There are plenty of reasons one should never, ever try to be funny in a speech, says Brian Agler, director of West Wing Writers. Many principals can’t pull off humor, a joke might backfire, and it’s extremely hard to be funny on demand.
Then again, the reasons to offer jokes are even more compelling than those against, Agler says in his Ragan Training video, “Humor Demystified: How (and why) to make every speech funnier.”
Humor connects with an audience. The technique can help pace a speech and divide its parts. Sometimes, the bigwigs just plain demand it.
“It’s also way easier to write than we think it is,” says Agler, whose work is regularly featured in The New Yorker and on McSweeney’s.
Here are ways to be funny and deploy humor, some coming from unlikely sources—politicians:
1. Defuse issues.
In 1984, Ronald Reagan was already the oldest president in history, and he was running for a second term. During a debate against Democratic opponent Walter Mondale, a journalist asked Reagan whether he had the stamina for another four years.
Reagan quipped: "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.”
Even Mondale laughed.
“Now it’s a non-issue,” Agler says. “It just brushed the whole thing away.”
2. Mark transitions.
Humor is an effective way to mark a shift in rhetorical tone or a new topic, Agler says. Consider John F. Kennedy’s great address at Rice University in Texas laying out the case for sending men to the moon.
Amid his soaring rhetoric, he slipped in a joke about Rice’s football team, which wasn’t known for being especially competitive against its rival, University of Texas.
“But why, some say, the moon?” Kennedy said. “Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?”
The local joke—following a list of heroic exploits—marked a caesura, shifting from rhetorical questions to a declaration of purpose.
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“We choose to go to the moon,” Kennedy went on. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard...”
3. Ask yourself, ‘If this is true, what else is true?’
Every comedy sketch is one simple idea repeated over and over, Agler says. “If this is true, what else is true? What else is true? What else is true? What else is true?”
The classic example? Abbott and Costello’s classic “Who's on First?” skit.
“If this is true that the first baseman’s name is Who, then it logically follows that the second baseman’s name has to be What,” Agler says. “And it logically follows that the third baseman’s name is I Don’t Know, and on and on and on.”
A contemporary example? Warren Buffett is known to be frugal. If he’s a skinflint, then what?
“When he signs a billion-dollar deal, does he keep the pen?” Agler says. “What are other cheap things that he would do? He clips coupons ... he tries to get a 10 percent discount.”
4. Whiteboard your ideas.
What if you were writing a speech for Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, for a Los Angeles audience, and he asked you to come up with a joke?
Write as many random things about your speaker as you can think of on a whiteboard or piece of paper. You know: theme parks, the Seven Dwarfs and that NFL team Iger tried unsuccessfully to bring to L.A.
Now juxtapose then in absurd ways. Bingo.
Agler offers this joke: “You need a lot of approval to buy a football team. I got the approval from Sleepy. And I got the approval from Dopey. I just didn’t get it from Roger Goodell. Excuse me, I already said Dopey. But anyway...”
5. Bait and switch.
Start by (seemingly) discussing one thing, then surprise your audience with a switch, Agler says. Hillary Clinton did this at the 2016 Al Smith dinner, which she and Donald Trump both addressed.
“You deserve great credit for bringing together two people who’ve been at each other’s throats,” she said. “Mortal enemies. Bitter foes. I’ve got to ask: How did you get the governor and mayor here together tonight?”
The joke worked because it played off expectations, then veered into a surprise observation—tailored to the audience of New York insiders—about a feud between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
6. Character matters.
Remember, comedy is built on a perception of truth. The reason there are jokes about airplane food is that it is, in reality, yucky.
“If you’re a stiff guy, then make stiff guy jokes,” Agler says.
He cites Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s joke at the posh 2012 Al Smith dinner.
“A campaign can require a lot of wardrobe changes: blue jeans in the morning, perhaps suits for a lunch fundraiser, sport coat for dinner,” said Romney, bedecked in white tie and tails. “But it's nice to finally relax and to wear what Ann and I wear around the house.”
Now, did you hear the one about the guy with the duck on his head?
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