You’ve sat through your fair share of boring presentations. It’s time to shake things up, add a dash of pizzazz and bring some much-needed comic relief to the stage. Just a sprinkling of humour can make the most complex info slide down as smoothly as a spoonful of sugar.

Why Include Humour in Your Presentations?

We’ll start by admitting humour isn’t right for every presentation. If you’re dealing with a serious or complex topic, a tight time limit or an unfamiliar audience, you might be better off skipping the jokes. But, in those cases where a presentation can take a slice of silliness, humour can be the seasoning that turns bland slide into a feast for your audience.

Whether you’re delivering a pitch, selling a product or showing off your agency’s creds deck, your job is to connect with your audience. Humour makes that job easier! Jokes can capture your audience’s attention, humanise you and your message and help you to create a deeper connection. With a few well-timed touches of laughter, a presentation suddenly feels less like a monologue and more like a conversation with a friend.

The Science of Laughter

Laughter isn’t just a sound we make; it’s an evolutionary response. When you tickle someone’s funny bone, their brain releases endorphins that create positive feelings and reduce stress. Incorporating humour into your presentations doesn’t just entertain your audience, it reduces their stress levels and forges an emotional connection. Plus, a happy audience is much more likely to absorb and remember your content.

Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience is the key to using humour successfully. Your joke might land perfectly with one demographic and fall flat, or even offend, another. Carefully consider the interests, backgrounds and sensibilities of your audience and tailor your humour to meet their needs.

In the same vein, it’s important to keep your jokes professional. Humour should enhance your message, not overshadow it. Which means, in most cases, that you need to maintain a level of professionalism in your presentations.

How to Use Humour in Your Presentations

You might be thinking, ‘I’m no stand-up comic; how am I meant to make people laugh during my presentation?’ Don’t stress! You don’t need to be the next [insert your favourite comedian here]. With a pinch of creativity and a dash of cleverness, you can add humour to your decks (almost) effortlessly. Here are our top tips:

Poke Fun at Yourself

Share a relatable personal anecdote, an amusing mishap from your professional life or even a quip about your presentation. Using self-deprecating humour can make you relatable and show that you don’t take yourself too seriously.

Play With Words

Puns, witty one-liners and clever wordplay can inject humour into the dullest of topics. Just be careful not to overdo it! When it comes to puns and dad jokes, a little goes a long way.

Visual Gags

Sometimes all it takes to get a little audience chuckle is a well-placed image or meme. Consider adding a couple of funny visuals to illustrate your messaging humorously.

Analogies and Metaphors

Comparing your topic to something unexpected can shoehorn a bit of gentle comedy into your slides to get an audience engaged. Dream up properly surprising parallels to make your audience smile.

References

Playfully incorporating current events, pop culture references or trending topics into your deck can boost your presentation’s fun factor. Just be careful to update your references! They can age out quickly and you don’t want to be stuck with a line that makes your audience roll their eyes.

Incorporating humour into your presentations isn’t just about making people giggle; it’s about creating memorable, engaging and relatable content. So go forth, plucky presenters, and sprinkle your decks with a dose of laughter. Because when your audience laughs with you, they’re not just learning, they’re enjoying the journey. That’s the power of presentation humour.

Need a hand working a few laughs into your deck? Get in touch today to learn how we can help!