Dear DaniWeb members,

I'm sorry to just come here and directly throw question onto you. But I'm kind of stuck and I can't proceed further.

We need to make presentation at school about subject that is alike to IT i.e. programming, website development, software development, servers, anything related to computers. So I thought Hacking would be quite interesting. Nobody wants hear how many transistors are in CPU or what are AND/XOR gates, nobody wants to hear how HDD/SSD work. And hacking would be a good subject because it would be at least mildly interesting for teenagers and non-irrelevant to adults.

That's the problem. I'm not best with jokes on this topic. Everybody knows that there are 10 types of people, ones who know binary and those who don't. But nobody would really understand such joke. I don't know which easy-to-understand and on-topic jokes I could put onto presentation. Topics I have got are DoS, BruteForce, Viruses and others, Phishing, Hacker At Work. I know that all of these aren't really sophisticated types of hacking, but they still count as such and I don't think that showing teens/adults (17-24 and 35-50?) how to hack using exploits.

The country the presentation will be in is Netherlands, so I don't think I can quite put correct English puns in it, that are really based on English "mixagony". I expect it to be about 30 people aged from 17 to 24 years and 30-60 people aged from... their parents, 30-60 people will be their parents.

Thank you already for spending your time reading this topic.

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Topics I have got are DoS, BruteForce, Viruses and others, Phishing, Hacker At Work

Please use the right phrase then, use "Cracking". Hacking is not the term for breaking stuff, the media turned it's real meaning.

I can't really anymore, I don't see button for "Edit".

I meant in your presentation, not in your post ;)

commented: Okay. Will do. +0

I've often found playing on people's stereotypes rather than 'punchline' type jokes can be a good way to add humour to presentations and get people engaged -> it gives you and your audience something in common. But importantly they have to be the right stereotypes for your audience (using the wrong stereotype can alienate your audience - think teachers trying to be 'cool' by using outdated slang) so I can't give you many specifics but one example could be the "nigerian prince" associated with Phishing attacks. These are also a lot easier to work into the flow of a presentation as well, another example for DoS could be "Let's say someone's really mad at McDonald's for not having any beef in their 'beef burgers' and they decide to use a DoS attack on their website ...."

The other way to add humour to a presentation is to subvert expectations, for instance putting up a picture of Ebola when they expect you to be talking about computer viruses then making a joke that isn't quite what you meant when you said you'd be talking about viruses.

Lastly if you're not so good a thinking jokes up yourself is to use existing one-panel cartoons/comics (I think copy-right isn't a problem as long as it is strictly for educational purposes?) to put in at the beginning or end of a particular point (assuming you're using a slideshow).

Disclaimer: This is based on a Canadian/British sense of humour, I don't know what the Netherland's humour style is like so these may or may not be applicable. Humour can be very different depending on the audience since you have a mixed audience try to make sure there is something for everyone but not everyone has to get every joke (consider Pixar films where there is silly slapstick for young kids but euphemisms and things like that for adults).

I get why McDonald's part is funny. But I don't get thing about Ebola, and "Nigerian prince".

There are no one word jokes. Context, and set-up is important.

The nigerian prince was an example of a sterotype which could be injected to humourous effect, eg. when introducing yourself "I'm blah blah currently an academic software engineer but not for much longer, I just got and e-mail from a special nigerian prince" or after some statistics on the frequency of phishing "who knew nigeria had so many princes" or after talking about the rise of social-media base phishing "So the next nigerian prince needing help might be one of your facebook friends".

The ebola thing could go something like "Now I want to talk about the infection threatening to destroy civilization as we know it" <picture of ebola> "No not that one" <picture/name of recent computer virus> "That's it <stuff about computer viruses>"

You can also use silly analogies eg. punching a wall for BruteForce. or silly illustrations.

I leave the rest up to you because someone else can't just insert jokes into your presentation, jokes create a little pause in the flow (so people can 'get' the joke) so you have to find the rhythm that works for you - there is a reason there is such a thing as 'comedic timing' - If you just don't feel it then take the other option I gave of finding one or two panel comics by other people that somewhat relate to put into it.

Finally, some people just aren't funny there is no shame in that you don't have to be funny to get people's attention or get people to enjoy/remember your talk. Generally getting people to feel any emotion will make a presentation memorable & engaging whether it is empathy, inspiration, astonishment, fear, etc... Try watching some TEDtalks if you need ideas.

If you have a stuffy audience then humor, particularly forced humor, might go over like a lead balloon. Otherwise simply google for the category of jokes and pick some that fit.

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