Let Me Demonstrate Why Conventional Strategies For Making A Speech Funny Are Complete Garbage

The Video Clip

Here’s the video clip of pro speaker Jeanne Robertson that I have been referring to. My comments are below the video:

My Comments

One of the things that I have been saying for DECADES is that you simply cannot expect (or depend on) any sort of humor or comedy material that is designed to be expressed verbally to read funny. Not only that…

Most of anything written down (which is different from “writing”) that is representative of verbal communication won’t usually read funny at all. So you can’t depend on something that “reads” funny to actually be funny when spoken.

There is no possible way that someone could tell that there were 18 laughs with an accumulated audience laughter time of 41 seconds just from looking at the transcript of this video.

That’s because writing and talking are two very different means of communication in a variety of very significant ways as it relates to laughter generation.

Note: No matter how much money I am offered to do it, this is the reason why I REFUSE to read somebody’s speech or stand-up material to somehow make a determination if their material is funny WITHOUT a video to review with it.

I was only able to spot a couple of the “joke formula” type of techniques from the transcript. Even then, I couldn’t even begin to tell someone how to use or otherwise apply those in any sort of meaningful way to make a speech funny.

This is one of the reasons why I tell people that watching videos of others generate audience laughs using their own unique sense of humor and expressive qualities is about as effective as studying pair of toenail clippers to try to figure how to repair a lawn mower. It’s mostly a waste of time.

What I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt about pro speaker Jeanne Robertson is this:

  • She knows she has a great natural sense of humor and effective means of expressing it.
  • She knows how to select and structure what she wants to say to get the laughter frequency she can generate.

I would also be willing to bet my house that not a single “joke formula” type of tactic was even considered for use at any juncture to produce the speech content in the video. How do I know that?

Because that’s not the way a person’s sense of humor and the way they express their sense of humor actually works…

It actually works in front of strangers just like it works with people you know and talk to on a daily basis. That is, if you can get past the “conventional methodology” brainwashing.

We simply don’t stop and try to “figure out” what kind of “joke formula” or laughter generation “tactic” we are going to use from a list before we deploy our sense of humor and get the laughs we get when we talk.

It should be obvious from the video that there’s nothing even close to “formulaic” about what she does to entertain audiences at a very high level nor was there anything that was the result of an application of some sort of mechanical, “put part A into slot B” methodology involved.

And if you really want to get a taste of the kind of information that I provide when it comes how to make a speech funny…

Go back and look at the video again, paying close attention to the number of laughs generated that don’t involve any spoken words at all.

Final Thoughts

I could do this sort of analysis all day long with any pro speaker who is rocking a room with laughter. Keep in mind…

I am talking about supporting the processes  and methods I teach about adding humor to speeches with HARD data based on measurable results – not something that I pulled out of thin air or speculated might work.

But if you want to move forward with the whole “write your way to being funny, apply canned, mechanical tactics and attempt to generate unexpected twists that are based on some sort of recreational medication use” approach – well that’s your call to make, not mine.

Just know that creating speech and presentation content that is funny and gets laughs is simply NOT that hard to do IF:

  • You have a sense of humor that generates genuine laughter when you use it in everyday life and…
  • You actually have a process that allows you to use and apply that natural sense of humor and expressive abilities you have when you stand in front an audience of strangers to deliver a speech.

With that said, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

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