PowerPoint Comedy

For my Historical Geology class we had to teach a chapter of our class text book to the class in the form of an oral presentation while using PowerPoint. On April 25th, 2010 the first group presented their summarization of their chapter, and it turned out to be by far the most memorable oral presentation.

Delivery

The delivery of the oral presentation was done so in a comical fashion. Seeing as how the text is mundane, adding some comical relief to this presentation was a good move on their part. However, there is a breaking point when it comes to comedy, and they reached it within ten minutes of their presentation, when their entire presentation was thirty minutes long.

Nonverbal Signals

Nonverbal signals are great to use in an oral presentation. They can emphasis key points in a presentation, although if they are not used correctly they can appear disastrous. For example, the nonverbal gestures used in the oral presentation in my Historical Geology class were also based off of comedy. The presenter would act very dramatically when changing to a next slide by acting as if the portable slide changer device was a sword slashing into the air. At first it was cute but that cuteness diminished five slides into the presentation.

Furthermore, the presenter was nervous, which was quite evidence in his vocal fluctuations. One moment his voice would be steady, and the next it was as if he was being shaken to his very core. In fact, the nerves might have been a large factor as to why the presenter was being overly comical throughout the presentation. Sometimes when people are nervous they turn to comedy as an escape.

Besides the not-so-funny gestures and unsteady voice, the presenter did present good eye contact with the audience. This helped the class stay focused on the presenter.

Unethical Manipulation

It might not have been so clear, though the presenter’s skit might have been a cover-up for the lack of information in the PowerPoint presentation, and overall effort put into it. Once the comedy act was retiring its charm, we were able to observe that we did not really get that much information about the chapter that was being presented, but rather little bits of information that were not very clear. Thus, the presenter’s nonverbal communication through comedy was used to elude us of the fact that the PowerPoint was, in a way, incomplete.