Incorporating Humour

It is important to have a connection with the audience while you are delivering a speech. The reason why this connection is important is because if the audience feels a sense of belonging or association with the speaker, they are more likely to respond positively to what the speaker wishes for them to do after the speech. Humour facilitates this relationship between the speaker and the audience. If you can get the audience to laugh, they are more likely to remember the speaker and the speech, both of which are favorable outcomes.

Incorporating humour into a speech might sound easy but humour is a hard thing to ‘get right.’ Making a joke while speaking about a grave matter in public is never a good idea but in general, humour can be used as a great tool to create a fond memory in the audiences’ mind.

There are no set rules for how one should use humour; it is mastered only by practice and a lot of re-writing. Students of this module will be asked to write short speeches, which will have elements of humour in it during class. They will also watch and study the speeches of some of the most humorous speakers of the modern world. Certain literary techniques can used to have hilarious results; the underlining point is to keep it at a good clean level.