How to Make Your Speech Funny
We all want our audience to warm to us. Humour can be a great way to break the ice and create connection.
What Makes Something Funny?
A lot of humour comes from surprise. Humour often stems from a contradiction between what we expect to happen and what actually happens.
Here are some ways to be funny.
Reversal
One way to create surprise is through reversal. Lead the audience in one direction, then change direction suddenly and drop them somewhere unexpected.
For example:
“He told her to look forward to dinner, he was cooking his culinary speciality… a Tesco chicken kiev.”
The Rule of Three
A lot of comedy is personal and subjective. But patterns are universally recognised, this makes breaking a pattern reliably funny.
The rule of three is one of the most commonly used techniques in comedy, speech writing and professional presentation training.
item one establishes the pattern
item two reinforces the pattern
item three surprises the audience by breaking the pattern
For example:
“I went to Waitrose and picked up some olive oil, a loaf of sourdough and a Yummy Mummy”
Why three? Because three is the smallest number required for a pattern. Three is also naturally satisfying rhythmically, because we like things with a beginning, middle and end.
Punchlines
A punchline is the final part of a joke that reveals what makes it funny. To use a punchline, put the funny part at the end of your story, paragraph or sentence.
For example:
“I took my dog to the vet. The vet examined him and said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m going to have to put him down.’
I said, ‘Why? What’s wrong with him?’
The vet replied, ‘Nothing. He’s just very heavy.’”
Specificity
We relate to specificity, not generality. Specific details create a clear image in the audience’s head, this helps them to have an emotional response to it.
Compare:
“The audition to be one of their indoor cycling instructors was intimidating.”
With:
“The audition to be one of their indoor cycling instructors was intimidating. The room was full of perfectly toned fitness fanatics clutching emotional support Stanley cups.”
Exaggeration
The audience knows not to take exaggeration literally, but the gap between reality and absurdity creates humour. Exaggeration works because it creates stronger mental images. The bigger and more ridiculous the image, the more memorable and entertaining it becomes. Exaggeration is humorous because audiences recognise the emotional truth underneath it.
For example:
Compare:
“My landlord responds to maintenance issues slowly.”
With:
“My landlord responds to maintenance issues with the urgency of continental drift.”
Callback
One of the smoothest things you can do in a speech is to bring back something that you mentioned earlier. Comedians do this all the time. Callbacks make a speech feel clever, connected and intentional. For the audience it feels like they have been taken on a journey, they haven’t just been listening to disconnected points, they have arrived somewhere. Callbacks create a satisfying sense of completion.
For example:
If you opened with:
“This is my first best man speech. None of our other friends were willing to show me this level of trust”
And you closed with:
“Thank you for trusting me, a completely inexperienced best man, with your speech tonight. Out of all of our friends, you clearly have the most questionable judgement.”
The second line lands harder because the audience recognises the reference from earlier.
Callbacks also create huge laughs because the audience feels rewarded for paying attention. It almost creates an “in joke” between you and the audience. They are aware that they understand the second joke because they witnessed the first one, so it creates a sense of shared knowledge and connection between speaker and audience.
Final Thought
Even a few moments of laughter can completely change the feeling in a room - people relax and warm to you. Humour works best when it feels appropriate and connected to your message. We particularly enjoy jokes that feel honest and specific.
Lastly, remember most audiences will not remember every point you made, but they will remember how you made them feel.
If you’d like help refining your delivery or landing your humour more effectively, working with a public speaking coach or speechwriter can make a significant difference.
Now… go insert some comedy. Nobody wants to listen to a speech that’s as dry as a Ryvita.