A steamroller, lying, and a fear of public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a humorous LinkedIn post by Sue Keogh about British public speaking coach (and former stand-up comic) Jon Torrens where he claims:

 

“78% of people would rather be run over by a steamroller than be forced to do public speaking, and the other 22% are lying. Or so it says here, in a survey I’ve just made up.”

Where did he get that combination of three items? The 1988 comedy film A Fish Called Wanda has a Steamroller Showdown Scene between stutterer Ken Pile (Michael Palin) and Otto West (Kevin Kline).

 

And Mark Abrahams has repeatedly talked about how 85% of people fear public speaking and the other 15% are lying. See my September 29, 2020 blog post titled A quantified version of a discredited Mark Twain quotation about fear of public speaking.

 

The steamroller image came from here at Wikimedia Commons.