A few words about humor when you are writing your speech

HUMOR

Every one of us has had to endure a speech where the guy thought he was funny. Painful, isn’t it? The simple rule about using humor is this: keep it low-key, make it smart and make it quick. Another valuable rule is to personalize your humor - draw from your own experiences and your natural humor will come through.
Tradition suggests leading off a speech with a joke. We say, WRONG! If your joke bombs, you’ve lost your audience before you’ve even begun. Furthermore, as far as racist jokes, ethnic jokes, sexist jokes and dirty jokes are concerned, in a word: DON’T.
HECKLERS