting during Michael's set, which caused everyone at their table to get the giggles. They were laughing so hard that they had tears in their eyes. Everyone was chuckling at Michael's jokes.

At one point, Michael asked for a volunteer to join him on stage. Javier, always ready to laugh and joke around, raised his hand. On stage, he tried to goof around and match Michael's [00:10:00] energy, but the comedian was just too quick. Michael roasted Javier's outfit, and the audience burst into laughter. Everyone thought the roast was comedic gold. Michael continued to perform, delivering jokes so funny that the crowd was in stitches. At one point, Sarah whispered, I'm gonna die laughing if he keeps this up. Michael heard her, chuckled at her comment, and pointed her out saying, she's my favorite audience member tonight. This caused their whole table to laugh their heads off. Towards the end of the show, Michael shared a heartfelt story that ended with him saying, comedy isn't just about jokes, it's about sharing joy. The crowd applauded, clearly agreeing with him. Michael Monroe truly killed it with his performance. And as they left the club, Marina said, That guy was a riot. My favorite part was the [00:11:00] roast, said Marina. He really made fun of you, Javier, but you got the last laugh, because the crowd ended up loving you too. Marina looked at all of her friends and said, Thanks, guys, for making me smile today. You turned my whole day around.

The end.

Now let's review what all of the new vocabulary words and expressions mean. Firstly, we see in the story that they want to lighten the mood. The word "lighten" or "lighten" pronunciation: We say that this is to make something less heavy. So, if there's a lot of sadness, a lot of different moods and emotions, we say, "I want to lighten the mood." I want to make a situation less tense, less serious, less emotional. For example, [00:12:00] "The teacher told a funny story to lighten the mood after their difficult exam."

Next up, we put "have a laugh." They just wanted to have a laugh. This means to enjoy a moment of humor or amusement. If someone says they just want to have a laugh, that just means they just want to be amused. They want to have a moment or a time of humor or comedy because maybe they had a difficult day or they just want to be happy. For example, "They watched a comedy show in order to have a laugh."

Next we have "a hoot." So, I'll say this about this word. It's not used by every American. Every American knows what it means, but this is more common in the Midwest, certain parts of the United States. In New York, we don't use "a hoot" too much, but it is very popular throughout [00:13:00] the United States. And it will definitely be in comedy shows and comedic movies that you watch. A hoot is something or someone that's very funny or amusing. For example, "The new guy in the office is such a hoot. He keeps everyone laughing." So you can say "that movie was a hoot," but it's more common to say "that someone was a hoot."

Next up, we have the expression "to burst" or "bust out laughing." The original expression is "burst out laughing," and to burst is kind of to explode, right? So it means to suddenly start laughing loudly, energetically. Like I said, the original statement, the original term expression was "burst out laughing," but now some people say "bust out laughing" and it's slang. When he told that joke, the [00:14:00] entire room burst out laughing.

Next up, we have "to crack someone up," or "to crack up," or "crack up at." So we're going to talk about the different forms that we can see this phrasal verb. The phrasal verb is "crack up," and to crack up is to laugh a lot. "We were cracking up throughout the whole movie." However, we also have "crack someone up," which is to make someone laugh. So, "crack up" is you yourself doing it. "To crack someone up" is to make someone else laugh. "Her celebrity impersonations always crack me up." We also have another form, and that is when you add an extra preposition or particle to the end, which is "crack up at." "Crack up at" is to laugh at something specific. "We were cracking up at the joke [00:15:00] that he made." We've got a lot of different forms of "crack up," but they all pretty much mean to laugh.

Next up, we have the expression "to keep a straight face." This is to avoid showing any type of amusement or laughter and to remain serious. For example, "I couldn't keep a straight face during this ridiculous explanation." I want you to imagine that you have a friend who loves to sing, but they're not good at it. And so they try to sing a Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande song, and they sound terrible. They're singing terribly. You have to keep a straight face while they're singing. You can't show at all that you are amused or that you find it funny. So that's what this means. You cannot show any signs in your face that you want to laugh because it'll be really [00:16:00] bad.

Next we have "crack a smile." "Crack a smile" is to smile slightly. Sometimes you do this reluctantly, like you don't want to do it. Maybe similar situation with someone singing badly or someone just doing something ridiculous, and you crack a smile. That means you start smiling. Oftentimes, you don't want to. "Even though he was upset, he cracked a smile when he saw the puppy."

Next up, we have the phrasal verb "laugh off." "To laugh something off" is to dismiss something, usually it's something negative or something embarrassing, and you do it by joking about it. "She laughed off her mistake and kept going with her presentation." So maybe someone said something negative to you or something embarrassing happened, and you just want to laugh it off and pretend that it's a joke and keep going.

Next up, we have [00:17:00] "whack" or "corny." "Whack" or "corny" means that something is unoriginal and that maybe it's trying a little bit too hard to be funny. "The movie was so corny, I didn't laugh at all."

Next up, we have "a zinger." A zinger is a really funny or clever, or we say witty remark. "He ended his speech with a zinger that had everyone laughing."

Next up, we have the word "goofy." This is an adjective, and this is silly or playful, in a cute way. We say it can be endearing. "He put on a goofy hat to make the kids laugh." Again, this is something that's very silly, playfully funny, but it's really cute because we say it's "goofy." And yes, Goofy is the name of one of Mickey Mouse's friends, and that's why he has that name, "Goofy."

Next up, we have to [00:18:00] "snort" or "snorting." Okay. So, snorting... I can't even really do it on demand. It's a hard sound to copy, but snorting is a sound that someone makes when they're laughing very hard and they laugh through their nose; it sounds like a pig's sound. It's a sound that, if you make it, your friends will make fun of you because it's not like a typical human sound to make. It's like an animal sound. "I laughed so hard at her joke that I started snorting. I was so embarrassed."

Next up, we have "to get the giggles." To get the giggles is when you just start laughing uncontrollably. It's something that's not that funny, but maybe you're just in a really silly mood, and you just start giggling. Maybe the teacher tripped in class and you giggle. It's not very funny, but you think it's really, really funny. We call those [00:19:00] giggles. A lot of people do this with their friends. Like, if I'm with my best friends and we see something that is like a little bit funny, we'll just start giggling because, in the moment, it's even funnier.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb "goof around." "Goof around" is to act silly or playful. Maybe you're wasting a little bit of time, you're joking around with people, but it's very non-serious. "The kids spent the afternoon goofing around at the park."

Next up, we have "a roast" or "to roast." This is very popular. We have a lot of celebrity roasts here in the USA. This is a comedy event or a comedy show where one person is teased or insulted, but it's, as we say, in good fun. The person agreed to let their friends make fun of them. For [00:20:00] example, "At the roast, his friends made fun of his bad dancing skills." A roast can be very mean, but the person agreed to it because it's in good fun. People aren't seriously trying to make you feel bad. They're just saying things to make other people laugh. And so I think some celebrities like Justin Bieber, Kevin Hart, I think they have had roasts. Even the Jonas Brothers, they have a few roasts on Netflix. If you want to see something like this, you could probably just do a search for "celebrity roasts," and you'll see what I mean.

We also use "this to roast" like if you make fun of your friend, we could say "you roasted your friend."

Next we have "comedic gold" or "comedy gold." This is something that is exceptionally funny. So if you listen to really famous comedians, like Jim Carrey or Robin Williams (God rest his soul), or Kevin Hart, they say something [00:21:00] that is amazingly funny, and you say, "Oh my gosh, that was comedy gold." For example, "Her stand-up routine was pure comedy gold."

Next up, we have "to be in stitches." This is when you laugh so much that it like hurts you. Like you're in pain, you can't breathe, it hurts your body because you're laughing so much. "I was in stitches watching that new comedy special on Netflix."

Next we have "die laughing." So I actually want to talk about this. First of all, "to die laughing" is to laugh very hard, uncontrollably. Like, you're laughing so much, you think you're just gonna die. Very, very popular for Americans to say this. And Americans also say, "I'm dead." And you'll notice the little emoji of the skeleton. Sometimes we just comment that. So, like, if I see something funny and I share it in my stories, I'll just put the [00:22:00] skulls to signify like oh, dead. I died laughing. We use this a lot, and I know it's a little dark, and it's a little morbid, but Americans love to say that they're dead, they died laughing, , or use, emojis that signify death.

Next up, we have a phrasal verb, chuckle at. Okay, so first of all, a chuckle is a laugh. Ha, ha, ha. That's a chuckle, okay? You can chuckle quietly, but it's like a little laugh. So, the definition of chuckle at is to laugh quietly or lightly at something. She chuckled at the clever joke in the article.

Next up, we have to laugh your head off. This means to laugh very loudly, uncontrollably, crazy laughter. Symbolically, it means that you laugh so hard that your head comes off. For example, we laughed our heads off [00:23:00] when he fell during the play.

Next up, we have to kill it. This has nothing to do with murder or killing, but it has everything to do with doing something extremely well or successfully. So, when a comedian is doing stand-up comedy, meaning comedy in front of an audience, if they do a good job, we typically say they killed it. This is like the opposite of they were whack or corny. They killed it. So, again, this is to do something extremely well, extremely successfully. For example, she killed it during her piano concert.

Next, we have to be a riot. If someone is a riot, it means to be very funny or entertaining. The comedian was a riot. That's it. Everyone in the audience was [00:24:00] in stitches.

Next up, and lastly, we have to get the last laugh or to have the last laugh. This is to succeed or be proven right after others doubted you or mocked you. Imagine that you have an idea at work and your coworkers laugh at you and make fun of you. They think you have a really dumb idea, but then you tell this idea to your manager, and he loves it, and you end up getting rewarded at work. For example, they teased him about his ideas, but he got the last laugh when his idea got him a promotion.

So, there you have it. You've got 23 new words that will give your English some really nice variety and add a little spice to your vocabulary.

Before I get into the next section, which [00:25:00] is explaining different types of humor in English, as an extra little homework assignment, you listened to the podcast episode. Now, I want you to go download the study guide. But the third thing I want you to do, which the study guide will actually give you some more information about, I want you to watch an episode of a comedy special or a sitcom. And I want you to hear a lot of these words in action or see them in action.

Alright, I'm going to explain to you different types of humor, a few different types, like ten or so, just so that you understand the names and how we define them in English.

First of all, we have satire. By the way, in the study guide, I'm gonna put some TV shows and movies that show these different types of humor in English so that you can find a type of humor that appeals to you. There are certain types of humor that some people like, some people don't like, so I will help you find something for you so that you can get some extra English practice in. Alright, so first off, we have satire. Satire is humor that mocks or criticizes real-life issues—social issues, political issues, cultural issues. Oftentimes, it's to expose these issues. So, if I make a joke about politics, and I say something that is making fun of my political system, that is satire.

Next up, we have an interesting kind of humor. People either love it or hate it, and that is what we call slapstick. Slapstick is physical comedy. This type of humor involves very exaggerated actions, accidents, mistakes, [00:27:00] mishaps. So, someone running and slipping on a banana peel. Think, in the old days, the Three Stooges. People who would punch each other, hit each other, get injured, all in the name of comedy.

Next, we have a really popular type of humor in the U.S., and that is dark humor. Dark humor is when you joke or tell a story that's about a really serious or morbid topic. Even taboo. A joke about death, things like that. You can find some humor in something that's usually very dark and grim. An example of dark humor is an amazing show called Wednesday on Netflix. It's based on the Addams Family. Fantastic show. Amazing for your English. You will love it. I listed it in the study guide.

Next up, we have irony. [00:28:00] Irony is something that we use all the time, and this is a form of humor where we say the opposite of what's expected. If I'm about to go outside because I want to go on a picnic and it starts raining, I'd say, "Oh, what a beautiful day" or "Oh, this is gonna be fun." And it's not gonna be fun, but I'm saying it because it's ironic, and it's funny.

Next, we have one of the most amazing types of American comedy, which is sarcasm. This is sharp humor, and it mocks people, makes fun of people. The main intent of sarcasm is to insult someone and amuse people. Just imagine that your boss says, "Okay, guys, we have a meeting at three," and you're like, "Oh, great, another meeting. My dream has just come true," or "Oh, I'm so excited, another meeting. Yay." That's sarcasm. If you've ever watched Friends, the [00:29:00] character of Chandler is the king of sarcasm.

Next, we have parody. A parody is when you imitate or copy some kind of style, work, or genre, but you exaggerate it for comedic effect. If you look on YouTube, we have a lot of famous parodies of Adele, Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson. You take a famous song, and they parody it, and they make fun of it, and they exaggerate it in order to get people to laugh.

Next is something called a pun. We also say wordplay, and this is humor based on a double meaning or clever word use. Let me give you an example of a pun. It's really corny, really whack, but let me give you an example. This one's easy to understand:
"Wow, that math book looks really sad. I wonder why. Oh, it's because it has too many problems." Get it? Get it? Math has too many problems. I know, so [00:30:00] funny, right?

Alright, alright, let's get serious again. So, the next form of humor is called self-deprecating humor. This is when you make fun of yourself, and you do it in a lighthearted way. So, anytime you want to highlight one of your weaknesses or joke about yourself, we say self-deprecating humor.

Another type of humor is dry humor or deadpan. And this is when you tell a joke in a very serious emotional tone and you do it for comedic effect. So, you don't laugh. You don't joke. You just say something, and you have a straight face. That's called dry humor, deadpan humor.

Alright, remember that in the study guide, I'm going to tell you some shows and movies that you can watch that demonstrate each of these different types of humor. Okay, the last thing I want to tell you is different types of jokes. [00:31:00] Just a few.

Alright, so first off, we have something called an inside joke. Okay? So, an inside joke is a joke that's between two people or a group of people, and only they understand. So, maybe it's usually based on an experience that they shared together or something that they found funny. So, if they say this inside joke around other people who are not a part of the little group or crew, other people won't understand it.

We also have a one-liner. This is a really short joke, and it's designed to get a quick laugh.
"I told my computer I needed a break, and now it won't stop sending me KitKats." Because, uh, a KitKat is a type of candy. You can Google it, but the advertisement is, "Give me a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar." So, that's [00:32:00] why this is funny: I told my computer I needed a break, and now it won't stop sending me KitKats.

We have a knock-knock joke.
"Knock, knock. Who’s there? Let us, let us who? Let us in, it’s cold outside." It usually has a pun or wordplay, and it's often aimed at children.

We also have riddles. Riddles are cool. These will make you think. It's a joke that's in the form of a question, and it requires clever thinking. So, "What has keys but can't open locks?" And that is a piano because you say a piano has keys like A, B, C.

And then we have something called a dad joke. This is a simple, really corny, cheesy joke, and people are often like, "Ugh, come on." So, dad jokes will be really, really corny.

And then we have what we call the punchline. The punchline is the funny part of a

The punchline is the funny part of a joke. It's the part that makes you laugh, and it comes after a little build-up. Sometimes, there’s a setup to the joke, and then the punchline comes at the end. For example,
"Why don’t skeletons fight each other? Because they don’t have the guts!"
The punchline is at the end.

[00:33:00] So, there you have it. You’ve learned different types of humor, different types of jokes, and you’ve learned a lot of useful vocabulary to help you understand jokes and humor in English. Don’t forget to check the study guide so you can practice. Watch some of the TV shows I mentioned and start adding some of these phrases and words into your vocabulary!

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.

Thanks so much for tuning in.