Small whispers of double you tee eff? would be the worst.

Try to be funny. I've been in this position before, and I can tell you from experience that laughter goes a long way with people.

For instance, I had to give a sort of thank you speech each year at this dinner for a scholarship I was getting from the alumni association at my college. The last year the head of the computer science department was there. I started off in the computer dept., and while I was talking about the various majors that I had switched to and from I make a joke about how I didn't care for the administration of the computer dept. I did it in a tasteful way, of course, and everyone laughed, including Dr. Star (the head of the comp. dept.).

Afterwards, I had a lot of people come up to me to talk, simply because I set myself apart in their minds because I made them laugh.