Funny Gifts are as much fun to give as they are the to receive. Today there is a wide assortment of funny gifts available, to bring a smile to the recipient. We have come a long way from the whoopee cushion with gifts like fake lottery tickets (each one is a winner) not really. Fake parking tickets can make for an interesting experience. Political items are in big demand this year. Weather you are on the right or the left the gags are on both sides of the isle. For example there are Hillary and George Bush toilet bowl Brushes, Obama and McCain action figures and impeach mints. George Bush and Hillary Clinton toilet paper or voodoo kits, and the George Bush dog chew toy for a good laugh.

The comic minds have been hard at work making funny tee shirts as well. Political humor shirts and joke tee shirts along with bumper stickers and signs are available for most any occasion . Don’t forget some funny gifts for kids and teenagers can be a real hit. As you can see there are some great products that will bring out the laughs and in so doing relieve some stress. And after all isn’t that the best gift of all. These are stressful days with the record breaking foreclosures, the tanking of the stock market and job insecurity. It is easy to see why so many people say they feel stressed out.

If you want to be able to take funny pictures but good ones and wonder if there is a special technique to it. Funny pictures tell a wonderful tale when viewed by an appreciative audience. So what do you need to know to make your funny pictures turn out to be ones that people want to see again and again?

Taking pictures is about angles, framing, the placement of points of interest, colors and contrast. Sounds like a tall order doesn’t it? But if you break things down into steps, its much easier. Getting the right look to your funny pictures will put YOUR shots a head and shoulders above everyone elses.

What do you need to know? The first thing is understand something called the rule of thirds. Artists and other photographers use this as their constant guideline. Now this will sound a little strange, but what you really need to do is to off center your funny pictures. Not to make them funny pictures because they are off center, but to make them interesting and provocative.

Here’s how you imagine it. Hold up your camera to the scene you want to capture and now, imagine the sign over the lens. Focus on your shot and put the main focal point of the shot at one of the intersections of the pound sign NOT in the middle. While the main focus of your shot will be off center, the actual photo will show way more than you realize. You can do this with horizons too by the way. Put the horizon either really low or high, not in the middle. Off centering is one of the golden keys to good funny pictures.

Now, a word about heights and angles! This more than anything you can do with your photography will make a mediocre snapshot into something quite spectacular. First choose a vantage point that suits the subject. Say the funny picture you want to take is a clown getting hit in the face with a pie. If you want to really get the point across about the “Splat” effect of the pie hitting the clowns face, then take a close up shot of it just when it is about to hit to capture the expression of the clown and the flying whipping cream. You get the idea.

The first thing to consider when creating a funny video is to look at your target audience. Are you targeting the pre-teen crowd who favors slapstick and potty humor, or are you looking to target a middle aged crowd that is more discerning in the type of funny video they enjoy? Even the most sophomoric funny video must have a target audience. It is never possible to amuse everyone, so picking a target audience can help you make a funny video that is of great value to the audience you are trying to reach without having to worry about other audiences. Once you have worked out your audience, you can get started planning your funny video.

The next thing to consider when planning a funny video is whether you would like the funny video to be live action or animated. Animation used to be technology that was available only to well funded studios–however, the advent of Macromedia Flash and other similar software has resulted in something of an animation revolution. It is now possible for anyone to create a funny video that uses sophisticated animation techniques using a standard personal computer. Of course, while Macromedia Flash and other computer animation tools can have a fairly steep learning curve, anyone who is interested in created an animated funny video will do well if they take the time to learn how to use these tools. Once you have decided on the type of funny video as well as your audience, it is time to start writing. Even the shortest funny video (many a successful funny video has made the rounds of the internet while being less than a minute long) requires a basic premise and plot, and this requires planning and writing. The worst mistake that one can make when shooting a funny video is to try to do the entire thing off the cuff, with no written script. Particularly if multiple actors are involved, it is necessary to do some writing before shooting a funny video.