30 Times People Dropped ‘Rare Compliments’ That Were So Funny And Weird, They Went Viral (New Pics)

While this list is about rare compliments, how they were delivered draws more attention here. The unique blend of wit and humor made these comments worthy of a screenshot and share. 

Journalist and Harvard University lecturer James Geary published a book in 2018 titled Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It. In it, he mentioned that wit essentially establishes a common ground between entirely different ideas. 

“(Wit) consists in binding together remote and separate notions, finding similarity in dissimilar things (or dissimilarity in similar things), and drawing the mind from one word to another,” Geary wrote. 

Geary adds that a witty person’s brain has far fewer inhibitions and “uncensored access to associations.”

Not everyone may have the same sharp wit as the commenters on this list. Fortunately, it’s a skill you can develop if you feel like you lack it. In an interview with Boston.com, Geary gave some tips, beginning with practicing puns. 

In the interview, Geary gave this simple pun as an example: “‘What branch of the army do babies join? The infantry.” It is easily understood, which draws an easy laugh. As Geary explains, it puts everyone on the same wavelength.

Taking things literally is another way to sharpen your wit. Geary says interpreting daily symbolisms at face value allows for clever delivery. 

As an example, he used one of comedian Steven Wright's famous one-liners: “When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.”

One point Geary made is that wit and humor don’t necessarily have to go hand in hand. In a 2019 talk at the Chautaqua Institution, he explained that the slight difference is that the former requires more mental exercise. 

“Like juggling, wit is keeping a lot of different ideas, a lot of balls, in the air at the same time,” he said, emphasizing that wittiness is about “finding novel combinations about things.”