OWN what’s the point of humor? The question seems simple, but it’s not. Maybe to survive. Facing disturbing news, endless days, loss of meaning, laughter often appears without warning, and this is undoubtedly what makes it so very human. Some researchers say that you should laugh ten minutes a day to feel happy, relieve stress, strengthen your stomach, and keep stress away for good. A free luxury, but an important one.
The work, which is a temple of seriousness and performance, is not devoid of suppressed laughter. And at the same time, what better way to relieve tension? A gloomy client, an excitable manager, a drawn-out meeting, a boss suddenly struck by a mystical revelation: in these moments, laughter acts like a valve, a little joyful rebellion. On LinkedIn and in management manuals, it is recognized as having thousands of benefits: increasing productivity, strengthening cohesion, inspiring confidence, stimulating creativity, and even unlocking your potential as a leader. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not; he reminds us that, beyond Excel tables and KPIs, employees are still people, capable of laughing at themselves and the world they are trying to change. And that’s reassuring.
However, according to research conducted by humor and work dynamics specialists Caleb Warren (University of Arizona), Adam Barsky (University of Melbourne) and Peter McGraw (University of Colorado at Boulder), making people laugh in the office is still a much more difficult exercise than it seems. You only need to spend a day in the open air to be convinced: between somewhat borderline jokes at the coffee machine, misunderstood sarcasm in meetings, and failed second tiers in line at the cafeteria, few people have the comic flair of Michael Scott, Dunder Mifflin’s regional chef in the American version Officeor Leslie Knope, deputy director of the parks and recreation department at Parks and Recreation.
Create a slight imbalance, without causing harm
Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren, who have investigated what makes a situation funny and why so many attempts fail, especially in professional settings, explain that humor is based on what they call the “misdemeanor theory.” In short, laughter is born when something disturbs our perception of the world order, without causing us any harm. In his work, researchers took the example of a film character who was injured in the head after receiving a hammer blow. What makes it laugh is that the audience knows that the actor is not really hurt and the scene is still not serious. In reality, it’s not funny at all, because hammer blows can be fatal. The logic is the same as for tickling, a resultless attack that triggers laughter in its victim. On the other hand, tickling yourself has no effect, because there is no threat.
Now let’s take a step back. Just watch stand-up shows like Comedy Class with friends or attend an open event to realize it: we don’t all laugh at the same things. And this gets complicated in the office, where the shared knowledge base and life experiences vary depending on each employee’s gender, age, hierarchical position, or culture. What seems “wrong but acceptable” to one person may be judged inappropriate by another, and vice versa.
Zoé Lajeunesse, master of communication sciences at the University of Montreal and author of the memoir “Just for a laugh? The limits and impact of humor on the social (dis)order of an organization composed of members with diverse identity affiliations”, reminds us, emphasizing that it is important to “be careful in the way we express things through humor, because the understanding of a joke always depends on the person at whom it is addressed”.
When humor annoys and isolates
So, before trying to shine in the open with your antics, especially when you are desperately trying to pass yourself off as a cool manager, it is better to remember that humor is a double-edged sword… With the right dose, it gives the image of a leader who is confident, competent, also more human, and of course strengthens his authority. But when the floodgates don’t work, the house of cards collapses, and all credibility and legitimacy is lost. Research even shows that failure doesn’t just damage a manager’s reputation: it also damages his team’s respect, trust, and willingness to turn to him.
Alice, 31 years old, content manager at a Paris start-up, is fed up with his bosses who believe he has real comedic talent. “Every time we do a company review and the department managers have to present what we did in the previous quarter, our managers create impossible scenarios,” he whispered irritably. It took the organization weeks to prepare for his mini-performance, which was supposed to entertain the other teams. As a result, we appear as funny people on duty, those who have nothing else to do. Honestly, I would prefer if he focused more on his work than on these big internal communication moments. »
For Marius, 28, a developer at a catering company, humor can even be an exclusion factor: “When I arrived, my colleagues kept joking among themselves about the situations experienced before my arrival. I had a lot of difficulty integrating, because I had no references. knows nothing about football, has bitter memories “Passing with the ball at the entrance of an open space when the manager was away, it really didn’t make me laugh. »
Think like a comedian
Rather than trying to make people laugh at all costs, researchers Caleb Warren, Adam Barsky, and Peter McGraw suggest, in an article published in The Conversation, that we practice thinking like a comedian. In other words, learn to overturn expectations, to shake up the obvious, to subvert established conventions. Whatever their appearance, comedians excel at the opposite art: they lead you down a well-trodden path before turning it upside down with a gesture, letting the laughs emerge from the surprise. American stand-upper Henny Youngman summed it up perfectly in one sentence: “When I read something about the dangers of alcohol, I stop… reading. »
If we turn to the world of work, this logic consists of no longer taking normal things for granted, questioning what seems obvious, and seeing every certainty as an opportunity to venture elsewhere. Remember this 2014 ad: man, glad to have found him Emperor’s March on Canal+, talking to colleagues about it. Except this one imagines that this is a film about Napoleon walking, breeding, and raising his children. By focusing on the absurd rather than consumption, the campaign succeeded in achieving its goals.
Researchers also explain that we should stop trying to please everyone. Comedians’ success is based precisely on their ability to speak to a specific audience, not serenade an entire room. The same is true for business people and leaders: those with a clear point of view often build a stronger reputation. Because in communication as in humor, aiming too broad means losing impact. In the professional world, it’s like a restaurant that offers pizza, gluten-free dishes, and Mexican specialties: it’s hard to imagine that it excels at all three. It’s better to know who you’re talking to and who you’re not.
Comic talent is not given to everyone
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They also remind us that it’s important to learn from your peers’ input. A comedian perfects his jokes by observing audience reactions, just as a company perfects its products by listening to its customers. In the workplace, performance comes from the ability to listen, respect others, and find the right balance within a team. We need a profile that is bold, another profile that is more careful to simplify, and another profile that is able to connect and make it all happen. Each role is important, and neither can function without the other.
Lastly, asking someone to be funny is like ordering them to be creative on command. This is not given to everyone, and rarely occurs naturally. This is why researchers suggest adopting comedians’ way of thinking rather than trying to reproduce their impact. By questioning the obvious, by collaborating to come up with new ideas and by making sometimes-divisive choices, professionals can envision more original and stand-out solutions… without becoming outdoor mascots. And it’s better to remember that, because in the office, failure always comes faster than thunderous applause.
