Perfect Pitch: What's so funny?

Humor is a powerful tool for communication – but it’s not just a laughing matter. It should be used carefully, and there are times when it shouldn’t be used at all. Generally speaking, if you can convey your message in an amusing and entertaining manner – that’s great. But if humor is used awkwardly or distastefully, you can seriously damage your cause.

The problem is, it’s not always easy to know when humor is appropriate and when it isn’t – because this seems to be one subject on which everyone considers himself an expert. More specifically, it’s very rare to hear someone say, “I just don’t have a good sense of humor.” And in fact it’s very difficult to prove them wrong, because humor is a totally subjective quality.

If you say that you can beat the Wimbledon champion in a tennis game, there is an objective way of proving whether that’s true or not. The proof will appear on the scoreboard. But if you say that there’s nothing funny about the latest comedy TV show, it’s completely a matter of opinion. Even if everyone else in the room is laughing, you can shrug your shoulders and say they’re wrong. They just don’t have good taste in humor, and you do.

In a business presentation, it doesn’t really matter whether you think something is funny. What matters is what the listeners think. So while in theory every presentation can benefit from a humorous element, in practice this depends on several variables: are you funny or aren’t you? Can you use humor effectively or not?

You’ve probably met people who could not tell a joke if their lives depended on it. Yet those people might actually be very funny individuals, precisely because they’re so inept at being funny. If any general statement can be made about humor, it might be this: everyone can use humor effectively, once they find the type of humor that firs their personality and their speaking style. It all comes back to that good old axiom from ancient Greece: Know thyself.

Humor is too serious to be taken lightly – but it can also be an extremely valuable personal attribute. So give humor some serious thought. You’ll see that humor is more than just a way to add entertainment value to a conversation. It fulfills a very basic need in human beings. People don’t just want to laugh – they need to laugh. If you can help them do that, it’s as if you’ve given food to a hungry person. You’ve not only made their lives easier. You actually helped them survive. And they’ll be very receptive to your message as a result.

So did you hear about the duck who complained to the electric company? He was angry about his bill. (Yuk yuk!)