How to Be Funny in a Presentation (When Your Content Absolutely Is Not)

It’s 3pm on a Friday. You’re about to present your departmental strategy. Your audience has the glazed look of people who’ve already mentally checked out – and you haven’t even clicked to slide one yet.

You already know that humour is a method that’ll make your presentations more engaging whether your audience is commercial or technical, helping the content become memorable, but you’ve no idea how to make a dry presentation funny.

Here’s the good news: you don’t need to be a stand-up comedian to get a laugh. You don’t even need jokes. In fact, you don’t even need to be naturally funny. What you do need are the right techniques – and there are nine of them.

These work whether you’re an engineer presenting to the board, a consultant wading through data, or a project manager explaining something that sounds like it was designed to send people to sleep. No stand-up experience required. Not a punchline in sight.

Why Humour Works in Presentations (Even Dry Ones)

Humour makes your content stick. There’s a scientific reason for this – laughter triggers the release of dopamine, which improves memory retention and engagement: more on that here. When your audience smiles, they’re more likely to remember what you said.

Crucially, humour also bridges the gap between technical and non-technical listeners. It levels the room. And that matters whether you’re presenting to a mixed audience, a senior leadership team, or a group of specialists who’ve heard it all before.

The techniques below aren’t risky. Unlike jokes, which depend on timing, delivery, and frankly a bit of luck, these methods are low-risk, high-reward ways to raise a smile and make serious content land.

9 Ways to Be Funny in a Presentation (No Jokes Needed)

1. Shared Experience

What it is: Reference something your audience all secretly thinks but nobody says out loud.

Example (for a dev team):

“Nothing bonds a dev team like collectively pretending we know why the code works now when it didn’t five minutes ago.”

This lands because everyone in the room recognises themselves. You’re not making a joke – you’re holding up a mirror. That recognition is the humour. Use it to open a presentation, ease into a topic, or defuse tension before a tricky subject.

Apply it: Think about a frustration, absurdity, or unspoken truth your audience shares. Name it. Watch them exhale.

2. Brutal Honesty

What it is: Say the stark, candid truth that everyone’s dancing around.

Example (for engineers or architects):

“We like to say structural calculations are precise. But if it’s still standing in 50 years, that’s when we really know we got it right.”

In technical fields where careful, measured language is the norm, unexpected candour is disarming and relates to two other related reason for a chuckle: surprise (see no.3 below) and recognition, in the boldness of declaring a mutually known fact. It catches people off guard — in the best way. The boldness of just saying it is what raises the chortle.

Apply it: Find one moment in your presentation where you can drop the polish and say what’s true. That’s your brutally honest moment.

3. Unexpected Framing

What it is: Describe something technical using a completely unexpected comparison.

Example:

“Software updates are like an overly helpful assistant who insists on reorganising your desk – right in the middle of your busiest workday. You didn’t ask for it, but now everything’s been moved, and you’re stuck figuring out where your stapler went.”

The laugh comes from the jolt of the unexpected. Your audience is expecting technical language and they get… a desk reorganisation story. That surprise is funny. It also makes abstract concepts far easier to grasp.

Apply it: Take your most complex concept and ask: what mundane, everyday situation does it actually feel like? Want an analogy? Start here.

4. Personification

What it is: Give inanimate objects or abstract concepts human traits.

Example (simple):

“My laptop has decided it’s had enough and is now refusing to cooperate. I respect its boundaries.”

Example (advanced – from a Pharmaceutical Consultant in training):

“The drugs don’t just work – they’re seasoned diplomats, negotiating peace treaties between gut flora, stomach acid, and that one rogue enzyme that always tries to start a fight.”

Personification makes technical concepts accessible especially for mixed audiences. When you animate the abstract, non-technical listeners can follow, and technical listeners appreciate the creative framing. It breaks the rules of reality, which is inherently amusing.

Apply it: Pick one technical process in your presentation. Give its key components human roles – diplomat, troublemaker, reluctant teammate. Go from there.

5. Absurd Comparisons

What it is: Connect two ideas that have absolutely no business being in the same sentence – and then make it work.

Example (from a client in Agriculture):

“Managing manure for sustainable farming is like curating fine perfume – balance, precision, and just the right microbial breakdown makes all the difference between something that’s good to be around and something that clears the room.”

The contrast between manure and perfumery works because the underlying logic is sound. Your audience is surprised, amused and they’ve understood the point. Much like good-quality manure, it sinks in.

Apply it: What’s the most unexpected, high-status comparison you could make for your driest subject? Lean in.

6. Exaggeration

What it is: Amplify something minor into something hilariously significant.

Example: A consultant once described how to make sourdough bread in a presentation skills workshop. At the end, she referred to her topic as “her life’s work.” Her deadpan delivery made the whole room smile.

Exaggeration works because the gap between reality and the claim is funny. It doesn’t require a big setup – often a single phrase, delivered dryly, does the job.

Apply it: Find something you’ve done or know well that you could playfully – and wildly – over-claim. “A decade of research led me to this PowerPoint.” That kind of thing.

7. Overly Formal Language in Casual Contexts

What it is: Apply stiff, corporate language to a completely mundane situation.

Example:

“I have conducted a thorough risk assessment and concluded that attempting to parallel park in front of colleagues is a reputational hazard.”

The joke is the mismatch. Boardroom language applied to something trivial creates the same surprise effect as exaggeration. It’s the verbal equivalent of wearing a tuxedo to a car boot sale.

Apply it: Think of an everyday observation you could dress up in the most pompous language possible. The more absurdly formal, the better.

8. Laugh at Yourself

What it is: Gently mock yourself – ideally a strength, not a weakness – to come across as confident and relatable.

Example (an Industry Analyst):

“As an Industry Analyst, I’ve learned to anticipate disruption before it happens. That’s why I’m the only one at this conference who’s strategically stockpiled pastries before the coffee break stampede.”

This works because it signals credibility and self-awareness. You’re not undermining yourself – you’re showing you don’t take yourself too seriously, which actually increases trust.

What to avoid: Mocking your own competence, especially early on. This one below crosses the line:

“Market forecasting is exciting until you realise you’re basically making an extremely educated guess.”

Save the self-deprecation until after you’ve established credibility.

Bonus: If something goes wrong mid-presentation – a tech glitch, wrong slide – this is your moment. A light, confident remark acknowledges the slip without dwelling on it:

“Ah, last year’s figures. The past does have a habit of pulling you back.”

Short, smooth, confident. That’s the sweet spot.

9. Borrowed Humour

What it is: Use a meme, video clip, or cultural reference that does the funny lifting for you.

Social platforms are full of material that’s relevant to any industry – a perfectly-timed meme before a pitch, a short clip that visualises your point, a screenshot that everyone in your sector will recognise. You’re not stealing material; you’re curating it.

Example:

There’s plenty of comic value in this 27-second clip from ‘Space Force’. The humour stems from the absurdity of placing a mundane situation – the computer update, which usually causes mere inconvenience – in a context where the stakes are literally sky-high.

This combines ‘Exaggeration’ and ‘Borrowed Humour’ but don’t watch it aloud with young ears around as John Malkovich barks some rather juicy language.

Apply it: Before your next presentation, spend ten minutes on LinkedIn, X, or Instagram searching your topic. Chances are, someone’s already made the meme your audience needs to see.

How to Use These Techniques: A Simple Action Plan

1. Finish your presentation first. Get the content solid before you hunt for humour.
2. Look at your notes (not a script – please not that) and ask: where does energy dip? Where might an audience drift? Those are your target moments.
3. Pick one or two techniques from the list above that feel natural to you – don’t try to crowbar all nine in.
4. Say it out loud to someone. Watch how it lands. Adjust accordingly.
5. With mixed audiences, make sure your humour doesn’t alienate the technical side or fly over the heads of the non-technical. Shared experience and personification tend to be the safest bets.

Frequently Asked Questions About Humour in Presentations

Can you be funny in a presentation without telling jokes? Yes – and honestly, for most business presentations, you should avoid jokes entirely. Jokes depend on timing and can easily misfire. The nine techniques above are lower-risk and more reliable ways to raise a smile.

What’s the easiest way to add humour to a dry presentation? Shared experience is usually the easiest starting point. Think about an unspoken truth your audience all recognises – name it, and let them laugh in recognition. No setup required.

How do you use humour in a technical presentation? Personification and unexpected framing work well for technical content. They make abstract concepts accessible to non-technical listeners without dumbing anything down for the experts.

Is self-deprecating humour a good idea in presentations? It can be but only once you’ve established credibility. Mock a strength, not a weakness. And if something goes wrong in the room, a light, confident response is always better than cringing apology.

What makes a presentation funny without trying too hard? Understatement, brutal honesty, and dry delivery. The less you signal “this is the funny bit,” the better it tends to land.

Want to Go from Vanilla to THRILLER?

If you want to be genuinely compelling – whether you’re presenting to a boardroom, a conference, or a Zoom room full of people with one eye on their inbox – presentation skills training with Frankie Kemp will get you there.

You’ll learn how to make even the driest subject engaging, memorable, and, yes, genuinely entertaining.

Get in touch here to talk about what you or your team need. Become a Communication Ninja.

Related reading:

• Why humour makes serious subjects stick
• How to reach mixed technical and commercial audiences
• Presentation rules for technical specialists

Originally published May 2025. Updated May 2026