Posts Tagged ‘using humor’

I’m not a big fan of speakers using jokes.  It’s too easy to either offend someone or—in an effort to avoid offense— to tell a joke that is so benign it’s lame.

However, if you have to tell a joke, please make it relevant to your topic.  It should have at least some connection to what you are talking about.

I once spent a day working with speechwriters who were on staff at a large corporation.  They talked about being frustrated by the CEO because he always wanted to start his talks with a joke.  They would prepare a strong, relevant opening and he would say: “I need a joke.  Give me a joke.”  If they resisted his request, he would come up with one from a book of jokes he kept in his desk.  The result was laughter (usually) but no relevance in how he was starting his message.

Go ahead.  Live dangerously.  Tell a joke.  But, use it to effectively tee up your topic.

You can’t always be sure how audience members are going to react to your humor.

You can use a line or a story with one audience and everybody laughs.  Another audience, a week later, just sits their giving no sign that anyone realizes you were trying to be funny.

I have some favorite lines I use that generate laughs almost every time.  I say “almost” because every so often one of them will fall flat.  Nobody even smiles. 

Years ago I gave myself a rule: The audience laughs first.  

If the audience laughs, I can smile or laugh.  Otherwise, I just move on as if no humor was intended.

That way I don’t get embarrassed by starting to laugh and not having the audience join me.