The Humorous Speech Analyzed – 2

Today I wil analyse a hilarious speech by John Zimmer. This speech won him the first place in the District 59 Humorous Speech Contest 2008. It would probably have been a winner in any district. John has his own blog at http://mannerofspeaking.wordpress.com/

Let’s take a look:

Why is this speech so hilarious? A large part of the charm is the fact that it is about Toastmasters. You may have wondered why there are so many Toastmaster speeches alluding to Toastmasters out there. Is it some kind of cult? Are we so brainwashed that we see Toastmasters as the big saviour of our life?

Relate to the audience

Could be, I can’t speak for anybody else, but there is a better reason. The best speeches are tailored to the audience. So if you speak for a Toastmasters audience you might as well talk about Toastmasters, public speaking, leadership, or self improvement. Those are the things most Toastmasters will recognise.

John went even further. He used inside humor. The speech would be less hilarious (but still fun) for people who have never heard of Toastmasters. He is referring to the role of Sergeant at arms, to the manual speeches, to Ralph Smedley. Jokes based on shared knowledge and values are simply more fun. The very best jokes are often ad-libs referring to something the speaker and the audience encountered together that day.

If you know your speech well enough, and you’re in a daring mood, pay close attention to everything that is happening around the contest, and see if you can come up with a funny observation based on what you and everyone else has seen and heard. This might become the best part of your speech. But it can only be used once…

Absurd message

A humorous speech, just like any other speech, has a beginning, an ending, a sound body, and a message. Something you want to give to the audience. A humorous speech gives you the opportunity to use a playful message and see where it gets you. John really used his imagination to extrapolate on his theme, using vivid imagery to take us along.

Absurd comparisons

0:31
About the problem that faces us Toastmasters: “A problem that makes the financial crisis seem like the overdue balance on my credit card.” The comparison has nothing to do with the speech, but again, is based on common knowledge. Moreover, the comparison makes no logical sense. I’ve noticed many good speakers and comedians use this trick. Careful though, you can only use it so many times. I would suggest two at most.
2:00 – 2:16
Here John compares the easy days of world war 1, the depression, world war 2, with the much harder current day problems like having a slow internet connection. A slightly different technique. He is slowly building to a crescendo here, and he is rewarded with the first really hard laugh from the audience.

Long lists

0:50
“They cough, they chat, they sneeze, they snooze, they burp, they yawn, they fidget”
It comes out so easily, but from having tried this myself I can tell you that it takes a lot of practice to make it sound natural. Make your list around six to eight items long, and don’t worry if you mess up the order or forget one item when you’re on stage. I wouldn’t use this more than once in your speech.

Inpersonation

Choose someone you can impersonate relatively well. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a good choice for most of us. So is Yoda. It must be a person everybody in the audience knows and you cannot be derogatory. Apart from that, anything goes.

The rule of three

If you pay close attention you hear that John uses the rule of three often in his speech. I don’t know why, it must be something deep within us, but the rule of three works. That’s why jokes often happen in three stages. It’s what we want. It’s what we expect. And John does it well. He uses three Competent Communicator assignments. Even if he had more I think just keeping it at the best three is a good choice.
The body language speech (4:02) is also divided in three parts, movement, gestures, and facial expression, building up to a crescendo.

Paint a vivid picture

At the end of the speech he paints a picture we can all vividly see in our head, and of course it’s an absurd picture. I like how John explored his subject here, and playfully examined where he could take it. The image of two Toastinators saluting each other, or being stared at and admired on the beach is strong, and a great setup for the punch-line. (6:20) “Hey little buddy, you’re not good enough.”

Wrap-up

A concise ending, bringing back the character and combining everything to retell the message of the speech. And again, a variation on something everyone recognised but in a different context.

Follow your passion

Can you tell John loves history? You just know he has looked into the history of Toastmasters. He knows his Churchill quotes. He can’t help himself mentioning the world wars and the depression, and he gets great material out of it. If you can combine your passion or your love for something with your speech it will only get better.

Room for improvement

Is there anything John could have done better? I believe there is. The risk of a good humorous speech is that people laugh harder and longer than you anticipated. John had to start talking during the laughter a few times to be sure he would stay within time. There were a few other moments where just a few seconds pause would have resulted in another laugh.

I think he could have easily taken 20 seconds out of the first three minutes of the speech and another 10 seconds out of the post-Schwarzenegger part – nobody would have missed anything and he would have had an extra 30 seconds filled with laughter.

A luxury problem. But if you intend to write a really good humorous speech, make sure it is short enough!

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