I think it was a great idea for Pamela to use a humorous joke as an icebreaker. However, Pamela did not hit the mark with her audience. The first thing Pamela needs to do is know her audience. Telling a joke to audience that you do not know leads to dangerous zone. She needs to make sure the joke will not cover anything like religion, race or someone’s gender. Pamela wants to engage the audience not run them away. The best advice I can give Pamela is to rehearse the joke with other friends and let them provide a candid feedback. If they provide any criticism of the joke, then I would not use it before the presentation.
