How to Make Your Speech Funny

Humour can make people warm to you quickly, but it only works well when it is appropriate. Your jokes, anecdotes and funny observations should support your speech, not distract from it.

What Is Actually 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 said he was cooking his culinary specialty. She arrived starving, expecting some incredible feast…

He served 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 works because the audience subconsciously recognises a pattern being established

It is one of the most commonly used techniques in comedy, speech writing and professional presentation training because it creates rhythm while keeping audiences engaged.

• item one establishes the pattern

• item two reinforces the pattern

• item three surprises us 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 or story 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

Exaggeration works because audiences recognise the emotional truth underneath it. Nobody believes the exaggeration literally, but the gap between reality and absurdity creates humour. Exaggeration also works because it creates stronger mental images. The bigger and more ridiculous the image, the more memorable and entertaining it becomes.

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:

Open:

“This is my first best man speech. None of our other friends were willing to show me this level of trust”

Close:

“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 know 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

Humour works best when it feels appropriate and connected to your message. We enjoy jokes that feel honest, specific and recognisable. Even a few moments of laughter can completely change the feeling in a room - people relax and warm to you.

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 can make a significant difference.

Now… go insert some comedy. Nobody wants to listen to a speech that’s as dry as a Ryvita.