Be Careful with Jokes

 

Displaying your sense of humor in a presentation helps you to connect with your audience. Spontaneous humor shows confidence and builds rapport with audience members.

Planned Humor

I’ve seen some speech coaches advise clients to start their speech with a joke.  I’m not supportive of that approach – with one exception. I’m generally not supportive because when a nervous speaker tells a joke unrelated to her speech theme, and the joke is greeted with silence, then all confidence is damaged. That is, the audience loses confidence in the speaker, and the speaker loses confidence in herself.

Here's an illustration of a poorly delivered joke.  This short video was created for community television by an enthusiastic group of Toastmasters members in the New York City area many years ago. While the video wasn’t commissioned, approved or vetted by the organization, I think it provides a good example.

https://youtu.be/1FexV5Aj6Jk

 

Use a Joke if it is Pertinent

Here is my exception for using a joke. I am supportive of a joke that relates tightly to the theme of the speech. If a tightly aligned joke falls flat that won’t be damaging, as the joke content should seamlessly lead into the remaining content.  The audience will see why the joke content was used.

This applies not only for a joke. All material in a planned speech should be obviously pertinent to your theme and core ideas.

 

Inside Jokes

Speakers should work to appeal to the majority of the audience. By definition, inside jokes appeal only to a small minority, the insiders.

This past week of January 2nd, 2023 provided an example of an inside joke landing poorly with an audience.  On Friday, January 6^th, 2023, in the United States, Kevin McCarthy was elected, after 15 ballots, to the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, a prestigious, powerful post which places him second in line for the office of President, after the Vice-President. 

Many people were drawn to the drama, arguments, and near fisticuffs, during the contentious 15 ballots, as McCarthy bartered with some of his party members who had withheld their support. I have to believe the drama isn’t over yet.

There are many elements of leadership behavior and public speaking to observe from these events in Washington last week. I call attention to this line from the Washington Post article below, which you may need a subscription to read. However, I have included the line here, as it relates to public speaking, and in this case the nomination speech for McCarthy that was delivered by his friend Patrick McHenry.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/07/mccarthy-gaetz-rogers-speaker/

 

“McHenry, a longtime ally, had delivered a nominating speech that fell flat except to one person, McCarthy, who got all the odd inside jokes. It was set up to be a victory party — until the GOP’s math, again, fell short.”

 

Fell flat except to one person. How would you like to deliver a speech that resonates for only one person in the audience? There are times when we have profoundly funny shared experiences with a small group of people.  If we mention that in a group setting like a speech, the small group will enjoy the memory again, and the rest of the audience will be bewildered by the reaction.

Here is a link to the nomination speech https://youtu.be/8rQ7pAI1Fx0

 

Conclusion

Displaying your sense of humor in a presentation helps you to connect with your audience. Spontaneous humor shows confidence and builds rapport with audience members.

Use a joke if it is pertinent to your speech theme and core ideas. Work to appeal to the majority of your audience by avoiding inside jokes and references.