How to Use Humor in a Speech

Humor is the one tool that can melt the frostiness of any audience. The proper use of humor in a speech brings you closer to your audience, makes the speech easier to deliver and leaves a lasting impression. The use of humor in a speech requires a delicate balance of tact and casualness, so follow these steps to successfully integrate humor into your next public speaking event.

Instructions

1. Start off with light, casual jokes that are relevant to the situation so you draw light chuckles from the crowd in order to warm them up and show that your speech will be good-humored. Make jokes and jibes about something all members of the audience experienced, such as traffic or bad weather. Then go on to the bigger jokes.

2. Use humorous quotes by well known wits such as Mark Twain or Winston Churchill. Even if the quotes aren't entirely relevant, their authors' fame as highbrow humorists lets them stand on their own and draws laughs from the crowd. Try to make good on the quotes by adding something specific to them that relates to the topic of your speech.

3. Plan for the possibility of omitting some of your humorous comments if you find that they're not appropriate for your audience. You can only gauge how much your audience tolerates racier or more daring humor once you speak to them. Make backup comments, or plan out comments of jokes in a way that you can smoothly omit them, in case your audience turns out to be more conservative than you expected.

4. Try out the humor on a test audience such as a group of friends or family. Deliver the entire speech as you plan on giving it to your real audience and include all bits of humor you're planning on using. After the test speech, ask your audience what they found funny and what simply didn't work. The more test audiences you use, the better prepared you will be for using humor in your speech.