The Funny Formula to Better Speaking

[Music]

two years ago this month

my wife was eight months pregnant and

she was asked to give

a speech at uh her annual conference for

her company to the whole company

and on the night of the event they

announced to everyone

that the speeches would be held to a

strict

10 minutes so when it was my wife’s turn

she gets up to the mic and she’s a

little out of breath and she opens with

this

don’t worry everyone there’s no chance

of me going over my time

because i have to pee every 10 minutes

anyway

it was a great joke she was so adorable

i was proud of her

and the audience really loved it and

afterward they couldn’t stop

talking about her speech what she did

was

she created this instant connection with

the audience

by saying something honest and

unexpected

humor is universal in this way it unites

us in

celebration of human imperfection

but what i really want you to take away

is this

humor will elevate

the impact of your public speaking

so use it you will have to give a speech

at some point if you haven’t already

it’s just part of adulting

the challenge is that there’s this

massive difference between

telling a joke to your friend at a

barbecue

and grabbing the mic and hitting a

really sharp punch line like mindy

kaling

the truth is that comedy is really hard

in fact there was this study that was

done at the new yorker cartoon

and what they found was that the highest

rate of approval

for any joke is 75

which means that even if you do the best

possible

you still just get a c i don’t want this

to deter you though

because if you do it right your audience

is they’re going to reward you and

they’re far more likely to stay engaged

to learn something and to be impacted by

your message

the next question should be okay what

joke do i tell

well rather than just taking a guess at

it

what if you could choose or write your

joke

based on science it turns out you can

the american psychological association

published research

that tells us the core of humor

is incongruity which is basically the

same thing as saying

that surprise ending that you create

so for example you could walk your

audience down one path

and lead them to believe that you mean

one thing and then at the last minute

you just sort of

pull them in the opposite direction what

the research goes on to tell us

is that if you can add an unspoken truth

to incongruity

you can create the best form of humor

possible

if you learn only one thing about humor

this is it

the formula for the best humor is

incongruity

plus an unspoken truth comedian rodney

dangerfield

was a master at this in his joke writing

one of my favorite uh examples of it

goes like this okay

my wife and i were happy for 20 years

and then we met each other that’s

incongruity

plus an unspoken truth

the incongruity is that we expected that

they were happy while they were married

but it turns out they were actually

happier before they even met

the unspoken truth is that he was in an

unhappy marriage

and it also tells us about the common

failure of marriage

in our society not my wife and i though

i want to

be clear we’re very much in love

75 of the time

incongruity plus an unspoken truth

that’s the formula

now i’m not saying that you should go

and tell these exact jokes

at your sister’s upcoming wedding that

wouldn’t be authentic they’re not yours

and there are other factors you should

consider like your timing

and your target and the sobriety level

of your sister’s wedding party but the

next time

you grab a mic and open with a joke

now you can do it with science on your

side

incongruity plus an unspoken truth

and your audience will love it 75

of the time good luck

[Applause]