Stupid, but it worked
I'm not much of a joke teller but the other day I was in a meeting at work, a meeting of a serious nature with some serious people, and things were becoming a little heavy, that is to say bogged down, and I could tell people were getting frustrated which meant the meeting was not productive. I decided I'd interrupt the conversation to suggest we should reset our attitudes and that I felt a good way to do that, find a little moment of lightness, would be by way of a joke. I basically said this: "chaps, thanks for the spirited conversation, your opinions and possible solutions, all valid and all great, but I think we need to lighten the mood so I'm going to tell a joke"
They looked at me like I'd lost my fucken senses but I pushed on anyway and said my joke.
"Guys, what do you call a man with no body or nose?" I dropped it and waited.
The people in the room looked at me and I think some of them were thinking, who the fuck brought this guy, but they eventually shrugged and indicated I should complete the joke...so I did.
"Nobody knows!"
I let that sink in. (Get it though? Yeah yeah, it's a shit joke.)
I sat there looking at those in the room who were looking back at me probably thinking, you are such a fucken idiot, and then one of them said, "that was the worst fucken joke I've ever heard!" I didn't disagree. But here's the thing, everyone started laughing right then, picking on me and calling me all sorts of unpleasant names, and the mood in the room? Well, it lightened immediately.
I started giving out as good as I was getting and, predictably, some of the guys came out with equally bad jokes that earned them an equal amount of scorn and derision as I'd received myself. It turned into a bit of a free-for-all to be honest.
Eventually we got back to work and were all a little more energised which made things much better. It ended up being a really productive meeting with excellent paths forward found and we all walked away better for it....and in a happy mood due to the productivity and the overall good feeling of a fun meeting.
Sometimes lightening the mood in a tense moment can work well; there's certainly times I'd not do what I did but there's appropriate moments for sure.
Have you ever been in a similar situation? How have you lightened the mood when things were getting tense and brought things back on track? It could be professionally, with your friends or family and many other situations. What about bad jokes? You know any?
Drop a comment below if you like.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Well i'm really funny, sometimes i don't care anything and i call tell anyone to shut up in a nice way, or bad.
Good for u at the end it was a pleasure meeting jjaja
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Yeah, it was a good meeting, the joke and ensuing mood-shift helped.
Thats a really fun game of words, and thats how normaly act when they feel power or overdose of ego stuffs (in my opinion) if u try to be serious then u not serious, the true on it is on the action and not on the actitude and...
In other part the way u say gay should be just clown, don't get those Words in ur brain and it wont fk u in the future man u got the vibe, just flame it.
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Sometimes it's best to lighten the mood right?
We call it literally "Warm the astmophere" and we do it mostly with a humour. It sometimes works while things are going to be tense
Yeah, similar here really. Got any good jokes?
Like something related to a friend's nickname, charecter or something about which was talked beforehand etc. It is hard to explain, one has to be together with a group of friend for a long while to make such jokes :)
Yeah, I think I get what you mean.
Humour is the best way to lighten a mood and that's made especially easy if one is capable of making fun of themselves.
And I like to live by a saying, If it works, it ain't stupid.
I agree and have often used humour to great advantage. I have to be careful where I tell my (stupid) jokes though, they're super shit.
Here's one of my father's favourite jokes...and he was a real clown.
Nurse, did you take that patient's temperature?
Me sir, No sir, I'm as honest as the day is long sir.
I joke a lot but I think it's only myself that finds me amusing:)
I reckon your dad would have been a crack up, I mean look at how you are. Also, I find you funny, so there's two of us.
I'm very bad at telling jokes, but it's true that I laugh at everyone, even the bad jokes hahaha.
If it has happened to me... heavy situation topic and what I did was to decompress telling some anecdote or story .... or a crazy news, something that I have heard around. It worked for me...
Bad joke: What did a balloon say to another balloon?
... Watch out for the cactusssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss🤣
That joke is as bad as mine was!
To be honest, the joke I actually told in that meeting was different to the one I said in this post and one I can't/won't repeat I writing publicly. It wasn't much better than the one in this post to be honest, but it had the desired result nonetheless.
It's bad, isn't it? hahaha
What matters is the result, relaxing people and the good mood to continue the work.
That was a stupid joke, one that a 5 year old kid would tell ( they normally have the best and most stupid jokes) but stupidity it what we sometimes need in life.
Yeah, I've been told I have the brain of a five year old...it's actually a brain the size of a pea, but I don't bother correcting people.
We have admin meetings where I work and I often find that I am trying to break up the monotony by being funny. I'm not usually that funny and it isn't like our meetings are tense or anything. I think it's just part of my personality. It sounds like you handled the situation very well even though it might have been a bit unorthodox for them.
The real joke ai told was a bit funnier than the substitute I posted here, I just didn't feel inclined to post the real one here, not appropriate. 😉
Ah, that makes sense. You have to be really careful what you say over here!
Yep, exactly...here too. The room I was in could take it, most wouldn't. Had I said the joke I wrote into this post I'd have gotten choked out or worse. Lol.
I'm glad that didn't happen!
Hehe, good job Galen.
I often specialize in taking something and making a joke or incorporating it into my joke.
Somebody might come out and say that they are exhausted. I would respond by saying something like "That's what you get for running behind the cars.... you get exhausted."
I rarely tell jokes but when I do they are either really bad or really inappropriate in this sanitised world we live in; the joke I actually told in that meeting is not one I'd repeat here. It had the desired effect though. A little humour, or attempt at it can go a long way in certain circumstances.
Yeah the sanitized environment can be a bit much...
I have to do a lot of "Hey, I said that because it was funny!" Like... I don't always believe in or agree with what I am joking about.... but it WAS funny.
Often showing people that I am willing to risk making a joke they like me more because actually the kind of people who get "offended" at everything are pretty rare.
Hi Galen, I won't tell a joke or talk about any personal experiences. I will mention an author. I happen to be reading a book by Scott Weems about humor, and it seems that humor is a tool whose function is to resolve internal or external conflicts and helps to find solutions. I will note this publication as an example of that, and I will come back to it when I finish reading the book.
Best regards.
Tha ks for your input and I think Scott Weems might be onto something.
If this input has any value, I'm glad. Have a nice Wednesday.
I'm a very bad speaker, so in front of serious business partners I'd probably get confused if I tried to tell a joke. But that's why, in the company of friends, I'm an excellent interpreter 🙂
There was one situation... In the middle of a meeting with a difficult topic, the conversation turned into an argument, and since it seemed impossible to continue in a normal tone, I suggested that we go for coffee and refreshments, to breathe some fresh air. Perhaps the poor ventilation of the meeting room was the cause of the negative flow of the conversation.
As soon as we stepped outside without laptops and notebooks, the tone of the conversation immediately became more appropriate and conciliatory.
When meetings get bogged down it's usually best practice to break out and lighten or re-energize the mood which will help progression and productivity; there's many ways to do it.
If I was in that situation, I wouldn't care asking for permission to crack a joke. I would just go for it and drop a bombshell! 😅✌️
Jokes aside, it was nice to hear you did it in a good and proper manner. Not everyone can remind themselves of what place they are around and the people they are surrounded with. Often times, we get too familiar with our close friends that we forget to respect our boundaries as fellow humans.
So yeah, it was nice to hear that.
Sometimes meetings can get so complicated that the path towards resolutions can be blurred and I think it's important to sometimes reign that in a little, lighten the mood and refocus.
Lolzz now that joke part really got me cracked up. I probably wouldn't do that so as not be the talk of the meeting. Lolzz if its me I will always give d person some space or postponed the meeting to blow off some steem
Postponing meetings can work, but if it's not possible other ways need to be found and deployed.
Yahh true..
I joke less these days.
The woke mind virus seems to short circuit many peoples sense of humour.
It is a risky business making people laugh these days. It only takes one to get butt hurt and label you. Smart call not dropping the dirt here. 😉
Oh yeah, that's true.
As you may have seen in the comments...the joke I told was not at all the one I've written in this post and I can't write the actual joke here (won't) because if I did some fucken asshole would probably have an issue with it and that's not worth the hassle.
Anyway, did you hear the one about a truck driver who liked cats? 🤣
Oh yeah,
That one about how awesome of an emeffer he is. That was a knee slapper. 😂
Lol.
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