{"id":105284,"date":"2019-07-03T11:58:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T16:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=105284"},"modified":"2026-09-24T20:11:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T01:11:04","slug":"podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #522: What Is Wit and Why Does the World Need It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you think about&nbsp;wit, what comes to mind? Someone who&#8217;s quick with a funny remark?<\/p>\n<p>My guest today says that while humor is one part of&nbsp;wit, it&#8217;s really better thought of in a broader way, as a kind of &#8220;improvisational intelligence.&#8221;&nbsp;His name is <a href=\"https:\/\/jamesgeary.com\/\">James Geary<\/a>, and he&#8217;s the author of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0393254941\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0393254941&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>Wit&#8217;s End: What&nbsp;Wit&nbsp;Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It<\/em><\/a>.&nbsp;Today&nbsp;on the show, we discuss all things witty. We begin our conversation describing&nbsp;the nature of&nbsp;wit, and how it&#8217;s linked to one&#8217;s all-around sense of resourcefulness. James then makes the case that instead of getting our contempt, puns should actually be praised as a sophisticated form of&nbsp;wit. We then dig into what fencing and jazz can teach us about the role of improvisation in&nbsp;wit, why we need&nbsp;wit&nbsp;more than ever these days, and what you can do to start being a bit more witty.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you think about&nbsp;wit, what comes to mind? Someone who&#8217;s quick with a funny remark? My guest today says that while humor is one part of&nbsp;wit, it&#8217;s really better thought of in a broader way, as a kind of &#8220;improvisational intelligence.&#8221;&nbsp;His name is James Geary, and he&#8217;s the author of&nbsp;Wit&#8217;s End: What&nbsp;Wit&nbsp;Is, How It Works, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,42379,42293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","category-social","category-social-skills"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/522-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/522-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/522-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/522-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/522-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Does It Mean to Be Witty? | Art of Manliness Podcast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you think about\u00a0wit, what comes to mind? Someone who&#039;s quick with a funny remark? My guest today says humor is just one part of\u00a0wit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #522: What Is Wit and Why Does the World Need It? | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you think about\u00a0wit, what comes to mind? Someone who&#039;s quick with a funny remark? My guest today says humor is just one part of\u00a0wit.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-03T16:58:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-25T01:11:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/522.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #522: What Is Wit and Why Does the World Need It?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-03T16:58:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-25T01:11:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":187,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/522.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Podcast\",\"Social\",\"Social Skills\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/\",\"name\":\"What Does It Mean to Be Witty? | Art of Manliness Podcast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-522-what-is-wit-and-why-does-the-world-need-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/522.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-03T16:58:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-25T01:11:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"When you think about\u00a0wit, what comes to mind? 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