Introduce humor on the first day of class. Have students tell funny stories about themselves and share your own silly or embarrassing moments to develop a friendly rapport and make them comfortable with you.
Use topic-related humor to further explain subject matter. Don't let the humor or funny stories take over the class and keep things related to the topic of discussion. Spending too much time on humorous anecdotes can distract your students.
Incorporate humorous metaphors and figures of speech to explain difficult concepts. Rather than giving dry definitions of terms, events or other topics, use creative and funny similes, metaphors or analogies to give your students a better mental image.
Write exams that are straightforward and not humorous. The National Teaching and Learning Forum says that humor in stressful situations like tests can negatively affect students' performances.