Humor is not just a laughing matter
Telling that joke is more useful than you think
When I was in fourth grade, I learned to overcome my shyness — by being the class clown. Standing next to the jungle gym, I imitated our teacher for my classmate Carol, who laughed hysterically and then stood watching me in anticipation, waiting for more. A light bulb went off in my head: Hey, this is working! I continued clowning for what turned out to be the rest of my life.
Humor runs in my family, so entertaining the troops during recess on the playground came very naturally, not least of all because it’s so easy to lampoon so many things about school. This became my trademark as I progressed through junior high and high school. I survived the excruciating tedium that was eighth grade English class by cracking non-stop puns.
Making each other laugh played a huge role in maintaining some semblance of harmony in my family, especially since my parents were stuck in an unhappy marriage. The right joke or imitation of that hated history teacher at just the right moment instantly defused the tension that often hung in the air. I continued honing my skills further at school whenever the occasion arose. In fact, humor became such an ingrained part of me that when I was voted corniest of my graduating class, my first reaction was: corny? I’m corny?
OK, it’s true. Guilty as charged. But I have since fully embraced this goofy part of my personality — although I prefer to call it a well-developed sense of humor. I’ve learned that the value of humor goes well beyond having a good laugh in class, at the coffee machine or at the dinner table. Cracking the occasional joke or delivering the appropriate witty remark is a well-known device for catching an audience’s attention and lends itself to nearly any topic or situation. Who hasn’t continually fought off sleep during a dull lecture one moment only to perk up suddenly the next when the speaker started telling a joke or a funny story? Now that is worth listening to.
We may live in a digital world, but as far as our brains are concerned, we might as well still be living like the Flintstones (maybe minus the purple dinosaur). Under stress, the body pumps out adrenaline to raise awareness of the danger of that woolly rhino lurking behind the bush (you wouldn’t want to meet one; google it if you don’t trust me) or as a reaction to the colleague who just criticized your ideas in front of everyone during your presentation.
But what was a perfect reaction to the rhino is less ideal for dealing with a verbal attack. For this, you need your cerebral cortex, but therein lies the problem. The adrenalin surging through your body has blocked off access to the part of your brain that most needed in this situation. This is the part of our brain that makes us human, the part that enables us to reason in ways unique to homo sapiens.
Fear activates the most ancient part of the brain, known to scientists as the “lizard brain” (OK, maybe it’s not used by scientists, but by a lot of other people), which controls our most primitive drives. Your lizard brain will not motivate you to make logical decisions but will instead to consider how best to escape from whatever situation is causing you distress. This is why we often think of the perfect response only after escaping a nerve-racking situation — we were in flight mode, not think mode.
There is a surprising scientific basis for the usefulness of humor. I’m going to let you in on a little-known fact: humor activates the cerebral cortex. It stops the stress reaction in its tracks and shifts the brain back into thinking gear. This is what happens when someone “breaks the ice” with a joke. Like magic, humor eradicates the tension in mere seconds. Once humor has broken the spell, you can again take advantage of the more highly developed regions of the brain. After all, these are much more useful in modern life than the instincts that helped Og the Caveman* survive.
Here is a true story that illustrates this point. I was once involved in a very stressful IT rollout project in Munich. Project members worked excruciating hours to meet tight deadlines that had to be adhered to, regardless of unexpected complications that cropped up and threatened to derail everything. All systems had to be in place before the new software went live. No exceptions. It was do or die.
Like all systems, this one had been crafted by software developers who relied on input from the people in the business. They knew this would lead to an imperfect solution, so testers from the business were invited to come to the test lab to systematically check each new software functionality. Together with the testing team, they tracked errors and any changes that needed to be made. This is standard operating procedure for new software systems.
On this particular day, the Italian team was conducting tests. It was a hot summer day, there was no air conditioning and the room was packed. The Italians were required to run tests ten hours a day for four consecutive weeks. There was no leeway since as soon as they were done testing, it was the next country’s turn. Tempers were short.
An Italian woman from Marketing named Claudia was running an analysis of the system and discovered a serious flaw. She was already exhausted and feeling very put out by having to spend so much time testing — not a part of her normal job. This was the last straw.
“Who-a did-a this??” she demanded in her Italian accent. “Who-a is responsible? We cannot-a keep it this-a way!”
The testing manager, a congenial German named Manfred, immediately recognized that her temper was about to flare and scrambled to make amends.
“It was one of the developers here in Munich,” he explained. “But it’s OK, we can still change it.”
This didn’t help.
“Yess-a! We must-a call my manager to ask her about-a this. She must decide! Italy must decide, not-a Munich!” Claudia was fuming. She was also frustrated about having to make the effort to speak English, which she seldom spoke. It made the testing even more unpalatable.
Manfred struggled to placate her. “Let’s call your manager in Italy. In the meantime, have some coffee or a cigarette.”
Now Claudia was really pissed off. “I don’t want-a coffee! I am ahngry!”
“OK — here! Have a banana!” he said, pulling one out of his backpack and generously proffering it.
Claudia was taken aback. What was this all about? Why was he giving her a banana? Suddenly it struck her: Manfred thought she had said hungry.
And then she burst out laughing.
Soon the whole testing room was laughing uproariously at this misunderstanding. The tension had completely vanished and a difficult situation had become manageable in mere seconds. Manfred and Claudia then calmly proceeded to discuss the procedure for adapting the system according to the needs of the Italian team.
So next time you are tempted to crack a joke or tell a funny story to ease the tension, don’t hesitate. As a wise shoe once said: Just do it. It’s not just funny, it’s a clever way to get back on track.
*Name has been changed to preserve subject’s anonymity
