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“Quick, I need a joke for this speech!”
No you don’t. The last you thing you need is to shoehorn some tired, contrived quip into your presentation that has no relevance to your material. All for the sake of “breaking the ice.”
Better to let the humor flow naturally and organically. And to respect the context of the situation. And, most of all, be yourself.
Mitt Romney is a bit of an odd bird on the campaign trail. That’s no judgment on the man’s politics, simply a fact-based conclusion about his, um, unique comedy stylings, which I wrote about earlier in Stop Telling Jokes and Start Being Funny.
I expand on the subject in this Business Insider article published yesterday. I originally titled it, “Are You Funnier Than A Presidential Candidate?” but they changed it to “How To Be The Office Comedian.”
I suppose that works, too. We’ll see what kind of traffic it gets. It does at least provide five tips on using humor successfully.
Some people feel that using humor in a workplace situation is too risky. I think if it’s done right, it’s worth it. And if it’s lightly self-depracting, it helps to humanize you.
I believe everyone can be funny. The key is to not try so hard.
