Hi everyone, it's Rory with a quick message to say my schedule for classes has reopened.
So, if you need help to prepare for your exams, or just want to improve your general English, check out successwithiels .com forward slash Rory, or click the link in the description.
See you soon! Hello lovely, I'm Maria.
And my name is Rory, and we're the host of the IELTS Speaking For Success podcast.
The podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way.
We started this podcast to give you joy, happiness, IELTS happiness, and super vocabulary and gorgeous grammar for your high school.
Your band 9 score. Shit.
You're funny, Rory.
Oh, yes. Today, we are going to talk about laughing.
Laughter, dear listener.
So we laugh, and the noun is laughter, is back on the podcast.
Rory, could you show us your laughter?
How do you laugh? What's your?
But, it depends. I mean, if I'm, if I'm being deliberately mischievous, then I will quite literally go hee hee hee hee, to whoever I'm talking to.
Okay, okay, talk to me in a mischievous way.
No, because then I have to say something very rude, and we're not rude on this podcast.
We're very sensible, demure, mindful.
No, but really, do you go like, hee hee hee hee hee hee?
Yes. Do I do like this?
Yeah, to show that I'm being, like, facetious or not serious.
What about this, like, ooh?
Oh dear listener, it's not an episode.
It's a laughter therapy, and, you know, like, actually, it exists.
Laughter therapy. When they tell you to laugh for five minutes, so you just have to do nothing but laugh.
For five minutes, it could be actually difficult because you have no reason to laugh, but you have to laugh.
But this is actually very cool.
So if you can laugh for about, like, two or three minutes, just straight out, you know, Rory, come on.
Can I laugh for five minutes solid to pad out this episode?
Absolutely not. Yes, dear listener, it's an IELTS episode about laughter, okay?
Let's talk about laughing.
Do you laugh a lot?
I mean, how much is a lot?
But probably. I mean, he says you just you have to just to manage the stresses of living.
Do you like making other people laugh?
Doesn't everyone? I think it'd be hard -pressed to find someone who likes making people miserable.
It's fun when you can share a laugh with your friends.
Or even just random people you've met.
How do you make people laugh?
Same ways as most people do, I suppose.
I tell jokes or funny anecdotes from my day or my work life.
Sometimes a well -timed meme or a one -liner is all it takes.
When was the last time you laughed with your friends?
Well, the last time we were together.
I mean, we always do, though I can't remember what we were laughing about for the life of me.
Probably we were just poking fun at each other.
Do you like films which make you laugh?
Well, it depends on the situation, really.
I mean, if it's if it's supposed to be a serious moment in the plot, then I wouldn't laugh at any or I wouldn't want to laugh at any bad acting or a poorly phrased line.
But if it's a comedy, then of course I'll enjoy it and I'll show my enjoyment by laughing.
As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free and it's available for one month.
After one month, it goes into our super secret archive.
To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below.
See you soon. Right, thank you very much Rory.
Do you listen to laughter, OK?
So people laugh, we make other people laugh.
And the noun is laughter.
So for example, Rory's laughter is funny.
Allegedly. Now give us some laughter, which is funny.
Come on. No, this is it.
It's like when you ask someone to tell a joke and they're like, well, I don't really want to.
I have stage fright.
Oh, come on. OK, OK.
So then Maria's laughter is funny.
So here's my laughter.
OK. No, not funny. You could probably just go back to literally any episode where we've told a joke and then we can then you can see it for real.
You can say that I laugh a lot or I don't usually laugh or sometimes I laugh.
Well, like these days I'm stressed out or I have a lot of stress in my life.
So laughter helps me.
So I often laugh. I really don't like these questions where they're like, do you do something a lot?
Like who decides how much is a lot?
So I like that one.
I like this question.
How much is a lot? Just to show the examiner that you're critically aware.
Like are you stupid with your stupid questions?
No, I see. Like do you laugh a lot?
I mean, like do you laugh every day?
Because some people are very happy.
They are all the time.
And some people don't laugh every day.
And actually it's a lot is good for your body.
It's good for your well -being, mental health.
There is some research.
Dear listener from British scientists.
And they say that laughter is good for your mental health.
So you should laugh every day.
No. Like this. Well, then that's not a lot, is it?
That's laughing the normal amount.
Yeah. Okay. Who decides these things?
I demand to know. We don't know.
You laugh and also you can make other people laugh.
So if I make Rory laugh, I tell a joke and Rory goes like, I would not go like that.
But okay. Rory will start laughing.
Dear listener, you can say I enjoy making other people laugh.
I like making other people laugh.
What is to be hard pressed to do something?
If you're hard pressed to do something, it just means that it would be an action that is difficult to perform.
I mean, if you ask someone, do they like laughing, then you'd be hard pressed to find someone who says no to this question.
It would be difficult to find someone who says no to this.
To be hard pressed is an adjective, which means having a lot of difficulties doing something, especially because there is not enough time or money.
Is it an adjective?
It is an adjective, yeah.
Hard pressed. Really?
Oh, cool. I thought it would be like I thought it would be passive voice.
Ooh. Yeah, hard pressed to do something.
Could you give us another example?
Could you give me another question?
Hah. No. Maria is hard pressed to think of another question at the moment.
There we go. There's my example.
Yeah, we make people laugh and we don't make people miserable.
Well, usually some people sociopath or psychopaths love making people miserable.
But most normal people do not.
It's fun to share a laugh with your friends.
Share a laugh when you tell a joke and your friends laugh at the joke and you share a laugh.
You laugh together.
What about the propositions, Rory?
So I laugh at a joke.
Yes. I laugh at myself.
Yes. And if you laugh at other people, it's not good.
Well, I don't know.
It depends. If the other people deserve it, then maybe it's OK.
But you don't laugh at your friends, for example, because then that's not being a good friend.
That means the friend is the object of the of the joke and the laughter.
And that's not a very nice thing.
Yeah, for example, like, Rory, your hair is funny.
Ha ha ha ha. Look at your hair.
Ha ha ha. You know, I'm laughing at Rory.
So this is not good.
I never do this. Your hair is beautiful, Rory.
Yes. Maria. Maria never laughs at anything I do ever.
No. Ha ha ha. Ha ha.
There we go. Oh. How do we make people laugh?
We tell a joke or we crack a joke.
I usually crack jokes.
I usually tell jokes.
I usually tell funny anecdote.
Rory, what's the difference between jokes and anecdotes?
An anecdote is like a story.
But a joke is a story deliberately with the purpose of making people laugh.
And it's usually short, for example.
Yeah, when you say something like, oh, today when I went shopping, I...
So it's an ending note.
Like a story. It could be funny, but it doesn't have to be.
Also, we use memes.
We send each other memes.
And we show or say one liners.
What is a one liner?
What is a one liner?
It's just a single line that fits with the what you're talking about to make things funny.
For example. I can't think of one right now.
Rory, you'll have GoGol.
I know I do, but like...
Well, a one liner, it could be a small joke or it could be a witty remark.
But in order to make a witty remark, you have to be talking about something.
Okay, so funny one liners.
My wife told me to stop impersonating a flamingo.
I had to put my foot down.
I don't understand.
Oh, because flamingos always have one foot up.
I understand it. Although, we had a one line earlier.
It's a shame we weren't recording.
Because Ian, Vanya's son, this is the son of our producer, was saying, Rory, I'm looking for dad jokes on chat GPT.
And I said, well, we don't need chat GPT for this because I'm looking at your dad right now.
Nice. This is implying that our producer is a joke.
He is not a joke. He is a very funny, serious man.
It's not a one liner.
One liner is just one sentence.
Yes, but it can be a witty remark.
That is a witty remark if you say, well, we don't need chat GPT for this because your dad's already here.
So there you go. Yeah.
OK. OK. It's not it's not always about a joke.
It can be about a remark as well.
The ideal is an assault.
A one liner could be every mark, something that you say that is funny, witty, smart.
Or it could be a joke which consists of one sentence.
For example, Russian dolls are so full of themselves.
There we go. That's a fun one.
Yeah. Russian dolls, you know, like you put one doll into another doll, into another doll.
And literally, they are full of themselves because you put one doll in another doll.
And to be full of yourself, what does it mean?
It means to be like massively, overly self confident.
So you can see that I usually use one liners.
What do we say? Do we use?
Say? You can. Usually people are good at one liners.
So in my case, sometimes I'm good at one liners.
I like to think I'm quite good at it all the time, but my friends perhaps have other opinions.
No, really, you're quite good at it.
Yeah, really. Very smart.
All the time. When?
When was the last time?
No, the last time was like dead.
But before that? No, I don't remember.
But it's like all the time.
I can't recall you're one liners, but it's so all the time.
It happens so often.
It's just as natural.
It's just like you're kind of like a factory of one liners, bum, bum, bum, bum.
And memes, Rory sends me memes.
Also, like you can say, like, I send my friends reels.
Reels are quite funny.
Reels, memes. And they are usually well timed.
So if something is well timed, then it makes people laugh.
Yeah. If something is well timed, it's the right time to send this particular reel.
Or meme. I was laughing with my friends yesterday.
You can use the bus continues.
So the last time we went out, we were laughing our head off.
Or we were laughing our heads off.
Laughing our heads off.
So love my head off means to laugh a lot.
To laugh your head off.
Laugh loudly. The last time I met with my friends, I laughed my head off.
You can say, I can't remember what we were laughing about.
So love about something.
We were laughing about life.
We were laughing about some jokes.
Poke fun at each other.
We had to just tease people or to mock them lightly for something or about something.
Poke fun at someone means to make someone seem stupid by making jokes about them.
Or laughing unkindly.
But, you know, you can use it about your friends when you kind of you joke around.
But it's friendly. It's nice.
It's for fun. So it's not evil, it can be.
But it can also be evil.
At work, my boss pokes fun at me.
That's like they're making fun of you.
That's not a nice thing.
Yeah, make fun of somebody is not nice.
But again, like, hey Rory, funny hey, like Maria, like what?
You're so beautiful today.
I like that. That's actually really a compliment, isn't it?
To be honest, that's not a joke.
Oh, like Maria, how many shoes, how many shoes do you have?
Like poke fun. But it's important to point out that if you are poking fun at people and you are not, you know, like bullying them or horribly abusing them, you're just it's liked fun.
It's not. It's something that friends do to each other.
Do not poke fun at your examiner for the love of God.
No, no, no. Films which make you laugh are called comedies usually.
So people watch comedies to laugh, to have this, you know.
Well, usually there's there's a very famous film called The Room, which is a drama, but it's the worst film of all time just because it's so badly written.
People watch it to laugh and well, poke fun at it.
And we can say that we watch some light films.
Yes. When the plot is not complicated, so the plot is the story of the film.
Or maybe you watch films with bad acting with like when actors act really badly with horrible plot just to have a laugh.
Rory, do we have any synonyms for like to laugh?
Like I laugh a lot.
I want to make other people laugh.
Any synonyms always stick to like laugh.
I'm trying to think of any that don't have the word laugh in it, but I'm just thinking of laughing my head off right now.
Oh, you can lose it, which means you lose control of yourself because you're laughing so much.
For example, my well, my best friend and I often lose it when we hear something rude in a film or a line that could be misconstrued.
So there's that. Can I roar with laughter?
You can, but that's also got the word laugh in it.
I'm trying to think of alternatives for laughing.
Giggling. Giggle. If you giggle, you go like, you know, like a little girl's giggle.
I do know. I'm so glad you said that because I was making fun of someone for that recently because there were two people in my house, their friends, and they were talking to each other privately.
And all I could hear was this giggling.
So I was turning. I turned around and said, you're giggling like a pair of Japanese schoolgirls, which is well, which is a line from a different TV series that we use to watch together.
Yeah. And you listen, giggle is a C2 word proficiency level.
Yeah, C2. Wow. So to laugh repeatedly in a quiet but uncontrolled way, often at something silly or rude or when you're nervous.
So if you're nervous, you go.
Or if you laugh at something silly, like young girls laugh at the cinema in the back row, for example, and you say, stop giggling, stop that giggling or at school.
So giggle. What else, Roy?
That's all. I know.
There must be. Yeah.
You can say like, I, the last time I met my friends, we were roaring with laughter.
Not Rory. But that's also like with the word laughter.
I'm trying to think of it as sending them.
It's a collocation.
I know. But I want a word without the word laughing it.
I can't think of any.
Tittering. There we go.
No, but it's something different.
Tittering. Tittering.
Yeah. Titter is mainly UK and it means to laugh nervously.
There we go. Yes. But it's still not got the word laugh in it.
Yeah, but it has a separate, like a different meaning.
Like titter when you are nervous, you laugh and you laugh at something that you feel you should not be laughing at.
I mean, to be honest, this is something I do quite a lot.
For example, students who are tittering at their teacher.
Yeah. Probably. Or you could talk about tittering away in the background.
Tittering away. Collocation.
Yeah. So dear listener, it's laugh.
Okay. But if you want to have some different meanings like giggle, tittering, also roaring with laughter like laughing your head off like you laugh a lot.
So yeah. Sweet. Shall we have a round of laughter to just use our listener?
Just you know, uncontrollable laughter?
Uncontrollable laughter.
We'll laugh for one second and Vanya can put it on a loop.
Yeah. For example, like the most stupid laughter, you know, because there are videos with the funniest laughter and you watch the videos and you just start laughing your head off.
I like the ones where silly things happen and you have to try not to laugh.
Or oh, do you watch videos with cats and dogs doing really stupid things?
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
I love them. I've discovered this recently.
I love those videos.
Oh, I love them. Cats are just insane.
So dear listener, you can go to YouTube and just put funny laughter and watch a couple of people and try not to laugh because and this one guy and he goes like.
And this is his natural laughter or some people make a very strange noises.
They laugh and they kind of think.
Like this. Rory, what's your stupid laughter?
Come on. I have done my work here on that note to your listener.
Thank you for joining us.
See you next time. Oh, yeah, you can say I make faces to make other people laugh when you know, like you create a crazy face and everybody loves.
Ah, thank you very much for listening.
Goodbye. Bye. Do you laugh a lot?
I mean, how much is a lot?
But probably I mean, he says you just you have to just to manage the stresses of living.
Do you like making other people laugh?
Doesn't everyone I think it'd be hard press to find someone who likes making people miserable.
It's fun when you can share a laugh with your friends or even just random people you've met.
How do you make people laugh?
The same ways this most people do.
I suppose I tell jokes or funny anecdotes from my day or my work life.
Sometimes a well timed to me or a one liner is all it takes.
When was the last time you laughed with your friends?
Well, the last time we were together, I mean, we always do.
Though I can't remember what we were laughing about for the life of me.
Probably we're just poking fun at each other.
Do you like films which make you laugh?
Um, well, it depends on the situation, really.
I mean, if it's if it's supposed to be a serious moment in the plot, then I wouldn't laugh.
But if it's a comedy, then of course I'll enjoy it and I'll show my enjoyment by laughing.
