VS 
Images by choking sun and psd
Hello class. Today’s lesson is about how to communicate poorly while trying to give a humorous speech. Pay close attention, this could be good for you.
As I’ve mentioned before I’m a member of Toastmasters. Today was meeting day. I’m working on one of my Advanced Communicator designations and I’m finally trying to complete all of the requirements. It’s been dragging on for far too long.
I had an idea for a humorous speech where you’re supposed to tell a couple of funny stories while trying to make a serious point. So, naturally, after procrastinating unduly, I came up with the idea of working in two of my travel stores (I used to travel a lot). Both of my stories involved my misplacing (OK, losing) something at an inopportune moment. I quickly put together an outline in my head and mentally rehearsed it a bit. I needed a speech title with an opening line.
The speech title was “I’m A Loser”.
I tried to inject some humor and surprise into the speech. I decided to start the speech in a seemingly self-denigrating way, just like Beck’s first hit, “Loser”. However, I wanted to convey the idea that I’m actually a loser (i.e. I lose things, possessions, etc.) not that I’m, um, not a winner.
After I gave the speech and got my evaluation (you always get an evaluation of your speech at a Toastmasters meeting), I reflected a bit and came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, no one got the joke that I was trying to make. You know, that I’m a loser, not a loser. A misplacer, not a non-winner.
Hindsight’s 20/20, as they say. In retrospect, I either should have prepared much better for the speech or, even better, tried a much less ambiguous joke. I think I try to be too sly in my humor, sometimes. I also feel like I try to be a bit too sly in my writing, but for some reason I think that my readers can pick up on it.
So, clarity is the key. Repeat.
How about you? Do you have any funny miscommunication stories?
Oh, Mark.
Bravo.
Yeah, what can I say?
[...] A lesson in which words have multiple meanings = communication failure (broadcasting-brain.com) [...]