How To Create Humour With Names: family names, place names, practise cards for comedians

Comedian Harold Lloyd laughing

Do you struggle to remember names? Americans are good at remembering names. They repeat your name three times. Chinese names are unfamiliar to English speakers. I use words associations to help me remember names. Chinese names start with the family name, which might be Tan, Toh (pronounced toe or tow), or Lim (pronunced Limb), Lye (prounced lie or lye), Rong. How can I resist making an amused comment to somebody called Rong Fang?

Word association can also be used deliberately to create a humorous effect.

As a stand up comedian, or a toastmasters of the day (or master of ceremonies) you can prepare jokes in advance when interacting with the audience as a warm up act.

You can have prepared punchlines which you add to any personal name, or place name.

1 Humour with business names
2 Humour with initials

3 Humour with place names

Road sign marking the end of the village of Y in the Somme département, France.

4 Humour with surnames
5 Humour with first names

Place names
In England there's a place called Ware in Hertfordshire.
Where are you?
Ware.
Where?
Ware.
Yes, where?

Up in Scotland in Aberdeenshire there's a place called Lost.
Where are you?
Lost.

To practise, make a set of 3 cards with questions to the audience in pile one on the left, answers from members of the audience in pile 2, your joke in pile 3.

For example:

Pile one:

Question 1 COUNTRY & CITY
Hands up if you are from (Country: America, the UK, Australia?). What nationality are you mistaken for?





Where are you from? Did you know there's a place called where in England. In fact there are two, and another in Canada, and several in the USA. When I went to Ware, I asked, which Ware are you from?

Q 2 Hands up if your family name starts with the letter A (B, C, D etc)
Q 3 Hands up if people mis-spell your name!
Q 4 Hands up if you have ever misspelled another person's name
Q 5 Hands up if you have ever mis spelled somebody's address
Q 6 Hands up if anybody has ever mis spelled your address?

Try this with a couple of friends, in person or on the phone, a group at a pub,  a club or a committee whilst waiting for others.

My answers are
Q 1 I am English. In Shanghai Chinese people thought I was Russian.

Q 2 My name is Angela. That gets me to the head of a queue in China.

Q 3 My name was recently mis-spelled as Langsbury. I was Language evaluator, or grammarian, at the meeting. I thought of changing my name to match.

Q 4 As Murphy's law says, whatever can go wrong, will do so. I have called people Green when their surname was Blue, not quite as bad as calling somebody Silver when their name is Gold.

Q 5 We once looked up a street for a dinner party in the A to Z of London. Unfortunately there were two roads of the same name. We arrived at the second address an hour later for a dinner party.

Q 6 I used to live in Hillview Road. We had letters address to Millview Road. Billview Road. And Illview Road.

Do you know how many places are called London?
Here's a picture of London airport.


It is in Canada


And a London bus.

Again, London, in Canada.

So if you book a flight to London, when you are in Canada, check whether your flight is inside Canada or all the way across the ocean.

France

• London, France

Serbia

• London, Belgrade

Scotland

• Bay of London, a bay on the island of Eday, Orkney

Norway

• Ny-London, an abandoned mining town in Svalbard

Americas

Canada

• London, Ontario
  • London (electoral district), a federal electoral district from 1867 to 1968
• London District, Upper Canada, a district from 1798 to 1849

Chile

• London Island (Cook Island, Tierra del Fuego), an island east of Londonderry Island and south of Cockburn Channel

United States

• London, Arkansas, a city
• London, California, a census-designated place
• London, Indiana, an unincorporated community
• London, Kentucky, a city
• London, Michigan, a township
• London, Minnesota, an unincorporated community
• London, Ohio, a city
• London, Texas, an unincorporated community
• London, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
• London, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community

Oceania

• London, Kiribati

Space

Q 6 I was sent a letter from the USA addressed to London. My letter went to London in Canada, and eventually reached me with the message on the envelope, Not us. Not here. Try England. The letter arrived about six months late, from a tourist board inviting me to an event which by the time the letter arrived, had already taken place.

Research more on line.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

2 Buy my book Quick Quotations. At very least, have a look at it on lulu.com and at my other books on Amazon.com

A day without humour is a day wasted.

But perhaps the most useful advice came from Marilyn Monroe. She said
If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything. 

Useful Websites
https://westsidetoastmasters.com/article_reference/humor_to_the_rescue.html
https://crazyfacts.com/unusual-place-names/
http://reallyweirdplacenames.blogspot.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_short_place_names

https://www.a-speakers.com/speakers/brad-ashton-keynote-speaker/
 Brad Ashton's books on comedy: 
“How to Write Comedy”, 
“The funny Thing about Writing Comedy”, 
“The Job of a Laughtime”, and 
“Stand up and Be Laughed at”.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations
Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems