Bob Fuhs

Humor In Speaking 101

Have you heard the one about the boring, humorless talk? Odds are, we all have.

When asked about using humor in teaching, I heard that Howard Hendricks (Prof at Dallas Seminary) once said, "I open their mouth to laugh with a joke, then I shove a point in." Sadly, too often, the only time a listener's mouth is opened during a message is when they've failed to stifle a yawn.

Anytime you are speaking or teaching, I think it's always a good idea to make use of humor. It lightens the mood, it helps people relate to the teacher, and it helps people remember what you're saying.

But how? Here's my tip for today: Use situational humor.

As you prepare your message or talk, there's going to be some point where you talk about a particular situation. If it's appropriate, this can be a great time to spice it up with a humorous look at that situation. For example, I just gave a talk from Ephesians 4. One of the verses I covered is verse 25 which says, "Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body." As I let that verse roll around in my mind, I asked, "Now, what form did that falsehood take in those days?" I was trying to discover the historical context, but thinking like this led me to some funny possibilities.

I wondered if maybe it looked like one of these scenarios...

You have a bumper sticker that says, "My other chariot is a Lexus."

You meet the neighbor's new baby and you say, "Azer-al-hash-baz is a wonderful name!"

Your wife asks your opinion and you say, "No honey, that toga doesn't make your butt look big."

After I opened their mouths with a bit of a laugh, I was able to go on to explain what I really think the falsehood looked like in that day and what it probably looks like for us today.

Another quick tip: Comedy comes in threes. I'm not sure why, but it just does. If I had added a fourth scenario to the one above, it would not have been as funny. If you are going to be giving some sort of funny list, do it in three-no more, no less.

I also think it's a good idea to try out your humor on someone with a good ear for that sort of thing. It's much better to not use humor at all than to tell a joke that just isn't funny.

Comm Lab Day 2

We just wrapped day 2 of the Comm Lab. Who knew communication would be so intense? I really need to get to bed, but here are some quotes from today:

From Tim Downs' first message:

-"How you say what you say is as important as what you say."

-"If all we have is content, we die."

-"The non-Christian world is happy for us [Christians] to exist as long as we are marginalized."

-"The church must be profane." (Profane-meaning "outside the church." In other words we must go to the people and not wait for the people to come to us.)

-"If Christ is not significant outside the church, He is not significant inside the church." RC Sproul as quoted by Tim Downs

-"Paul's model was to first persuade, then if that's not working to proclaim."

-"Public speaking is dying to yourself in front of a group of people."

-"Think of the spotlight as an x-ray...The longer you stay in it you'll get a deadly disease."

Tim Muehlhoff talked about "The Power of Human Communication."  Here are some quotes:

-"Most of us take communication for granted...I mean, we've been communicating our whole lives."

-"Dialog is to love what blood is to the body." (quoting another author)

-"Communication is God's gift to form connection."

Honestly, Muehlhoff talked about so much that it's hard to break it into some quotables.  He really drilled down into the theory of communication on a deep level, asking "what is communication?" The whole point being we need to understand how complex it is to actually communicate with another person. Like he said at the start, we've done it our whole lives that we just take it for granted. And that's why most of us stink at it.

He just published a new book called "Authentic Communication" that we all got that I am very excited to read and recommend. You can buy it here if you like.

We also spent time in our coaching groups working on eye contact and gestures. We want to teach communication like you would a sport, so we are doing lots of hands-on coaching and drills in speaking mechanics. My group really made me proud as they stepped out of their comfort zones and tried some new skills.

So far the Comm Lab has exceeded my expectations! I'm beat, so it's off to bed but there will be more to come tomorrow...