To find, develop, and present funny persuasive speech topic, a student should understand what each of these four words means. If “topic” and “speech” are self-explanatory, “funny” and “persuasive” require a more comprehensive description.
To put it simply, persuasive speech topics are intended to address the audience and evoke its response using moral reasoning and emotional persuasion (while argumentative speech relies on facts and logic). To double the topic’s message, you need to add funny flavor to your speech. One of the definitions of fun and humor is disaster separated by space and time. There is also an old-fashioned formula of comedy which you can take advantage of: comedy = the truth + pain.
However, while choosing a funny persuasive speech topic, note that one funny story or a joke won’t be enough. Moreover, there are some rules you need to follow coming up with a funny yet persuasive topic and presenting a killer speech. The authors of beautifully written yet cheap essays know all the details.
Where to Find Topic for Funny Persuasive Speech?
The hilarious topics for your persuasive speech come from your own experience. Keep in mind that stories are not jokes. Funny things have happened to all of us, even though they may not have seen really funny at the time. Lessons that were painful when they happened often seem hilarious years later. You can draw in such stories to make important and relevant points during your persuasive speech.
It is okay to borrow someone else’s story or topic as long as you give them credit when possible. But be careful and borrow humor for your persuasive topic from people who are really good at it. The Internet is an absolutely marvelous place for generating funny material. For example, you can borrow from former president Abraham Lincoln, who was a great storyteller and many of his so-called “tall tales” are hilarious.
Collect funny stories, topics, and one-liners from your friends and audience. Allen Klein who calls himself a “Jollytologist” likes to tell a story about how he got one of his funniest one-liners from an audience during his speech. He asked the audience “How do you spell “relief”? His answer was “L a u g h”. But once woman shouted out “D i v o r c e”. The audience broke up. He used this story thousands of time since then.
Your dogs and cats create embarrassing moments and great ideas for persuasive topics; children are always ripe for funny things that they do; the family is one great source of funny persuasive speech topics. Let us ask you, has your family ever given you trouble about not having a boyfriend/girlfriend around during a holiday? Tell the audience why you do not need one. It can be an excellent persuasive speech topic. In a funny manner, explain why boys or girls are more trouble than they are a trophy. Here is one of the examples of your argument – if you want to have something to show off, go get a dog. People will be more impressed by a cute corgi than a boy.
And last but not least, there is a website called www.newsoftheweird.com where you can pick up great ideas for funny persuasive speech topics too.
How to Make You Persuasive Speech Funny?
You have probably heard that you should start every funny persuasive speech with a joke of some kind to grab the audience’s attention, and it is the best way to engage with your listeners. Actually, it is not. Accomplished public speakers know it is one of the least effective ways to be funny during a persuasive speech. Here are more efficient methods and tips.
Make Your Jokes Relevant to the Topic
Since the arrival of the Internet, it is not hard at all now to find a humorous quote, story, or well-timed one-liner that certainly makes your persuasive speech more entertaining. If the audience is laughing once in a while, they are a lot more likely to keep paying attention instead of daydreaming. That is why inexperienced speakers tend to tell jokes just to get a laugh, and their stories often are not relevant to the persuasive speech topic. This approach really does not perform a service to the listeners.
Relate humor to the main message of your funny persuasive speech. Plugging in a joke so you can get a laugh is something of a disservice to the audience. Humor is good, but it should be relevant to your persuasive topic and emphasize a point.
Use Self-deprecating Humor for Your Persuasive Speech
President Gerald Ford was often skewered by comedians about his alleged clumsiness. He soon joined in on the fun by developing an arsenal of his own one-liners. Ford once brought the house down at a White House press correspondence dinner. Upon being introduced, he made his way up to the stage but as he approached the lecture and he bumped into a table. Then, a moment later, Ford pretended to trip scattering the pages of his speech in a wide swath across the floor. When he finally stood before the microphone, the president looked out over the audience and announced: “I am Gerald Ford and you are not”. If a president can make use of self-deprecating humor, it is certainly okay for the rest of us and your funny topic.
One more topic for funny speech. If you are reckless, deliver a persuasive speech on a funny topic “Why being irresponsible is a good idea?”. There is nothing more exhilarating, after all, then turning on your assignment ten seconds before its due.
Example of Funny Persuasive Speech Topic
Topic: Why Do We Use “LOL” Incorrectly?
(Take out your phone and pretend that you are typing a message). The dialogue between two students is the following:
“Did you come up with a topic for your essay?”
“No, lol, I’ve not even started on it”.
“Yeah, lol, neither have I”.
In that fake conversation, the acronym “LOL” was used twice. But did either of those two people on that side of the screen really laugh? No, they did not. Maybe because the acronym does not stand for “Laughing out loud” anymore? This is supposed to be a persuasive speech, but I do not feel like have to convince anyone, we all know this. We have just been accepting a lie. We, as a society, have changed the meaning of “LOL”. Years ago, it used to mean “laughter” or “ha ha ha”. Now, it means a whole bunch of different things, but rarely does it actually mean “laughing”.
At the very most, it means “I just breathe extra hard out of my nose”. It could mean “I have nothing worthwhile to contribute to this conversation”, so “lol”. It could mean “I am too lazy to read what you have just written”, so “lol”. It could mean “oh, I need to start somehow a sentence” or “it is not funny, but I want this guy to like me”, so “lol”. Sometimes it means "I am flirting with you; don’t you get that?"
Some statistics would prove that LOL does not mean “Laughing out loud”. There are millions of people out in this world looking down on their phones and typing LOL. The number of people you see typing that does not correlate with the amount of laughing people in the world.
Nowadays, LOL can mean “Let’s Order Limoncello”, “Lame Old Loser”, “Lying Out Loud”, or “Lord of the lambs”. But maybe it is time to “Love Out Loud”, not to laugh?
List of Funny Persuasive Speech Topics
- Why making our bed is useless?
- Why is Carrie Bradshaw’s philosophy better than Samantha’s one?
- Boys gossip and lie more than girls do (and vice versa)
- Is water really wet?
- How come Gryffindor is cooler than Slytherin?
- Blondes are not so stupid anymore.
- Horoscope is the first thing we should blame when something goes wrong.
- Being lazy contributes to a longer life.
- Skinny jeans are only for skinny people.
- Why men shouldn’t wear skinny jeans
- The good joke is always a good thing in your essay.
- Breakup insurance policy is something our world is needed.
- Which came first: the man (girl) or his (her) ego?
- Why should I marry Zac Efron?
- We should not grow old
- This world does not exist. It is just a dream of a unicorn.
- The most important finger.
- Why should funny persuasive speech be banned?
- Why is a lollipop the best present for a birthday, New Year and Hanukkah?
- If you need expert advice, you should just have a chat with yourself.
- To understand the purpose of life, you should hang out with fouryears-old.
- Why is a silent woman scarier than a screaming woman?
- Our bad decisions are necessary so we can have some funny stories and topics to tell.
- Good friends don’t care if your house is clean, good friends care if you have wine in the house.