Public Speaking Course:

Finding Humor for Specific Industries

Here is a great article from my public speaking course. When you need to find humor for a specific industry that isn't very common, sometimes you need to dig a little deeper to find stories or jokes that will fit your particular audience.
Some business industries like police, law, or medicine have a lot of individual books, newsletters, and articles written about them. But lets say you are a plumbing executive, or are speaking to the plumbing industry it is pretty unlikely that you could go down to your local library or bookstore and find a joke book on plumbing.

I recommend to start a humor file as soon as possible with any funny industry-specific information you find and classify the material according to industry. A place you can start looking for good material to use is in a trade journal for that specific industry. Almost every industry out there has one or more associated trade journals. If you're looking for humorous material to use in your presentations, sort through some back issues to find some humor you can use now. Virtually no one remembers the details of cartoons and jokes more than a month or so. Watch for industry newsletters so you can use some of their material. Check company bulletin boards regularly for funny signs and interesting postings. Using the skills you learned in your public speaking course involves knowing your audience and finding humor that relates to their specific industry.

The true devoted public speaker will go even further. Try calling others in the industry and ask for any funny stories or incidents that would be of interest to your audience (remember to give credit). Collect all the material you can that is interesting and industry specific and soon you will have the best collection around.

Another place to look for funny material to use is the evergrowing Internet. Anytime i am looking for something funny that is really specific, I just type the keywords (ex. plumbing humor, or water humor) into one or more major search engines. Pretty much every time something relevant will pop up. Though the internet can be a good source for some usable findings, you must be ready sort through all the useless material before you will find something great.
Here are some lines I found for the plumbing engineer group I did a presentation for. Note: these are the people who figure out how much water it takes to flush a toilet. hahaha

My wife's an earth sign. I'm a water sign. Together we make mud. - -
Rodney Dangerfield

The shower is the greatest invention. I don't like taking a
bath. I don't like to wash my face in the water I've been sitting in.--
Lewis Grizzard

How come when you mix water and flour together you get glue ...
and then you add eggs and sugar and you get cake? Where does the
glue go?-- Rita Rudner

Getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water.
After you get used to it, it ain't so hot. -- Minnie Pearl

After completing your public speaking course you will be able to involve learning and sharing of specific industry humor that relates to your audience.

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