Effective Public Speaking Skill: Using a Joke Format to Add Humor to Your Presentations
Adding humor to your speech or presentation can be beneficial because it helps you connect with your listeners (most people like to laugh and be entertained) and can help them remember your message more easily.
The purpose of this article is not to make you a comedian. It’s just to introduce you to some ways to add a little humor to his speech.
With that in mind, here are two quick and easy, plain and dirty formats for including humor in your next speech or presentation.
The first is called: “Joke Format”
This details a way you can format street jokes (jokes friends might tell you at a bar) to form a comedy monologue like old school comedians like Bob Hope or Jack Benny. Here is the format:
1) Put the second funniest joke first
2) End with the funniest joke
3) Counter a good joke with a bad one.
4) Organize jokes according to the topic.
Now, I’m not saying they used this format, I used Hope and Benny as an example of the style of comics that could have used this approach. Although, I must say, the “counter a good joke with a bad one” seems more in keeping with the comedy format of old-school comics, rather than modern monologues. I think comedic professionals today try to have continuous funny lines. This particular point seems to indicate a more whiny kind of joke, like a play on words.
But just to remind you that the purpose of this article is not to make you a comedian. You do not have to worry about that.
That said, I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong with using such a funny line in a speech, as long as, of course, it relates to the overall theme and doesn’t openly offend anyone. Some people may be offended by a moaning prank, but that’s too bad. It makes you seem human because we don’t always come out with amazing jokes like we do on sitcoms.
The other format is called “Message Format”. There are two types for this format:
HAS)
Introduction
2nd funniest joke
Main body of Jokes
Theme
funniest prank
The second being the following:
b)
Introduction
funniest joke
other jokes
Theme
The latter ends on a serious note rather than a laugh. Personally, if I’m making a humorous speech, I prefer to end with a laugh. But that’s just my personal taste.
What you might consider doing is cutting your actual speech or presentation down by about a third or even half. Keep the core details that are necessary to get your message across to your audience. So what do you replace the edited content with?
Humor. Funny stories, funny jokes, maybe you could quote other comedians or witty people, as long as you give credit where it’s due. It doesn’t make sense to include a Woody Allen line in his introduction and pass it off as your own. There will always be someone who can attribute it to the original author, plus it’s highly unethical.
Not only that, but by saying something like “as Woody Allen once said…”, you can immediately have your audience laughing as they remember their favorite Woody Allen moment. Then, if the line doesn’t have everyone rolling down the aisles, then you can walk away saying, “Obviously, it’s much better when Woody did it.” Your listeners will love you all the more because you have revealed yourself a little vulnerable.
You would have to judge for yourself what you think is appropriate. I would have to guess that it may be better for you to end with a comment on your general topic. What are you trying to convey to your audience? What is the take home message that you want them to walk away from your speech by remembering?
If you can follow some of these tips in your next speech, you’ll be well on your way to being remembered for your humorous speeches and people will congratulate you afterwards because you made them laugh and, in their eyes, you became the star. .