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Joke’s on You!
Making people laugh seems like an easy way to break the ice, but using humor in a speech is not for everyone – and it can certainly be a challenge to write. Perhaps that’s why speech-writing guide Joan Detz devotes an entire chapter to humor in her famous book How to Write and Give a Speech.
A cautionary tale: Just this week National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones began a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy with a somewhat off-color joke. His “funny anecdote” that he used to start the speech is now all over the Internet, raising concerns that he relied on anti-Semitic stereotypes for a laugh. Read