High Status Humor    Compare

High Status Humor by Zach Brownman consists of a series of videos that were recorded at a seminar with a handful of students. There are actually two components to the course: the core program and the weekly lessons. You also have the option to listen to just the audio files, but the video is superior as you can see examples of body language and delivery.

There are 12 weekly sessions to go through, and it's suggested that this be a 90-day course. Feel free to do that if you wish, but I don't believe it's necessary to take this long to make your way through all of the content here. The videos aren't that long (almost all are under a half hour) and it's hard to justify needing a full week to digest the information and practice the techniques.

So the aim of the program is really to show you the difference between high-status and low-status humor. Zach points out that although women all say they want a guy that can make them laugh, not all humor is equal when it comes to creating attraction. To illustrate this, he mentions how some comedic actors are seen as sexy or unsexy by women, primarily based around the type of humor they are well known for.

This is a really important point to be aware of, especially as you start to learn more about dating skills. There is a term from the pick up community, 'dancing monkey', used to refer to guys who put a lot of energy into trying to impress women and get good reactions from them. Often this will involve doing and saying things that get women laughing, but this doesn't necessarily mean they are interested in the guy.

Zach talks about why you want to avoid a lot of self-deprecating humor (for the most part) and how to find the right 'targets' for your humor instead. Something else he points out and it's worth noting here, is that high status humor is not about reciting jokes. It's about observing what's going on around you in the environment and finding what's funny about it. You won't be learning any 'did you hear the one about...' type setups.

Deconstructing Humor And Comedic Formulas

What Zach tries to do in this course is show you that humor is something you can learn and not something you're either born with or not. He goes over a few different formulas you can use and breaks down why certain things are funny and how you can look for comedic inspiration in the world around you.

There are different exercises and drills throughout the lessons to get you trying to come up with creative ideas and to get your humor muscle working. When watching the videos you'll be told to pause and to write down your answers, then after that you'll get to hear the examples that the students in the seminar came up with.

Most of the ideas and techniques here aren't really original, as they're used a lot in improvisational comedy and theater. It's worth taking the time to do these exercises though, as the more you start trying to think outside the box (there's an exercise included which led to this term being coined), the easier you'll find it to be funny in social situations.

Creating Comedy From Characters

A large focus of this course is on how a lot of comedy comes from the character that says something rather than what they're specifically saying. The videos from week seven through to twelve all cover this area so there is a lot of attention devoted to it.

Possibly too much attention is focused on these characters, as it really starts to veer away from using humor that you might use to attract women and more just about being funny in a general sense.

Some of the characters mentioned were kind of similar, and there could have been more diversity. One thing you need to be aware of though is you don't want to get into the trap of going out to meet women and pretending to be a particular character instead of yourself.

Zach never recommends that you pretend to be someone else, but he's implying you take the viewpoint of different characters to mix things up when being funny. This is a tricky area, as if you are focused too much on being funny and using different characters you could easily come off as trying too hard, which is low-status.

Think of this as more of a spice you want to sprinkle throughout the interaction rather than making it the focus. You also want to make sure you don't lose your own sense of humor in an attempt to try and squeeze all of these characters into everything you do. The most successful comedians are known for having a particular point of view or 'voice', whereas amateurs often just tell a bunch of random jokes without thinking about their comedic voice that ties everything together.

If used correctly though you can get some good mileage from these techniques. At one point during the seminar one of the students tells of how he was able to approach a table of twenty women and one guy and ended up getting the number of the hottest girl. And he says he was drawing confidence from the fact that he had different comedic characters to choose from and felt like he always had something funny he could say.

Body Language And Delivery

While watching the videos it's clear that Zach has a solid understanding of what it means to have good body language and posture. This is really crucial for conveying high status, and it's a topic that he touches on frequently throughout the course.

Just as important is the delivery you use when making a joke. You could say the exact same thing, but depending on whether you were smirking or completely deadpan, it could have two very different meanings. Most of the time Zach says everything with a very deadpan expression, as that fits his particular style, which is very dry humor. The idea is that women will know you are joking, but still have a slight doubt as to whether you're being serious or not.

This type of humor can work really well, but it's maybe not best suited to everybody. I know a lot of guys who are successful with women and they have more of a silly and playful type of humor and are always laughing a lot and are really high energy. Zach's examples are much more low energy and he really doesn't laugh much himself throughout the course.

One isn't better than the other, it just depends on what your own personal style is and which type of humor suits your personality best. But it's worth noting that some types of humor will generally work better than others depending on the environment and who you're talking to.

For example, if you're in a loud nightclub and are trying to use humor on drunk party girls, being higher energy and more obvious is likely to work better. A lot of Zach's examples are a bit more subtle and sophisticated, and would likely go over the head of these types of girls in this situation.

So for the sake of versatility, it would have been good if there were some different styles shown throughout the course and also how you might change your delivery and type of humor to fit different scenarios.

Lacking Some Detail On Attracting Women

While the content of the course is taught in a structured way, there isn't any structure given on how to best apply it when it comes to meeting and attracting women. For this reason, the more experience you already have with dating skills the easier you'll likely find it to implement the ideas that are taught here.

For example, in the sales video for this product it says you'll learn how to approach women and make them laugh without any chance of rejection. However this isn't something that is taught at all. I think Zach gives two examples of times he approached women and how he used humor to do so. But the situations were so specific that you're not going to be able to repeat it yourself all that often.

So if you're the type of person that is looking for specific lines you can use to approach women and make them laugh, you're not really going to find that here. You'll need to take the principles that you learn and come up with your own humorous opening lines, either beforehand or spontaneously. Alternatively, you can use the advice in Conversation Escalation: Make Small Talk Sexy to help you meet more women, and just naturally use the comedy techniques that you learn here when the opportunity arises. Remember, you don't need to be funny 100% of the time.

There were some opportunities missed here to show how to use humor to escalate the interaction. There isn't a great deal of information when it comes to creating sexual frames and sexual tension, both of which are areas that humor can greatly assist you. There are a few examples of sexual humor, but more in a joking around kind of sense rather than using it to create tension. If you're familiar with some of the ways that David DeAngelo uses humor to answer questions from women such as what his job is, then you'll find similar ideas here.

Most of the information here is presented in a much more general sense. So if you were out with a woman and walked into a cafe together, how you could use comedic techniques to comment on the place. Or if a particular question comes up, how you could respond to it.

Unlike some other products, there isn't really suggestions for specific situations. For example, if you ask a woman for her number and she says no, how you could use humor to help change her mind. Or if you're asking her out, how you could use humor to make her more likely to agree. Or how to make her laugh and feel more comfortable when you suggest going back to your place. These type of scenarios aren't covered but would have been really helpful to have here.

In the sales video Zach's business partner is out on the street interviewing women and they all say that they want a guy who is funny, and he manages to get them laughing. It would've been great to see some of this footage in the final product, to see how they use humor in real life situations with women, as it would allow guys to see how everything works when all the pieces are put together.

The Bottom Line

Overall this product is more relevant for teaching you humor for general social situations rather than just meeting and dating women. A lot of the information can be used when talking to women, but this will be easier for guys who already have solid social skills and some experience with approaching women.

There's some good information in the product, with a lot of the ideas coming from improvisational comedy. This is one of those skills where the more you practice it the better you'll get, so don't expect any quick fixes here. If you struggle with thinking of funny things to say, this could be worth checking out, but it's not going to teach you how to approach women and instantly make them laugh like it's claimed in their marketing.