How to be more humorous? – The Answer Wall

Read funny books. P.G. Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves (O’Neill Library PR6045.O53 B75 2000) is one of a classic series of satires of upper-class English gentry. Or you might prefer classic American humor: Mark Twain’s Roughing It (O’Neill Library PS1318 .A1 1996) or Innocents Abroad (O’Neill Library PS1312 .A1 1996) are both humorous travelogues, the first in the American West, and the second in Europe and the Middle East. And watch comedy. Ask your friends who they think is funny, and watch them. If you think they’re funny, too, watch more. Finally, read this article from Psychology Today about how to be funny: bit.ly/8-steps-funny

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.