HUMOUR, PLEASE!

Do you have a funny bone?

Are you funny?

Do you have any sense of humour?

Do you make people laugh?

Can you tell a joke?

Can you take a joke?

Seriously, I never consider myself as a funny person. Some people say I am witty when I speak. I have no idea whether that is true because I can’t even make a cat smile!

I have a friend who is so funny that you burst out laughing every time he opens his mouth. He is like a life comedy sitcom! I guess some people are funnier than others huh?

Humour comes in difference ways in our life. It touches our hearts when least expected. Our life is as stressful as it is, sometimes you can’t even put a smile on your face. Laughing is good for you. A simple chuckle can make you breathe again. Laughing makes you happy. When you are happy, positive energy kicks in.

Now, can you imagine what humour will do to your speech? By adding some humour into your speech, your audience will find you more interesting and your speech much more entertaining. A speech, even with a bit of humour makes your audience more relax and comfortable around you.

Have you ever listened to a serious speaker before? You had to force yourself to stay awake. Your mind felt heavy and tired taking in all those information. I know. I’ve been there too. I must say a bit of humour might have been good for the speech presentation.

We could all use a good laugh. Your audience will pay more attention to you when you make them laugh. Humour can help lighten up a serious topic and makes it easier to get your message across to your audience. Most importantly, the audience will grow to like you a lot!

Everybody will love a speaker who can deliver them great information and make them forget their everyday problems for a while!

But the truth is not all speakers can be funny. Not all of us are gifted with the power of making people laugh. I mean, look at Batman. He is the good guy but he doesn't stand a chance against Joker at a stand-up comedy contest!

So, how to add humour in your speech if you are not a funny person? It is definitely impossible, right?

Well, I have good news for you. Even if you are naturally not a funny person, there are still ways to add some humour in your speech. Yes! There is still hope for people like you and me. So, how to be funny? Here are some useful tips that may help you in your quest.

How to be funny when you are not?

1) Don’t try too hard – If you try too hard, you might not succeed. When you try too hard to be funny, you will never be funny. It is like going for your first date and trying so hard to impress your date. How to impress the person you like? It is easy. Just be you.

Learn from others but do not imitate them. The key here is to try to tell jokes or funny stories and see what works for you. Believe it or not, each of us has different ways to get that humour out within us. You just need to find it. It is there somewhere.

2) Just let yourself go - Loosen up. Don’t be uptight. Do not think too much. Have some fun. Watch comedy sitcoms, comedy movies or read joke books. Learn and understand what makes people laugh and how to make them laugh. Find out what makes you funny. Ask people around you what they think of you. Ask them what makes you funny. 

3) Use your facial expression and voices

In comedy, facial expressions and voices are very important. You don’t really need to say a word to be funny. The right expression on your face can trigger laughter. The right tone of your voice can make your audience laugh their head off. All you need to know are the right timing and the correct punch line.

I remember listening to a speech delivered by a friend of mine. He is always serious. He never smiles. He looks like someone who has billions of debts. Oh, don’t worry, he manages his money well.

So during that speech, he was seriously serious that suddenly, this man, one of his audiences started to laugh. Before you know it, everybody else started laughing. He was confused. He had this facial expression saying, “What’s going on here? Did I say something funny?”

Well, what do you know? He could make people laugh after all. It was amazing and unbelievable.

What happened was the man started laughing because he could not stand looking at my friend’s serious face. He said that my friend’s face was so serious that it turned out to be hysterically funny. The others were laughing after seeing the man laughing out loud. The rest is history.

Now that you know you can be funny if you want to, the next question is what kind of humour should you add in your speech? How do you want to deliver it? Actually, there are some options for you to choose from.

Humour in Speech

1)Tell funny stories – you can tell funny stories that you heard from others or funny stories based on your own experience. Getting a good story is one thing but telling a story is another thing. Some people are good in storytelling but they can’t tell a funny story. I also have some difficulties delivering a funny story.

What can you do about it? One thing you can do is to practice telling the story in front of some friends or family and ask them for opinions. Again, see what works for you.

2)Tell Jokes – Don’t you just love jokes? I love jokes! Especially when I’m not telling them!

You can also add some jokes in your speech. Some people suggest that it is best to tell jokes at the beginning of your speech in order to get your audience attention. Some suggest you should tell jokes when your audience seem to be dreaming away and not listening to you. It is entirely up to you.

3)Show funny pictures/images

Who said you can’t get some help to be funny? Pictures, drawings or cartoons can be funny items. You can show your audience a funny picture and let the picture speaks for itself. Give them time to laugh and say some funny lines if you can to make a double impact. It will work like a charm! If you can’t be naturally funny, you can always be creative. Am I right?

Yes, I know.

However, before you start searching for funny materials for your speech, please read this first.

 Important Tips to remember

1)You don’t need to be funny from the beginning of your speech until the end unless you are doing a humorous speech.

2)Please tell simple jokes or less complicated ones. Otherwise some people might not get the joke.

3)Please do not tell the same jokes every time. Especially when you give your speech to the same group of audience. When they hear the same jokes over and over again, it will not be as funny as the first time. Your audience may be able to predict which joke that you will be coming up with. Eventually, they will be bored with your presentation.

4)Try to come up with your own funny stories and your own jokes. It is fine to use funny jokes from the internet or from a popular joke book but most probably your audience have heard the joke before. Be original. Keep some element of surprise in store.

5) Do not tell jokes about other people. Do not make fun of others in order to get people to laugh. Avoid offending others in your target to gain laughter. It is not cool to do that. I have been repeating this a few times in my blog. As a speaker, you should think before you speak. What you say will reflect your credibility and affect your reputation as a speaker. Laugh with them but do not laugh at them.

6)It is always good to make jokes about yourself. It will show your audience that you are an honest, humble person with great self-confidence.

When a speaker asked his audience who were seating at the back,” Can you see me from there? I’m not very tall, you know!” it immediately brought some laughter.

7)Understand your audience. Tell jokes or funny stories that your audience can relate to. Let say you are speaking in front of a group of engineers. A joke about a priceless painting may not make them laugh as much. You have to know who you are talking to. Will a 10 year old be laughing at a joke about a husband and a wife?

8) Don’t forget your speech purpose. Do not let humour take away the important points you are trying to make in your speech. You may get all excited about telling jokes. Your audience are laughing and you feel great. But remember, you are delivering a speech with message. You are not doing a stand-up. Humour is just to help to make your speech more appealing and to encourage your audience to listen to your points.

9) Don’t feel bad if nobody laugh at your jokes. Bear in mind that not everyone will find your joke funny. What can I say? It is a tough crowd out there. Some audience are hard to please. There are many reasons for them not to laugh. Maybe it is just a bad timing or they are just the overly serious types who do not appreciate humour. Do not give up. One day you might be surprise that some people actually love your sense of humour. 

   I know I will!

One More Thing...

Hey, not everyone needs to be a comedian. If you have tried everything and you have accepted the fact that you can't make anyone laugh, please don't worry. I am not saying you must add some humour in your speech. 

A  good speech does not need to be a funny one. The most important thing is to get the message through to your listeners.

Just relax and enjoy yourself while delivering your speech. Whether you are funny or not, i'm sure your audience will love you!

and this is not a joke.

 

Written by: Intan Salwana Anis
 @2017 Public Speaking Is Cool. All Rights Reserved.