The dynamics of fun and humour bring stakeholders together to promote a welcoming environment. Fun and humour creates an open culture and provides a perspective for employees. With the right balance of these elements, stakeholders are productive, content and are much more open to creativity. Similarly, employers that give acknowledgement to employees make better decisions at work. Nonetheless the consequences of fun and humour have serious detriments to the extent of how much fun and humour can be tolerated today. Issues occur when perceptions of appropriateness and personal barriers affect humour and fun in the workplace between stakeholders. Furthermore, with modern day workplaces, contemporary issues arise when level of access to social networking websites effect factors such as performance and the implications it can have on individuals and the organisation as a whole. The need for an encouraging environment is vital, as the right balance will give employees and employers comfortable surroundings. The Maslow’s pyramid of needs as indicated by Norman (2008, p.10), demonstrates the importance of fun and humour as well as other factors in an everyday situation. Horin (2011) expresses the need for a balance of these elements; as a result employers and employees will not cooperate and will eventually leave the workplace prematurely due to a negative in their surroundings. Kersley et al., 2006 (cited in Baptiste, 2009) suggests the introduction of fun into the workplace enhances performances which in turn improves the motivation to be at work and reducing stress levels that come with the responsibilities given inside and outside of the workplace. In the services industry, such as retail, happy employees will also increase custome... ... middle of paper ... ...ght, Vol. 31 no 6, pp. 613 – 631. Norman, NJ (2008), Humour in the workplace – “Let’s get goofy”, PACRAO 2008. [Lecture notes] Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, Tempe, AZ Plester, B 2009, ‘Crossing the line: boundaries of workplace humour and fun’, Emerald in sight, Vol. 31 no 6, pp. 584 – 599. Riches, L 2011 ‘Facebook and the office: Drawing a line’ Sydney Morning Herald, 1 March, viewed on April 3 2011 Seidler, J 2011 ‘As social network news goes viral who’s doing any work’ Sydney Morning Herald, 18 March, viewed on March 19 2011
“The practical disengagement of humor…helps explain the opposition between amusement and negative emotions.” (530) There are three effects of humor; irresponsibility, blocking compassion, and promoting prejudice. Humor can take away what we are/should be doing in life and sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with that. Sometimes when we hear a hateful thing we just laugh it off as if it was no big deal when it really was. “An
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
Humor, as a creative effort, has been respected throughout the world, I’m sure, since the beginning of spoken language. There is nothing in the world like conjuring up a joke or some other anecdote that sends a group of people off into a fit of laughter. In fact, throughout time, people have attempted to make humor at least some part of their professional career. Court jesters made the royalty of the castle laugh at his foolish behavior. Playwrights have included humor in their tragic works to provide some comedic relief from all of the terribly sad events. Today is no different. The sheer number of careers available for those interested in making people laugh for a living reflects our society’s great appreciation for novel humor. Comedians, book writers, columnists, actors, television and movie writers, cartoonists, and musicians all attempt to add some laughter to peoples’ lives on a daily basis.
Scholl, J. (2007). The use of humor to promote patient-centered care. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 35(2), 156-176.
Now that this distinction has been made, the issue of humor in modern and post modern l...
Most working adults can agree that they have seen their fair share of dysfunctional relationships in the workplace. Often, we can find some humor in the actions and events that cause these relationships to become dysfunctional. In the sitcom The Office, the focus was to exaggerate the actions of dysfunctional relationships in the workplace. The show makes light of the employees who are stuck in dead-end jobs, with mundane lives and their office mishaps. Daniel Orozco’s short story “Orientation” is about a current employee providing a new employee with too much personal information about other employees and the office environment during a new hire orientation. The “Orientation” by Daniel Orozco and the NBC sitcom “The Office” give a humorous and exaggerated glimpse of dysfunctional relationships within office environments.
Humor can take many forms, including practical jokes, teasing, insults and self-deprecation. It is a staple of humanity and plays an extremely important role in our psychology as we move throughout life’s stages. In fact, famed philosopher Immanuel Kant placed laughter alongside sleeping and hope as the most beneficial means of renewing the soul. It is commonly perceived as a beneficiary tool for healing and social interaction for everyone, but few have looked at the roles humor plays in the aging process. Meika Loe set out to examine this relationship in her book, Aging Our Way by utilizing several case studies of the elderly of various backgrounds. Loe has identified key case studies to support this hypothesis in Eddie, who uses humor to
An old adage claims that laughter is the best medicine to cure human ailments. Although this treatment might sound somewhat unorthodox, its value as a remedy can be traced back to ancient times when Hypocrites, in his medical treatise, stressed the importance of “a gay and cheerful mood on the part of the physician and patient fighting disease” (Bakhtin 67). Aristotle viewed laughter as man’s quintessential privilege: “Of all living creatures only man is endowed with laughter” (Bakhtin 68). In the Middle Ages, laughter was an integral part of folk culture. “Carnival festivities and the comic spectacles and ritual connected with them had an important place in the life of medieval man” (Bakhtin 5). During the trauma and devastation of German bombing raids on London during World War II, the stubborn resilience of British humor emerged to sustain the spirit of the people and the courage of the nation. To laugh, even in the face of death, is a compelling force in the human condition. Humor, then, has a profound impact on the way human beings experience life. In Louise Erdrich’s novel Tracks, humor provides powerful medicine as the Chippewa tribe struggles for their physical, spiritual, and cultural survival at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Humor is a seemingly simple, enjoyable construct in life shared and valued by many. Traditionally, humor has been viewed as trivial and lacking substance from an academic and scholarly standpoint. However, humor can be objective in analyzing and answering the same questions philosophers ask, ones that question widely accepted everyday concepts and ideals. The Incongruity Theory reveals the affinity between philosophy and comedy and rebukes the argument that humor is “hostile and irresponsible” (Morreall) in academics.
This essay title has asked to examine humour throughout 'The Opposite Sex' which proved to be difficult task as humour can be difficult to define. This is because different people have completely different senses of humour. Some people laugh hysterically at a particular joke while others would be offended or just simply, would not find it funny. Different jokes and styles of humour would then appeal to different audiences and this is why I think Laurie Lee proved to be comical within 'The Opposite Sex'. Lee used a mild, suggestive use of humour as well as some sexual innuendo instead of 'slapstick', comical jokes.
The spectrum of therapeutic techniques available within the health care continuum is very complex and varied. From traditional medicine, to holistic remedies, and anything in between, nurses have a rather large arsenal at their disposal when it comes to treating the patients that are under their care. Humor as an alternative therapy has long been understood as a proven means to aid in the recovery process. “With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health” (Smith & Segal, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to discuss situations in which humor would be a viable alternative therapy
Psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists study humor because it is a fundamental culture value, but they still can’t determine why certain things make some people laugh and others not. There are “humor quotient” tests that are designed to measure an individual’s sense of humor, but these tests are questionable. These tests aren’t accurate because almost all humor depends on cultural background knowledge and language skills. Not every person in the whole world, or even in one country share the same background knowledge and skills, therefore they cannot have the same type of humor. “The fact remains that individuals vary in their appreciation of humor” (Rappoport 9). Since humor varies from individual to individual, humor lies in the individual. How successful or funny a joke is depends on how the person receives the joke, humor cannot be measured by a statistical
In Alain de Botton’s book, Status Anxiety, he argues that the aim of humorists is not solely entertainment, but also to convey a message that isn’t always okay to state directly. There are many places where his argument can apply. Even with humor, some topics are still too controversial to joke about; However, in most cases, humor can lighten things up and make it easier to discuss topics that otherwise would not be as easy to talk about without heavy arguments. There are many cases that would make his argument true. There are many examples that support his argument, and that help to show the importance of humor in arguing, including cartoons, comics, works of literature, and also when thinking of hosts of television programs.
They make fun of the belongings of the new boss which they found in his office. A strange man overhears them and sarcastically joins the laughter and even compliments them on how good their jokes were. Unfortunately, the strange man turns out to be their boss. It is a common practice in offices for junior staff to make jokes among themselves about senior staff. However, the jokes made are not meant to be heard by the management.
3. Apte, Mahadev L. Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1985.