CHAPTER 6 - Harnessing humor

In Chapter 6, Harnessing humor, Burmark suggests to use humor in our presentations to create remarkable moments that will make students retain the new given information. According to Dr. Burmark, as presenters we need to make the audience maintain childlike enthusiasm (neoteny), to give surprises making it a historical perspective (so one day they’ll look back to this and laugh about it) (Burmark, p.98). She gives very interesting facts about how smiling and laughing can help to have a healthier life. We have to remember to only tell jokes related to our presentations. By doing this, it will make the audience laugh and still they will be focused with an active mind. I find the joke scramble activity very helpful to make the students participate in sharing jokes. Later these same jokes could be used as tools for the teacher to present. Personally I am a bad joke teller, so I like the idea Dr. Burmark gives of using funny images instead. This will make my students smile by making connections and retaining new information.


Burmark, L. (2011). They snooze you lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.