Public Speaking Sucks | Sangent - The Daily Ramblings

submitted by Sang on 12.16.2005 in Jokes

After he received his Nobel Physics Award in 1927, Arthur Compton was very much in demand as a speaker at universities and conferences. He wasn’t really very interested in public speaking, so he developed a standard speech which he repeated whenever necessary. To make these public speaking obligations more tolerable to Compton, he was provided with a chauffeur who drove him to the site, and who then sat in the back of the hall until the speech was over. One night on the way to a talk, Compton was complaining about having to deliver the speech again. The chauffeur responded, “If you think it’s boring giving that speech over and over, think about how boring it is for me having to listen to it. I know the whole speech word for word.”

Well, that got Compton thinking. It occurred to him that nobody at the lecture hall knew what he looked like. He arranged to trade clothes with the chauffeur and let him give the speech. Compton took a seat at the back of the hall as the chauffeur began to speak. The speech was given flawlessly. Thunderous applause followed. The master of ceremonies then called the speaker back for a short question-and-answer session. The first question was on the kinetic energy of the recoiling electron in X-ray scattering experiments. The chauffeur listened carefully to the question and then responded, “That is a really dumb question. In fact, that question is so dumb, I think I’ll have my chauffeur answer it.”