At 07:15 pm 16/04/99 Robert Bacal wrote:
>This conversation, in less than 24 hours has moved from a simple
>request regarding what I could post to a discussion of whether jokes
>are ok to whether humor is a good thing in life!
I took this request as a threat to swamp all discussion lists with
cross-posts. But ... I don't sweat the little stuff because it ain't
really that important in the big scheme of things. Hey, I have an idea, we
could talk about how certain list members seem to hog the discussions,
which makes it hard to contribute when the USA is "chatting" away whilst
half-the-world is asleep but ... it ain't really that important in the big
scheme of things.
>It's pretty amazing--the drift in the conversation and the additional
>volume the drift has created.
It's just like in business (funny that ... ha, ha???). You meet someone at
the photocopier and tell them a joke. You bump into them in the tea room
and they tell you a joke as repayment. As for the "drift" in the
conversation, it's like going to a cocktail party, you start the evening
conversing about one thing and then the topic "drifts" and you leave
talking about something else.
From a pedantic point of view, we could have a philosophical discussion
about whether jokes and humour are the same thing. I'd argue that they are
not. If they were, then I wouldn't be a humourous conference speaker
because I don't tell jokes (but I am humourous). For what it is worth, I
see nothing wrong with people telling jokes, either verbally or
electronically.
From a purely academic point of view we could continue this discussion by
citing examples of the integration of humour in the workplace at Benny &
Jerry's, Kodak Eastman, the Birmingham Hospital (UK), et al. That would
certainly add an element of credibility to the discussion. After all,
there are many, many, many papers written on the use of humour in the
workplace. The dearth of literature is in the area of "humour in
cross-cultural settings". I know this for a fact (and managers like
dealing with facts). I researched and wrote a paper (unpublished) on this
very topic about five years ago and discovered this gap in the literature.
Maybe list members could work together to write a collective paper and turn
this discussion into a very proactive, community building sort of thing.
Now, wouldn't that be funny??? (ha, ha).
Remember, death takes on too much importance when one is not participating
in life.
Alan :-)
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Alan Wilson ~ Facilitated Solutions
Speaker & Trainer to the Meetings Industry