How Does One Judge a Speech on Mental Disorders?

Body language is very important in discussing how effective a speech is and Jon Ronson broke many of the usual expectations for how you would present yourself in a speech. Usually for body language in speeches it is better to be open and welcoming of the audience as it helps them to engage and connect with the speaker but  Ronson did not do that. In the beginning of his speech he is very closed up, yet it connects to the content of his speech. Mental disorders are usually seen as a closed of topic and his body language worked to show that also, yet in his speech he made it somewhat connectable.

However, I think he excelled especially in making a usually distant issue of mental disorder more relatable in his speech. He made many light jokes about how he had 12 self diagnosed mental disorders after reading the list of them which helped the audience connect and get interested in what he was saying. It made it sticky to the audience as they really cannot connect with having a mental disorder as most people do not, or at least do not realize they do have one, yet he made it relatable to everyone. Humor is sticky as it is showing us something we have not seen before and giving us a unique perspective on it, which causes us to laugh. Also we just innately enjoy comedy, and if we realize we are listening to a speech that is going to make us laugh, our attention span lasts longer. The standardized tests ted talk that we watched of a student is a perfect example of this as she began with a joke about rating a guy with a number, an eight, and then connected it to how we rate ourselves on a score. Her speech, as with this speech, shows how humor can be very effective in grabbing the interest of the audience at the beginning and keeping that attention through to the end.

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