[saghm]

When I was super young, I used to think my dad (who everyone I met seemed to think was extremely funny) had a huge repitoire of hilarious stories, but after a few years I noticed him repeating them and realized he just had a few specific ones that he would re-use with new people, like you mentioned. As someone who tends to be pretty slow to learn how to navigate new social situations, it was eye-opening when I recognized this was something I could do. What's amusing to me at this point is that I'm still not sure he fully realizes that this is something he does sometimes, because he'll still sometimes try to whip out one of the stories when talking to me and then genuinely be surprised when I remind him of some very minor detail about it that he forgot to mention this time he told it.

[macrocosmos]

My dad recently told me a funny story about something that happened to him. Except it actually had happened to me and I had told him about it years before.

[thechao]

I recognize this in my self, so I usually preface the story saying something like "this may or may not have been me, but I'm telling it from the first person". First person stories are funnier. This is part of the "telling a yarn" or "tall tale" tradition I grew up with (in Texas).

[code_martial]

Better your Dad with a funny story than your boss with a victory tale!

[mordnis]

Heh, my wife was recently telling a story about how she taught our son how to run into a hug. She did not, I actually did, but I let her have it since she was so excited about it.

[bombcar]

There’s a Father Brown story which has the extreme of that: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/g-k-chesterton/the-secret-...

But in general yes - have a few or tens of stories you’ve rehearsed through long use, and practice ways to segue to one of them.

Once you get a handle for the few topics of small talk, it’s not terribly hard - and is a skill that can be taught and learned.

[rspeele]

Don't watch Big Fish unless you're ready to cry.

[mettamage]

Haha, this is my dad too. He doesn’t seem to realize it. It’s me as well. These are stories that tend to strongly relate to our identity. Like, if you get to know me I will talk about meditation or another story like me training with Wim Hof for an experiment at the Radboud Universiteit.

My username checks out :P

We relate to our own stories I guess.