I agree. I am constantly getting in trouble, mostly at work, because of my sense of humour. Which is what probably set me off here more than anything else. Oddly enough, the Yemenis I work with get my sense of humour. It is the expats on which it tends to fall flat. It could be the expats take themselves more seriously than the Yemenis do.
Case: The dancing frog
I was sitting at work one day feeling poorly because of the latest managment initiative of the week and came up with this. Look at it carefully and you should see the resemblance to those people who come into the office with the latest initiative that will help ‘you’ and revolutionize the way the job is done. Notice the big smile and small brain pan. You know nothing good for you will come out of whatever they say (You also won’t be able to get that damn ‘Ragtime gal’ song out of your head, either.) I call it ‘The dancing frog’. I posted it in the conference room where it stayed until one of the guys said you couldn’t say it no matter how true it was.
(I’m hoping to start my own management trend. “How to survive the work place and shame the bosses into leaving you alone so you can do the job you were hired for”)
The joke is the character judgement. Someone posts something that a few others see the immediate corelation of and then the joke arises. Given the limited information, you only have what you see to respond to. The joke wouldn’t be there if there was more information as there would be no reason to make the logical leap.
I tend to very cynical in my humour as it reflects the type of person I am. Lots of things that others would not consider funny, I do. I don’t mean anything by it when I make a joke and if anyone was upset by it, I’d probably apologize just as Legion did. I can also see where Aesiron is coming from, too. I just thought his reaction given the media was a little harsh.
“Stupid TV. Be more funny!”
-Homer, after watching a PBS show where the crowd is laughing for no apparent reason at the comments of a Mike Neun’ish commedian.