From big conference halls to virtual employee meetings, there is a lot that rides on having an engaging presentation or event.
"Laughter is the best medicine. "Humor is a great way to engage an audience and is a perfect way to break the ice. It serves as a great transition into interesting and important conversations.
How do you inject humor into your online meetings? Funny poll questions! Let's dive deeper.
Related: Presentation Icebreakers that Really Work
Improving communication in the workplace contributes to a business's success. Connecting with employees is especially important during the pandemic, when everyone feels isolated while working remotely. Luckily, there are many ways to do that, but first, you might need to get over the awkwardness that could happen at the beginning of a meeting or presentation.
Humor relaxes people. It helps them to relate more to others that they may feel disconnected with, such as colleagues at work or new business connections.
Poll questions are also great for getting to know the audience. As long as the questions don't probe too deep, most people will answer them with no issues. Everyone gets to know some fun facts or what-ifs, and the entire room relaxes a bit more.
Funny poll questions aren't always the number one option to consider for starting every business meeting. For one, they can get boring quickly — even more so if you use the same few questions over and over.
The biggest reason why is that they may not always be appropriate. If the meeting is about something dire, levity may distract from the issue at hand. If the meeting is short and small, it may be easier to get to the point and get back to work.
Using funny poll questions should be the go-to choice for new employees, a dramatic shift in the physical workspace, or new management.
Related: How to Make Meetings Suck Less
Funny poll questions can come in many forms and perform all manners of functions beyond breaking the ice. You can break them down into 4 major areas: image poll questions, puns, fun facts, and hypothetical scenarios.
Image poll questions are visual. They test everyone for a keen eye and sometimes a sharp wit.¬†Image poll questions are great for crafting a game. They're often based around spotting certain items or finding differences in pictures. They can drive both competition and cooperation — two fantastic team-building skills.
Puns are a big category. They're funny poll questions designed not to dig too much into a person's life but to make them laugh. These types of questions can give you a good glimpse into the humor of your employees as a group.
Puns can break the ice the best if you are looking to create a very casual and fun environment. They aren't for everyone and can get old fast, but for a quick feeling of ease, they work wonders.
Fun facts are a personal collection of questions that help to get to know people better. Asking personal, harmless facts about each employee helps everyone know each other in the workplace.
This is great for building relationships in your workforce. They do a solid job of breaking the ice, though you need to ensure that the questions remain fun and in good taste.
Another fun test of skills and mindset is the hypothetical scenarios form of questions. They can elaborate "what if" questions or simple "either/or" scenarios.
You can't make the scenarios feel too forced, or they will feel inauthentic. You can, however, mask their purpose. Answers to these hypothetical scenarios will help you see how your employees handle potential situations.
Hypotheticals are where you can get the most creative and philosophical.
Icebreaker polls help set the tone for the remainder of the meeting or presentation. Like a normal conversation, these one-liners allow the participants to feel more comfortable and interested in the discussion that follows.
Whether it's fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice, the participants' answers provide relatability to either the topic at hand or to those each-other. Icebreaker polls also provide an opportunity for attendees to relate to one another or to see how they differ.
Humor is usually a great icebreaker, but icebreaker polls are also helpful to introduce challenging topics or issues. Regardless of the topic, these polls allow the speaker to be on a more relatable position with the audience.
Related: 14 Ways To Approach Conflict And Difficult Discussions At Work
Looking for a live polling platform? Use MeetingPulse to poll your audience. 
Remote work polls are questions about anything related to working remotely. These polls are perfect for team building, and they allow participants to share their personal experiences.
These polls are an easy and lighthearted way to help expose what is or is not working well for remote employees. Whether it's sharing what their remote work setting looks like or sharing their enjoyments or struggles, these polls allow employers and managers a chance to serve their employees and teams better.
Asking remote work-related questions helps form that virtual culture further and shows employees that their experiences and job satisfaction are important to the company. Including humor in these poll questions helps to relax tensions and apprehensions around working remotely.
Curious how to quickly engage members of your team remotely? Watch this video on how to use polls & surveys using MeetingPulse!
To get a better understanding of what these funny poll questions can be, we have 35 examples across the 4 major types to show you. Use these as a jumping-off board to craft your own questions. Make them personal to you, your management style, and your company.
Remember, humor is subjective. While some of these questions can seem serious, approaching them with a bit of creativity can go a long way.
We also have more fun poll questions here.
Finding the best funny poll questions to use with your audience may take a bit of trial and error. On top of humor, there are many other variables to good event planning and plenty of ways to improve it.
That is where we come in. Meeting Pulse has the tools and expertise to engage your employees and clients alike. You can ask questions like the ones we've shown above, using multiple choice questions for fun facts and audience sentiment to find out how funny your puns are.
Our short answer format and live Q&A sessions are great for hypothetical scenarios, and you can even incorporate images. With our fun and easy-to-use tool, you can start off any meeting by connecting people with a little bit of humor. Start a demo with us and see for yourself.
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