Heh.. I took speech as a freshman and was still quite the gaming nerd. (1993) I did mine on "Why gaming is not a waste of time". Did my followup "How to" speech on "How NOT to get beaten up by the college football team". (Hint: It's means not getting drunk in the dorm and yell shit out the eighth story window at other angry drunks on a weekend night).
I usually tried to make my speeches funny. I know EXACTLY what you mean about listening to painful speeches. Mine were at least tolerable, and I received As on all of them.
(And my speech prof was an incredibly hot twentysomething female. That made it one of my favorite classes!)
Unrelated, but I had 2 wisdom teeth taken out the day I had to give the group's oral report in some business class. I was high as a kite and my mouth was full of bloody gauze. I said "Mrfl glurg..." And the teacher said, "That's disgusting. Sit down. You get an A."