James has to present a lively speech to the interns of his organization. He includes a lot of jokes to make his speech interesting. He is doubtful about how his audience will react to one of his jokes. In this scenario, which of the following strategies should he adopt?

a. He should omit the joke from his speech.
b. He should assume his audience is desensitized to offensive jokes.
c. He should tell the joke by using analogies.
d. He should save the joke for his future speech to the same audience.

a. He should omit the joke from his speech.
In this scenario, James should omit the joke from his speech. To be most effective with your formal public speeches, avoid humorous comments or jokes that may be offensive to some listeners. As a general rule, when in doubt, leave it out.