What the Republican and Democratic Conventions Reminded Me About Humor

The First Lady joked about the Obamas’ life as a young couple. (Pic: grio.com/Getty Images)

Senator Marco Rubio displayed effective self-effacing humor. (pic: Treasure Coast Newspapers)

Humor is not only a necessary component of life, but is also an important tool in communications.

Humor used in public speaking can help one create a bond with the audience, put people at ease, and can even make the audience like you.

I once attended a talk given by a humor expert from Australia, and I learned a lot from the event. He outlined the worst and the best types of humor.

The worst type of humor, and which should be avoided, is the kind where you laugh at someone, or is mean-spirited.

The best kind of humor is one where you gently laugh at yourself, or one where you make people laugh with you. I think one of the best examples of the former was displayed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio at the Republican National Convention. He said: “Not so long ago I was just a deep underdog candidate. The only people who thought I could win all live in my house. Four of them were under the age of 10.”

Another good example was in Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention: “And believe it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage. We were so young, so in love, and so in debt.”

There were mixed opinions whether Clint Eastwood’s performance of talking to an empty chair, pretending that it was Obama, and portraying the President as a profanity-speaking, angry man was humorous or disrespectful to the President.

 What I found funny was the behind-the-scene miscommunication/assumption about the chair. It was reported that the Republican Convention organizers had no idea why Eastwood wanted the chair. Cbsnews.com reports: ”The furniture was a last-minute backstage request. According to a Romney campaign official, “he just asked a prop person to bring a chair out and the prop person thought he would just sit in it”.”

 As it turned out, the 82-year-old Eastwood did not need the chair as support, but instead turned it into a bizarre performance that took much of the spotlight away from Mitt Romney’s speech.