Academic presentations are usually intended to convey new information to an audience, and convince the audience of that information’s importance. Humor, which relies on common knowledge and subverting norms, might seem at odds with giving an academic presentation.
Of course, there are risks to using humor in this context, especially the risk of distracting your audience and/or trivializing the subject of your presentation. To minimize that risk, it is best to think about humor like you would think about visual aids: a tool with specific uses. Often, humor is useful to build a rapport with your audience and make your presentation more accessible.
List9.5.1.Reasons for using humor
Establishing rapport.
Even if you’re presenting to your classmates, the initial awkwardness of talking to them as an audience can be hard to overcome. A brief opening joke, if it lands, can help with that awkwardness and make you appear more open to engaging with your audience, which in turn makes your audience more willing to engage with you!
Making your presentation more accessible.
If your presentation is on a relatively niche or specialized topic, it is crucial to make sure that everyone in your audience can understand. Humor that relies on commonalities in background, like references to popular books or movies, can give people unfamiliar with the subject of your presentation a “foothold:” an initial understanding they can build during your presentation.
Example9.5.2.
For instance, consider a presentation about the 26S Ubiquitin Proteasome System. If it was defined as the “major regulatory system governing protein degradation in eukaryotic cells,” most audience members would be immediately lost. However, a comparison to the “Death Star” from Star Wars would help audience members retain a key point about the 26S Ubiquitin Proteasome System: it can target and destroy.
Evidently, humor is useful for academic presentations! However, there are some broader guidelines to follow when using humor in this setting, as with any tool.
List9.5.3.Guidelines for using humor
Moderation is key!
Try to refrain from jokes that do not directly serve the purposes of your presentation. If a joke doesn’t make your point more comprehensible, does it really need to be said?
Consider the connotations of your references.
In line with avoiding digressions, avoid references that may be inherently distracting because of their connotations. Avoid humor that is controversial, charged, and/or would be kept off-limits during Thanksgiving dinner conversation.
Keep your set-ups brief.
The longer the set-up to your punchline, the more it veers into digression territory, and the further away from your argument it gets. Try to keep any jokes you make self-contained: within one slide of your presentation.
