I have seen several talks where the speakers have done very well to deliver good humor throughout their talks. I am not talking about the old tradition of starting with a joke, but well-timed jokes throughout the talk in key places. Recently, I remarked to a colleague that my conference talk would be a version of my job talk. She then mentioned that by the time she got her job, she knew her job talk in and out and "where all the jokes were". I suddenly thought to myself - are folks funny because they give the same joke every time they give a talk? Is this indeed rehearsed? And most importantly, could I be a better speaker if I did this?
While I suspect some speakers do rehearse their jokes, I doubt this would work well for myself without a LOT of rehearsing. When I try to deliver a planned joke of any kind, even retelling simple jokes to my friends, I often deliver the punchline first and realize I've already ruined the joke. Though, "even a really lame joke will get a good laugh in a science talk".
Some argue that humor makes the speaker more relaxed and in turn the audience. What about spontaneous jokes then? Sometimes things go wrong (projector breaks, computer is incompatible, slides are cut off, etc.) and having a sense of humor about it indeed relaxes your audience. However, as a scientist, my off-the-cuff jokes don't always come out great, so best to vet it to a smaller audience first. Preferably friends who aren't afraid to tell me that I either am not funny or am offensive. While humor could definitely improve my overall speaking ability, it could also detract from my work and make me some enemies. So, if the overall goal of humor is to connect with my audience, and I can do that effectively without humor, I am doing okay!
Maybe I can work on becoming humorous in the future, but I am glad to know that I can still be an effective speaker without it.
