Self – effacing humor Personal anecdotes Similes / metaphors Quotations Lists Predictions One liners

1. Types of Humor
Public Speaking Skills

2. Prepared By
TM Manu Melwin Joy
Kerala Toastmasters
Area – G3,Division G
District 92, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com
Kindly restrict the use of slides for personal purpose.
Please seek permission to reproduce the same in public forms and presentations.

3. Types of humor
1. Self – effacing humor
2. Personal anecdotes
3. Similes / metaphors
4. Quotations
5. Lists
6. Predictions
7. One liners

4. Types of Humor
• What do you think of
when you think of humor?
I’m guessing that you think
of jokes. Most of us do and
when speakers start using
humor in their speeches,
they add jokes.

5. Types of Humor
• They give a bit of their
speech, then tell a joke,
then another bit of their
speech, then another
joke… and that’s what the
result sounds like…
speech. joke, speech,
joke….

6. Types of Humor
• Forget jokes, look for
humor that adds to
your speech, makes a
point or illustrates
something you’re
saying.

7. Types of Humor
Self – effacing humor
• if you want to have a little
fun at someone’s
expense, make sure it’s at
yours. As the speaker you
should be big enough to
take a little ribbing and
the audience will admire
you for it.

8. Types of Humor
Personal anecdotes
• we’ve all had
humorous experiences
or heard people say
funny things, so weave
them into your
speeches.

9. Types of Humor
Personal anecdotes
• Audiences are more likely to
warm to amusing anecdotes
and observations that draw
on your own experiences.
These stories tend to feel
more real, less forced and
give your audience
opportunities to connect
with you as a speaker.

11. Types of Humor
Similes / metaphors
• Similies and
metaphors are a great
source of humour on
any subject you can
think of.

12. Types of Humor
Similes / metaphors
• “Life is rather like a
tin of sardines – we’re
all of us looking for
the key.”
Alan Bennett

16. Types of Humor
Quotations
• Funny quotes are the No. 1
best way to use humor in a
presentation because funny
quotes are brief, and you can
easily memorize several
quotes that you can toss out
when you think it's time for
some humor.

17. Types of Humor
Quotations
• Plus, when you quote
someone else, you're
somewhat in safe territory
because if it bombs, it was
that other person that
actually said it, not you, so
you gain some distance
there. But if the quote gets a
great reaction, then you get
the credit for making them
laugh.

18. Types of Humor
Quotations
• There are huge
volumes of quotations
out there just waiting
to be used to illustrate
your points and add
humour to your
speeches.

19. Types of Humor
Quotations
• I’m a kind of
paranoiac in reverse –
I suspect people are
plotting to make me
happy.”
J.D. Salinger

23. Types of Humor
Lists
• Whenever you use a list
of at least three items you
can inject a little humor.
The first few items follow
a pattern and the final
item catches the audience
by surprise.

24. Types of Humor
Lists
• It is by the goodness of God
that in our country we have
those three unspeakably
precious things: freedom of
speech, freedom of
conscience and the
prudence never to practice
either of them.”
Mark Twain

25. Types of Humor
Predictions
• The pronouncements
of experts have left us
with a wealth of
funny material.

26. Types of Humor
Predictions
• “Computers in the
future will weigh no
more than 1.5 tons.”
Popular Mechanics,
forecasting advance
of science, 1949

27. Types of Humor
One liners
• I know I’ve told you
not to tell jokes, but
one liners are short
enough not to
interupt the flow of
your speech.

28. Types of Humor
One liners
• “Start every day with
a smile… and get it
over with.”
W.C. Fields

29. Types of Humor
Props
• Think about your topic
and if there are any
props you could use to
lighten things up and
inject some humor in
your speech.

30. Types of Humor
Props
• I once saw a presenter give
a talk about how to deal
with problems, and he had a
couple of stuffed animals
on stage with him - one was
a guppy to represent small
problems and the other was
a whale to represent big
problems. Whenever he
talked about a big problem
and held up the whale, the
group would laugh.

31. Types of Humor
Cartoons
• If you're using an
overhead projector or a
PowerPoint presentation,
it's very easy to insert a
funny one-panel cartoon
into your presentation.
The funniest cartoons will
be ones that have
something to do with the
topic of your presentation.

32. Types of Humor
Pun
Puns are words with different meaning.

36. Types of Humor
Stereotypes
Stereotype is a widely held and oversimplified
belief.

41. Types of Humor
Changing context
• Change the setting, or
meaning with surrounding
words.