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]