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PUBLIC SPEAKING resources for you
Public Speaking:
Humorous Signs
I run across funny signs all the time. I try to take a mental note or take a picture of the sign for later use during a public speaking engagement.
John Jay Daly, a friend of mine involved in public speaking, does a hysterical slide presentation called The Wacky, Wonderful World of Washington. Many of the slides are of signs that he has seen around Washington, D.C.
My favorite is a sign that says, In case of nuclear attack, the ban on school prayer will be lifted. Another slide has a brass plaque on the front of a large building that says, All Deliveries Go to Rear of Building. The next slide is the brass plaque on the back of the same building that says, No Deliveries.
You can have lots of fun with signs in your public speaking. I just showed you two ways you can use them. In the last paragraph, I told you about the signs my friend uses in his slide presentation. That's one way. The second way is to actually show them, as my friend does, by means of projection. A third way is to have the sign or signs with you and hold them up.
I just attended
a Meeting Planners International function where the presenter had his own applause
sign. Everyone applauded on cue and had a good laugh because of it. Such signs
are an easy way to add humor to your public speaking.
Photographic Tip: When taking pictures or slides of funny signs for public
speaking, always fill the photographic frame up completely with the sign. The
impact of the sign for your public speaking is much greater when you do this
. Click here for sample
of filling the frame.
Some of my favorite signs:
At a hospital in Prince Georges County, Maryland:
Hospital Policy is to refuse service to hospital patients. (This was
posted at the snack bar.)
A Charles County, Maryland newspaper job ad ad read:
Strippers needed for newsprint preparation and placement room.
Funny tombstone
inscription:
As I am now, you soon shall be. Prepare for death and follow me.
Scribbled below: To follow you I'm not content. Until I know which way you
went.
Another tombstone: It's so soon, I'm done for, I wonder what I was
begun for!
On church marquee: Honey I Shrunk the Sermon
On door of small restaurant: Out to lunch
Sign in front of bankrupt store: We Undersold Everybody.
These English language signs were seen outside the United
States:
Advertisement for a Hong Kong dentist: Teeth extracted by latest methodists.
Somewhere in an elevator: Do not enter the lift backwards, and only
when lit up.
1936 French sign: Don't kill your wife with work, let electricity
do it.
In a Bangkok drycleaner's window: Drop your trousers here for best
results.
Please leave your values at the front desk. (France)
You are invited
to take advantage of the chambermaid. (Japan)
Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in
the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose. (Switzerland)
I saw this sign on a display in a shoe store
All our spring colors are now in. (All shoes on the rack were white.)
Keep your eye out for funny signs so that you can tell your audiences about
them or show them.
Here's my favorite sign of all time from a hotel in Acapulco, Mexico:
The manager has personally passed all water served here.
Outside of an eatery at a Prince George's County shopping mall:
Fried Crockers luncheon special - $4.99.
