How To Do A Joke When You Are Afraid To Say A Joke. . .

So if you want to add in a joke, but you’re scared of doing the set-up punch thing right off the bat during your speech because you’re afraid either no one will laugh at the punch line or you’ll mess it up. . . no worries. You can still add some humor by doing a funny quiz. These give you a great break because you’re not trying to remember a joke in perfect word order, since you can put the quiz in your power point or written document, AND generally people like taking silly quizzes that they know they’ll ace!

I’d recommend starting off with something in the multiple choice A, B, or C format. You can have silly answers for all of the letters, or do 2 serious answers and one silly one being C the punch line. Keeping it in 3’s is the standard practice in comedy so people are used to it and as I’ve mentioned, for some reason comedy is just funnier when it’s in threes.

So take the thing you’re trying to have fun with, and make it into quiz format. For example, when I was in front of some meeting planners, and wanted to emphasize that I knew they were busy, I came up with. .

“Meeting Planners, you know you’ve been traveling too much for the company when you get home and  . . .”

1.) Stuff the towels and soap from your own bathroom into your suitcase.

2.) Tip your spouse for carrying in your luggage.

3.) Refer to your fridge as “the mini bar.”

To get to the three lines, just list out all the things that you experience when you travel like tipping, luggage, eating in restaurants, working out in the gym, etc. .  . . or things that are common jokes about traveling, like stealing towels, drinking up the mini bar, etc. .

Here’s another example that I sold to radio. This time the first 2 answers are real answers that were listed in the news article, but the third answer is a goofy one I came up with:

–According to CareerBuilder.com, the reason you’re not making more money at work is probably because:

A.)  You don’t understand technology.

B.)  You’re not in with the right crowd at work.

C.)  THEY’VE FINALLY COMPARED YOUR RESUME WITH YOUR ACTUAL JOB SKILLS.

Again, I listed out a whole bunch of whacky reasons why you might not get more $ at work. I took it all the way back to asking myself about the job interview and the resume, and voila! I got my funny answer.

I’ve done millions of nutty quizzes and they’re always fun., plus they give me a break from trying to remember new jokes so I get to catch my breath. Try it!