<p>This sucks. I've tried to come up with so many ways to make a humorous speech but none satisfy me. Does anyone have a copy of their speech or examples of humor.</p>
<p>And- What the hell should i talk about????- "Good luck", "we'll survive the obstacles and challenges", "?????"</p>
<p>I wasn't val, but ours (we had our graduation already) had a good bit of humor. It was mostly only for those who took advanced courses. Ex. She equated each person to an M&M (we worked with M&M's alot in Stats), and just stuff like that. She also talked about all the stuff we learn in high school that we deem unnecessary and question when we will use it in real life and then urged us to pursue something that we enjoy. That was the serious stuff. Some other humorous stuff dealt with Shakespeare, and just inside jokes from AP classes. It's been a few weeks. I have no clue if this helped you out or not. Hope it did. G'luck.</p>
<p>does the speech have to be pre-approved? Cuz making fun of teachers is always funny. And even if it does have to be approved, you could do the switcheroo like the senior speaker did two years ago. He wrote two speeches, showed the upper school head the "appropriate one" and then read his other speech. It was hilarious.</p>
<p>I attended a graduation last week and the speaker talked about Yogi Bear and how he was 'smarter than the average bear'. He was telling the class they should strive to be better than average (or something like that).</p>
<p>Search for Conan O'Brien's Harvard Commencement speech. You don't have to use M&M's or Yogi Bear, you can just exaggerate and not take yourself too seriously.</p>
<p>Humor only works best if it sounds natural. If you're having a hard time making it humorous, maybe it's just not your thing. Speeches that aren't funny can still be good. How about aiming for saying what you want to say in a noncorny noncliche way? Your humor will probably leak out better if you aren't trying to focus on being funny.</p>
<p>our school's graduation was on fri. its a strict catholic school where the speeches have to be pre-approved and re-approved. the val gets up there after the two sal's dreadfully boring speeches and just says "hey. so i wrote four speeches and i think im gonna go with the one i wrote last night. it wasnt approved, but guess what. I have the mic. and they cant stop me." he said it really casually with sarcasm, which made it funny. he went on to say that we each have our own mics that give us our own ways to express ourselves differently...
His sister was val a few years ago too. we have strict uniform codes, so she begins by saying 'hey bishop. look down. what shoes are you wearing?' it was really random. but great. she said that in a school like ours, the shoes were the only thing that gave us individuality and show who we really are. we're all individuals, yadda yadda.
Good luck!</p>
<p>a few years ago a guy at our school rapped his graduation speech. it was amazing, although the administration nearly killed him.</p>
<p>The board members and administrators were sitting right behind me while I was giving mine. I had written it with the specific intent to NOT offend anyone, though I gave it serious consideration. Still, I had a part about procrastination (I put off writing the speech till the night before graduation...) and they made annoyed noises at that. Then I had a part "to my liberal tree-hugging friends" and there were more gasps and thumping around. My friends said their expressions were amusing. It really surprised me, because I honestly thought I was giving a completely unobjectionable, blah, bland, typical speech.
To make the speech funny, you could pick something a little off the wall to give advice about. Like, instead of saying "You can achieve anything, blah blah blah" you could say, "Lifting weights is the best way to keep your life happy" or whatever random thing you think everyone should do/use/wear. Poking fun at someone well-known but not necessarily well-liked would work too, but I think it's in poor taste to say anything mean. You could think of quirks that all the more popular teachers have and find a way to work them in.</p>
<p>Try not to make your speech too funny for you personally to deliver. I originally wrote mine funny to read, but I am not funny enough to deliver it well. I changed it around and made everything more subtle, less blatant "laugh at me" lines, and it went over great. But if you are one of those awesome (and rare) kids who can make anyone laugh at anything, go for humor. We had two kids do that, and they both got standing ovations. I had never before seen a standing ovation for a high school graduation speech.</p>
<p>for anything to be funny, you have to sound confident as well</p>
<p>for example, my brother's grad speaker kept on saying things like</p>
<p>"People keep on saying that we have so much to learn, but we're seniors, so we know everything." But he said it in such a non-chalant and cocky way that he seemed to be poking fun at himself, which everyone found funny</p>
<p>... of humor in a graduation speech.</p>
<p>A link to the aforementioned 2000 Harvard Commencement Address by Conan O'Brien <a href="http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm</a></p>
<p>Will Ferrell's 2003 Class Day Speech for Harvard (this one is pretty funny)
<a href="http://www.commencement.harvard.edu/2003/ferrell.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.commencement.harvard.edu/2003/ferrell.html</a></p>
<p>Jon Stewart's Commencement Speech at his alma mater William and Mary
<a href="http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=3650%5B/url%5D">http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=3650</a></p>
<p>hahah will ferrell...</p>
<p>i loved the bit about the porno industry.</p>
<p>Conan and Stewart got it right. Will Ferrell? Blegh, that was more of an SNL sketch than anything.</p>
<p>Our closing speech was hilarious- it got both death glares from the administration and a standing ovation from the audience.</p>