Sometimes, competitors are disappointed when they learn that the After Dinner category isn’t exactly the same thing as a stand up comedy routine. ADS is more than just a string of jokes, not in the least because most speech and debate leagues have a section on their ADS ballots for something like “merit,” “message,” or “impact.” Competitors often chafe at the fact that they’re being restricted in this way. After all, the only reason anyone wants to compete in ADS is because they want to be FUNNY! Leave the serious stuff for the persuasives! Right? These aren’t just empty complaints either – I’ve talked to many competitors who feel strongly that shoehorning a message into a speech where it doesn’t belong is little more than judge pandering.
Although I think that this claim is slightly unfair, since even a poorly executed message is still a nod to the fact that your speech should at least attempt to communicate something worth sharing, there’s still some truth to this criticism. I’ve seen plenty of speeches that lean in the direction of something known as “Jesus Juking”. It’s most common in impromptu speaking, because competitors are short on time which means that they often have a formula that they follow for each of their speeches that goes something like, “story 1, story 2… then God”. Unfortunately, if story 1 and story 2 contain no hint of this higher narrative, the end result can be in an impact that comes across as something of a non sequitur, or even worse – insincere.
All of this to say, I understand where they’re coming from when a competitor says they don’t want a message in their speech. I totally understand!… I just think they’re wrong.
Take funny movies for instance. What’s the difference between a good comedy and a great comedy? What is it about movies like “Home Alone,” “My Fair Lady,” and “The Princess Bride,” that make us want to come back for more, even when we already know every witty one-liner by heart?
It’s true that we all feel a rush of satisfaction when we watch the perfect follow-through on a great joke or comedic situation, but that’s not the whole story. After all, even though the movies I mentioned are all hysterically funny, none of them are just an endless string of jokes! There’s something else that the great comedies all have in common: they all have a great STORY.
It’s funny that Kevin’s family leaves without him in the chaos of packing for their vacation, and it’s even funnier that when Kevin wakes up, he thinks that his wish made his family disappear. But somehow, the whole situation would be a whole lot less satisfying if we didn’t see his mother’s distress for her lost child or if the family wasn’t reunited in the end, after Kevin realizes that he really misses them after all. Even though this aspect of the movie isn’t exactly funny per-say, it’s still a little bit like telling a joke in that what the audience really wants is a solid follow-through; they want a conclusion that delivers on all the problems of the introduction, solved at long last and wrapped up in a neat little bow.
Similarly, “The Princess Bride” is full of great moments of wit and humor. Westley’s initial confrontations with Inigo and Fezzik are full of moments like these! But at least half of our enjoyment comes from the fact that through these moments, we learn that Inigo and Fezzik are actually complex and loveable characters in their own right, not just Vizzini’s boring evil henchmen. And on top of that, we see Westley (who is just a mystery man at this point) behave with honor and courage, facing dangerous situations and totally keeping his cool the whole time. The exchange on the cliff where Inigo says, “You seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you.” And Westley responds, “You seem a decent fellow, I hate to die,” totally cements the man in black as our favorite character ever, and it’s made even better by the fact that he really is in mortal danger at the time. Westley’s humor is what makes us want him to win, so that when he does beat the prince and save Buttercup in the end, it’s so much more satisfying.
G.K. Chesterton, who is my favorite writer and theologian of all time, writes that, “Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle.” What does he mean by that? Chesterton is saying that the fastest way to influence people–to change hearts and minds–is to make them laugh. I believe he’s right. Just like Westley and Kevin win us over with their humor, by making your audience laugh, you put them on your side from the very beginning. And paradoxically, the most effective kind of humor is the humor that is actually a vehicle for a deeper message. So how do you choose your message?
When I wrote my ADS in 2017, all I knew going in was that I really, really wanted to talk about pirates. If I hadn’t thought carefully about this topic during my writing process, it easily could have been the perfect case of the no-real-message “Jesus Juking” that I talked about earlier. After all, pirates? As in, a bunch of 17th century thieves and murderers?
But the key to finding a sincere and impactful message for your totally unserious speech is usually right in front of you. After all, the fact that you love a thing usually means that it contains something of value. You don’t think video games have value? Then why do you love them? Probably because you get a sense of accomplishment from completing difficult challenges, or you find the stories compelling, or they immerse you in adventures that you’ll never get the chance to live out in real life. All those benefits I just mentioned are rooted in things that all humans treasure, like adventure and accomplishment. Of course, the reason people object if you spend 12 hours straight playing video games is because you are substituting actual adventure and accomplishment for their virtual counterparts, but the point remains: you love things for a reason.
When I was writing my pirate speech, I thought hard about why I liked pirates so much. I started with the fact that even though they’re kind of a niche topic in history, pirates and pirate stories are still historical. So I thought about why I was interested in history. Well, that’s because history is just a bunch of stories. True stories! Why do people like stories? To a certain extent, everybody loves stories because they tell us how we should and shouldn’t act–that’s why we love the heroes and hate the villains. But even though history is full of stories that we can learn from, we never seem to know how to apply the lessons that history teaches to the present day. Aha! What’s funny and yet also totally applicable to people’s everyday lives? The life lessons of piracy, that’s what. And that’s the story of how my pirate self-help speech made it all the way to Nationals.
All of that was just a very long way to say that any speech idea, no matter how flippant it seems, naturally has its own values and messages locked away inside it. I know this because if you picked the topic yourself, that means you value it. And whatever you value, you value for a reason. So as you get ready to write your ADS this season, spend a little time thinking about what drew you to your topic. Why do you love dolphins or nuclear reactors or the Guinness World Record book? Talk to your friends or your parents – try to explain why you picked your topic. Have them ask you questions until you get to the fundamental treasure at the bottom of your hobby or interest. You never know – the answer might just surprise you!