A wedding speech definitely shares some features with a piece of bibliographical or historical writing. This genre is largely based upon real life events, which are traditionally shown in the course of their development (e.g. the bride and groom’s love story line). In this connection, some kinds of wedding speeches should be based upon a thorough preparatory research. This is especially characteristic of the best man’s speech because his task is to “fish out” the funniest episodes from the life of the groom and make the audience see newlyweds from some unexpected angle (“What is your role: best man”).
There exist many approaches to carrying out the pre-wedding investigation. For instance, a best man can consult the groom’s family, friends, former teachers, colleagues and bosses. Another option is to look through family archives and school essays (like “A Girl I Will Marry”) in order to trace a gold vein of comicality. Traditionally, the humor of the wedding speech is derived either from finding some striking contrast or a funny association to mock at. Furthermore, a best man can wittily compare a horoscope prognosis and actual events of the day (especially when stars predict something utterly irrelevant). A promising methodology is to wittily emphasize a clear-cut distinction between the groom’s personal features and, say, the meaning of his first name (the image of his celebrity idol, etc.). (“5-Minute Course”). The groom and the wedding ceremony can undergo a pseudo-scientific analysis against the background of a historical event that took place the same day as the wedding reception did. Well-known events such as man’s first step on the moon can provide a guaranteed humorous effect when referred to as a part of a groom’s feats to conquer his new wife.
