Being Sensational

Humor? You Must Be Joking!

About two weeks before writing this chapter, my step-son, Daniel, told me he was giving a presentation in one of his university courses. He told me he was planning on starting with a joke, because he was taught to begin presentations that way. Not by me, he wasn’t!

The joke he planned to open with was lame, not at all funny, and very old. Is there a worse way to begin a presentation? Probably, but I’ve never seen it.

Unless you’re a comedian, jokes have no place in presentations, or speaking gigs. Now, before you humorists get all up in arms, let me explain my reasoning. A joke and a humorous anecdote aren’t the same things.

If you can pull off humor in a presentation, you’re golden with your audience! But telling a canned joke is a very risky business. There are many reasons not to use canned jokes in your presentation, not the least of which is that your audience may have heard those jokes before. Your audience may not think your jokes are funny, or they may find your jokes offensive.

Humor, on the other hand, is a great way to keep your audience fully engaged. Humor should be spontaneous, or at least, appear to be so, and it should be directed at you. This is generally the safest way to interject humor, because you’re less likely to offend if you’re making fun of yourself.

Not everyone can effectively use humor in their speeches, and if you’re one of those people, don’t try to force it. Some people aren’t naturally funny, and trying to be something you’re not can kill your presentation.

So, what’s the lesson? If you can pull it off, use seemingly spontaneous, self-directed humor. If you’re not funny by nature, leave the humor to the humorists.