What’s funny these days? Ever wondered how the landscape of humour has evolved in the business world over the past decade? Prepare to discover, through our lively conversation, how comedy has shifted gears, for better or worse, in the day-to-day corporate realm. From recounting our experience of revising the 'Auntie Close' training method into the 'Emergency Close', to delving into why humour is a necessity even amidst global chaos - we leave no stone unturned.
We also take you on a journey through the changing face of comedy and how societal norms influence humour and the ease with which it can offend. With insights from Rowan Atkinson's campaign to defend the freedom of humour, we explore the fine line between humour and offence.
As we bring humour into the workplace, prepare for a fascinating exploration of the four types - affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating, and their profound impact on workplace dynamics. We share personal anecdotes from our own careers and offer a goldmine of insights on the do's and don’ts of humour at work. From humour as a performance enhancer, to mastering the perfect punchline, this episode promises a perfect blend of laughter and learning. So, buckle up and get ready to view humour in business from a whole new perspective.
For more info, free resources, useful content, & our blog posts, please visit realitytraining.com.
Reality Training - Selling Certainty
What’s funny these days? Ever wondered how the landscape of humour has evolved in the business world over the past decade? Prepare to discover, through our lively conversation, how comedy has shifted gears, for better or worse, in the day-to-day corporate realm. From recounting our experience of revising the 'Auntie Close' training method into the 'Emergency Close', to delving into why humour is a necessity even amidst global chaos - we leave no stone unturned.
We also take you on a journey through the changing face of comedy and how societal norms influence humour and the ease with which it can offend. With insights from Rowan Atkinson's campaign to defend the freedom of humour, we explore the fine line between humour and offence.
As we bring humour into the workplace, prepare for a fascinating exploration of the four types - affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating, and their profound impact on workplace dynamics. We share personal anecdotes from our own careers and offer a goldmine of insights on the do's and don’ts of humour at work. From humour as a performance enhancer, to mastering the perfect punchline, this episode promises a perfect blend of laughter and learning. So, buckle up and get ready to view humour in business from a whole new perspective.
For more info, free resources, useful content, & our blog posts, please visit realitytraining.com.
Reality Training - Selling Certainty
Bob and Jeremy's Conflab, the Reality Podcast.
Jeremy Blake:Hello, welcome, welcome listeners and welcome Bobby. Hello In, if we can give the listeners an image, you decided to purchase a jumper that matches your beard color.
Bob Morrell:Yeah, it's a. It's a jumper I've had a while. It's a gray Scandinavian style roll neck which makes me look like a Swedish fisherman.
Jeremy Blake:How was your?
Bob Morrell:catch Good, that's good, good, but we've got to be careful doing accents, as we'll find out in a minute.
Jeremy Blake:Well, what an immediate yes, yes.
Bob Morrell:Isn't that interesting.
Jeremy Blake:You did sort of Boris Becker post release then.
Bob Morrell:I think I was trying to do Mads Mickelson, but maybe not without success Boris Becker, but not Boris Becker. No, exactly that is the the roll neck I'm wearing, whereas you have a sort of slightly sort of farmer.
Jeremy Blake:Very much, yeah, jump, minister of Agriculture.
Bob Morrell:This is yeah, that's you. Yeah, that's that'd be a good job, oh yeah.
Jeremy Blake:Tell me about your pigs. Handshake local paper yeah, brilliant. So we're going to try and explain what we're going to talk about here and, as you'll see from the title of this podcast, it's been a challenge to put something together that grips. We're talking about comedy, we're talking about what's funny, but especially what's funny in business, whether that's in a fixed workplace building, yes, or, as we'll share with you, bob and I, we of course move around a whole host of different workplaces, which I think makes us interesting.
Bob Morrell:So I was thinking of a way to segue into this, so I thought I could give the listeners a really good example of how humour has changed, and the best example, one of the best examples I've got of this is a thing we used to train called the Auntie Close. Now, you may remember this going back 15 years and we did a load of training for a major major travel company we won't say who it was and part of that training was the Auntie Close. Now, the Auntie Close was something that we invented and it was something that we thought was really funny, and our principle on it was that when you're making a sale, you have to have different ways to close the customer to buy what it is you have, and the Auntie Close was something that was from a female perspective. So we had the idea that with your mother, if your mother told you to do something, then you're more likely to argue with her because she's your mother, whereas if your auntie said, bob, I think you should sort this out, you go, ok, ok, I'll go and do it. Something about your auntie or an auntie that you would have would have that level of power that would make you go OK, I better get on with it then.
Bob Morrell:And so we created this Auntie Close. Don't you think it's time you got that sorted? Oh, yes, ok, and I remember talking about that at a conference. One of our female clients got up on the stage and said oh, that was so good, I really enjoyed that. She said and I absolutely love, I love the Auntie Close. Right, we could all start using that. She really liked it. Now, 10 years down the line, we would never train the Auntie Close anymore.
Jeremy Blake:Well, I want to see, because your memory is better than mine what is, because this is very relevant to this episode. What is the point that either we made that decision or we received a complaint?
Bob Morrell:We never received a complaint about the Auntie Close.
Jeremy Blake:So we chose to remove it. Yeah, does that mean that one of our teams said hey guys.
Bob Morrell:No, we just realized that humour had changed, right.
Jeremy Blake:Did we?
Bob Morrell:Yeah, and the Auntie Close. Actually, if we want to be specific, was demonstrating a kind of old fashioned trope of a female stereotype, a sort of middle aged female stereotype.
Jeremy Blake:Was it.
Bob Morrell:Yes, it could be construed as a slightly sexist perspective, so we changed it to the Emergency Close.
Jeremy Blake:Yes, that's right, that's right. Oh, it became the Emergency Close desperately dull compared to the Auntie Close, absolutely. But we constructed it based on personal experience. You know, you've got two aunties, yep, and I know them and I can imagine them telling you to pull your finger out. There was no sexism in any of its design, no, but it was deemed by us to be dated Well, I think we went through a and we should explain to listeners we're talking about comedy.
Bob Morrell:We're talking about what is humour, what can be used, what can't be used, what is funny, why you should use humour, why comedy and humour are so important, but also how they've changed. That type of humour has changed. So, whilst the vast majority of people listening to this will think, well, it's not that sexist, it's talking about an auntie and it's a type of behaviour that we understand, the world has changed so much that we as a company thought we can't risk this. We can't risk this painting us with a brush.
Bob Morrell:That isn't entirely fair, and so we changed it, and so I think that is the interesting thing about humour is that something which is memorable and in some ways appropriate could be construed the wrong way, could give offence, possibly, and therefore one feels one has to change it. So I think our theme here is that humour, in business in particular, has changed in the last 10 years, and the jokes and the stuff that we used to do every single day when we were training have now changed or moved on or been adapted or no longer exist, and in some ways that's good and appropriate. In some cases it is just a lurch towards not taking risks In my preparation for this conversation with you.
Jeremy Blake:I've written down because we did have a. We should tell the list, as we had a slightly philosophical conversation about this a week ago just about what's funny, and you know there's lots of horrible stuff going on in the world. We need humour. I wrote down something. Let me just check it. Yeah, here we are. So, do you remember I had a number of complaints from an organisation, and when I say complaints, not the organisation, a few individuals thought that my humour was inappropriate. Yeah, risky, risky, I got on such a downer, I went for a walk off in the fields opposite here and I rang you and I needed you to bring me back out of that that low. Do you remember that?
Bob Morrell:I don't remember that Did I manage? I don't know if I did yeah.
Jeremy Blake:You did yeah, yeah, yeah, because I just said God, I and what it was was, and again we have to debate whether we can say this on in a podcast. That's the challenge we've got, because I was talking about an aspect of our holiday where romance is very possible and I used the word sex.
Jeremy Blake:And somebody and I put it into the form of a club, and I was playing against the fact that when you put your kids into kids club you can make love the whole room roaring with laughter, realizing that of course, with preschoolers and everything, it's so manic, you need some time together. And then one person writing up this whole thing and I just thought, oh, and then I had another thing from the same client and then I said to you, right, we've got to take this out, we can't do this. So it was the exception proving the rule In many cases, which is a sad expression which I'm hearing a lot at the moment.
Jeremy Blake:We offended and again, let's talk about that in more detail we offended two people. Yeah, amongst a thousand. And I should say and it's hard to picture and it was funny on these podcasts we would have people weeping wiping their eyes bawling and laughter because we cut through and we explained, whether it's travel, retail, contact center, whatever it was, that we would cut through to the reality of their customer, whether it's a business and we would speak the truth and use humour, and people would hit their knees full about?
Bob Morrell:Do you remember that gig we did for we can say who it was for Halford's at the airport in that hotel, and it was like seven hours of comedy gold. Do you remember every single line?
Jeremy Blake:Not only comedy gold, it's just superb. Well, I've just done some more work connected to that. We have you and I. We've got a new client that comes from that connection the quality of the training and making it stick and memorable. They're still using those methods because they cannot forget it, because the humour attached.
Bob Morrell:Yeah.
Jeremy Blake:We've done a lot of our stuff, but we've taken off the scaffolding all or a large amount of the humourous things, because either we've self-edited or people have said you can't say that anymore.
Bob Morrell:Well, I think humour has changed and I think we must acknowledge that and we can come on to some of those things. I mean, clearly one cannot be racist, sexist, homophobic. You cannot show any kind of gender bias. And also class, because we're not going to be able to. And also class. We can talk a bit about class, jeremy, and typology. So if you're talking about a type, so you're saying this person's this type of person.
Jeremy Blake:Stereotypes.
Bob Morrell:Yeah, so that offends people who are a bit like that type or might offend them? Yeah, so let's talk about the word offence. What is offensive? Because if you look at comedians now, like Ricard Gervais and others, there is a bit of a backlash against this thing and we're not going to listen to that because it's offensive. Well, you don't need to, because social media and television and the radio and the things that you listen to comedy on, you can choose to turn it off. Ok, but I think there's another choice and I think this is really important you can choose whether or not you are offended by something, and I think this is a really debatable subject because there are comedians who will take the mickey out of their own type. So I'm thinking about people like Sacha Baron Cohen, who's Jewish, and certain black comedians like Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock and others who pick out the nuances of their own race and make it funny.
Jeremy Blake:Yeah, that's right, and the question is can a?
Bob Morrell:white comedian do the same and get the same reaction. It's a really interesting, debatable point. But regardless of that, these days there is a question as to what an individual will find offensive or not, and one doesn't want to give offence. You don't tell a joke hoping that you'll offend someone. That's different, that's aggressive humor that will come on to in a bit, but you tell a joke in order to make someone laugh. Now, if it's aggressive, if it's at the expense of somebody else, well then that needs to be considered how that comes across.
Bob Morrell:At the same time, there are people right now who are losing their jobs because of something they have said that was deemed to be inappropriate in a certain context, and I think that is slightly dangerous and it reminds me of a campaign that Rowan Atkinson did a little while ago, where he went to Parliament and Rowan Atkinson, of course, was Blackadder and one of the greatest comic actors of our age and he was campaigning against a piece of legislation that was going to come in and make it technically illegal to make jokes about certain things like religion.
Bob Morrell:And I think that is the sort of thin end of the wedge, really, where, if you cannot make jokes about things with the best of intentions, because if you make a joke about something with the worst of intentions, it clearly is meant to wound, is meant to hurt. But if you're making a joke because you have the best intentions and you want it to be funny, then clearly there is a place for that, one would hope, in a modern, civilized, sophisticated society. And his contention is that any censoring of humour in that way actually makes us less civilized and is a form of fascism actually, if you want to take it to its extremist point. So interesting, isn't it that you know what is offensive? Now, you and I know this.
Jeremy Blake:Some people gain strength of character when they don't have a tremendous character, but deciding to be able to start conversations telling you what they found offensive, as if their viewpoint has any merit or weight, yes, yes as if, oh, wow you didn't do anything that spectacularly around this office but you've come in and started a thing saying last night at NONC I thought that was offensive.
Jeremy Blake:Oh wow, amazing that we're getting your learned spectacle upon this. Yeah, it doesn't actually make them any more interesting. And why do you need to share what offends? You Switch the flip and telly off. Don't listen to the episode. You know that is the most extraordinary sensory thing that we still have. But, as I think you make the point, if it's designed to wound, fine. But I also think comedy is so complex that people have to have slightly obtuse intelligence to understand it and, as a result, they don't get it.
Jeremy Blake:And I also think the other thing about comedy is things are written at the time and they can date if they're not universally funny. But we can all watch classic comedies, appreciate the historic setting it's in and find it funny when we now translate that into a business setting. If you're knocking out an old joke but you're in a contemporary office, it may not work. So there's a difference between nostalgia and chatting about the past. But I think being funny in a contemporary setting requires some skill and some thought to land it right, to construct it, and I myself know that I pull the brakes on myself to do some of my humour. I mean, I've had a couple of days this week training and I've done bits and people have enjoyed it.
Jeremy Blake:I could have ramped up a level. Of course I may have actually been fine, but looking around the room I may not have been. So I made a judgement call and went to a level. So yeah, in some ways it sort of upsets me that we can't. You know, one of the things I worked on with Simon, who's done the coaching with me and you, is. He said bring the whole of yourself to work, you'll be happier. Bring the whole of yourself to work, and I nearly do, but I don't quite bring all of myself to work because I reduce my comedy.
Bob Morrell:Absolutely, and I'm the same. We used to do a number of sketches in the early days that we've toned down, and toned down, and toned down, and now we would never do them the way that we did them back then.
Jeremy Blake:Let's talk about one of those sketches, so you would be a hairdresser and you'd be a flamboyant camp hairdresser.
Jeremy Blake:There are millions of flamboyant camp hairdressers now today. Yes, of course I have a friend down the road brilliant, loved, skillful, amazing cutting hair. He finds that incredibly funny. That's another area of humour that is no longer possible. No, not at all. Ultimately, it is markedly offensive to those people, but that was pretty much the mainstay of Saturday Night Light Entertainment for 40 years. Larry Grayson yes, all of those people, but the only person who's allowed to do it is the person themselves. Alan Carr can be Alan Carr yes, paul O'Grady can be Paul O'Grady. Larry Grayson can be Larry Grayson. Some slightly smaller acts Duncan Norvell can be Duncan Norvell.
Bob Morrell:You're really showing your age now.
Jeremy Blake:Oh, I really am no one's going to know who that is.
Jeremy Blake:There's Dennis, justin G, but these people can only be themselves. We can't kind of create that type and think it will be funny and appealing because we don't own the character. Space. Reality Training was created in 2001 by Bob and Jeremy, both actors who met at drama school. Reality delivers training that is effective, memorable and entertaining, with a touch of theatricality to bring it to life. We now have a company of trainers, actors and coaches who you can work with to create change programs across your business. Please contact us by realitytrainingcom.
Bob Morrell:Well, so you were talking earlier about humour at work. I found a definition of four types of humour that are used at work.
Jeremy Blake:OK.
Bob Morrell:And three of them, ostensibly, are pretty fine. So the first type is called Affiliative humour, ok, which is light-hearted humour. So the word affiliate means coming together, brotherly almost, and I just find it a sort of light-hearted joshing and slightly taking the mick. Good, now I've got a really good example of this. So there was a blog you once wrote which I can never forget oh, I know where you're going, I know, and this was about. It was about how people get on socially, ok, and you'd written this blog. It was like a stream of consciousness.
Jeremy Blake:Sorry to laugh before you've heard it.
Bob Morrell:It's so good, and this blog was about going to a friend's barbecue, ok, and you were offended that they didn't know how to introduce you to other friends and how to socially work a room in the way that you did. And you wrote this all down in a blog and, in order to help you understand how appallingly that came across, we phoned you me and I read it back to you and we laughed for about half an hour I think, because it was so offensive and so classist.
Jeremy Blake:Do you remember the bit that I find the most funny when you talk about?
Bob Morrell:10th Amendment. I thrive on you taking the academy, of course.
Jeremy Blake:What was it I wrote? There was an advice section in the blog. Yes, do you remember what I wrote? Go on. What does it say? So, rather than talking to the person that everyone's trying to talk to, yeah, can you not finish it?
Bob Morrell:Yeah, choose someone who's out of the thing and bring them in, or choose someone who's under confident.
Jeremy Blake:But more than that, I said go and talk to the fattest person. Oh my God, it was even hard Because I thought that they might be the person that people you know and they're sitting down so they're not milling around going to the biggest person, Because so funny and my advice was ludicrous.
Bob Morrell:It was ludicrous.
Bob Morrell:It was about look everyone, you can talk to everyone, but the way it came across, yes, but so that's lighthearted, affiliative humor which makes people realize how ridiculous something is and is very, very funny. So that's the first type. The second type is self-enhancing humor. Now, self-enhancing humor is quite an interesting one, and I couldn't think of an immediate example for this, but it's things that help people stay positive during tough times. So, for example, if you and I were working late on a proposal that had to be in and we were exhausted and tired and irritable, you might make some sort of joke that makes everyone giggle about the irony of where you are, and maybe that's what it is. Maybe self-enhancing humor is another irony.
Jeremy Blake:That's different to saying you're working late and you say I'd love a drink and you bring me back a half and I say to you great, let's push the boat out.
Bob Morrell:That is similar, it's similar.
Jeremy Blake:Because we haven't really gone for it. We're dealing with the best of our circumstances, but you're staying positive. That's the point. But you're staying positive. I like that. That's important, with a little bit of pest-take in there possibly.
Bob Morrell:Oh, it's got to have Now. Then three is the one that you really don't want, which is aggressive humor, and that is humor that's told at somebody else's expense.
Jeremy Blake:Yeah, yeah sure.
Bob Morrell:Now we've all? I hope not, but I'm afraid it's very true. Many of us would have worked in environments where somebody or some people were the butt of jokes in the office continually.
Bob Morrell:And after a while. That I mean, in a way, that's another form of bullying. It is it is complete bullying. Clearly, we want to avoid that. And then, lastly and this is the most common now, because it's probably the one that you can actually get away with completely self-defeating humor, which is all about self-deprecation, taking the mickey out of oneself, which makes you more approachable. However, in reading about this, self-deprecating humor is attractive. Okay, it does make people like you more if you take the mickey out of yourself. However, if you do it too much, it can actually undermine your own status.
Jeremy Blake:Oh, totally yeah.
Bob Morrell:And people above think there's no smoke without fire. Maybe he really is as bad as this and your status will diminish as a result.
Jeremy Blake:I also think that and I'm going to read you a nice quote from psychology today about why we need humor at work but I also think if I'm to add to that I've worked with plenty of people and I'm sort of one of them that a pun I think is universal and inoffensive and quite intelligent and funny, and you'll get groans from the people you've delivered the pun to.
Jeremy Blake:But there'll be one or two people who will like the pun One-liners similar to puns, it's kind of like a quick one-liner, like a d-la-d-la-d-la-d-ch. If some of that is going on in a workplace, it probably just jollies things along a bit. But again, I think the important point you make if every time I see you you're creating a pun, every time I see you you have to have a one-liner at the end You're going to become tiresome.
Bob Morrell:Absolutely, and it's interesting that we talked earlier about the way that we've changed our act over the years that we've been working. What has happened is that we have become more self-deprecating over time.
Jeremy Blake:Yes.
Bob Morrell:Any humour that we have. We now directed ourselves, which nobody can argue with, but at the same time sometimes as funny as some of the jokes that you could make, and in the end you're making a joke not always to make a point, it's sometimes just to make a joke because it's funny, and that's the thing that I miss hugely.
Jeremy Blake:Can I tell you I like this. In my research psychology today, who my sister-in-law, Philippa, worked with for some years, instead of me going what can't we be funny about, I want to know why I want to get some, why humour is important. So I had this, an article in psychology today which is called seriously funny can humour help brands through an economic crisis Really good article, and it's this. Humour is the capacity to express or perceive what's. Funny is both a source of entertainment and a means of coping with difficult or awkward situations and stressful events. Although it provokes laughter, humour can be serious business. From its most light-hearted forms to its more absurd ones, humour can play an instrumental role in forming social bonds and releasing tension. I love that. What I find interesting is expressing or perceiving.
Jeremy Blake:So what I thought that was worth saying is when you're in a workplace, if you're to go into any form of advice here and you're trying things, you must see how it's landing. Yes, if it's not landing, please self-edit, because you're not the funniest guy or the funniest girl If no one's laughing and you're using the same act if you were on the comedy circuit. You don't get repeat bookings. So stop, you know, you just think, ok, I've got a group of mates I see on a Wednesday in the pub after darts. They like it. I'll do it with them, but this isn't going down so well at work, so let me not take it into the workplace, you know.
Bob Morrell:Well, I was just thinking, as you were talking then, about in the earlier days when you and I were a double act.
Jeremy Blake:Yeah.
Bob Morrell:And we were the only people in the company and we used to go out as a double act every day, and there is also something about having two people who bounce humour off each other yeah, which is also very safe, because I can throw humour at you, you can throw humour at me. It's not the audience.
Jeremy Blake:That's good, that's good and so that makes it very safe.
Bob Morrell:Actually, in that sense. Now, that's something we probably haven't thought much about before, but the idea that we take the mickey out of each other. And I remember once we did one even we did a conference once where we talked about a girl that you and I were both after at Drums.
Bob Morrell:Oh yeah, you know, and so because it's us, we can get away with it, and I think that's. That's quite interesting thing, and people listening to this might think well, if I could be a double act with someone, that might allow me to express more humour than if I was just on my own.
Jeremy Blake:Well, if you want a recommendation, listeners to something to watch of a more recently recorded double act who are probably probably one of the best live kind of one off events I've seen. It's Steve Martin and Martin Short in a Netflix special and the first half an hour is them introducing each other.
Bob Morrell:Oh, yes, you told me about it.
Jeremy Blake:You must see it. You haven't seen it yet, you must see it no, no. You're fiftieth. I stole one of those jokes, but you you were already a little bit loose, you may not remember it. So the joke was when Steve Martin is introducing Martin Short, they're bouncing off each other. And he said people describe Martin as a whole entertainer and then the support is he goes. I added entertainer Just ridiculous. I added entertainer, it's just so silly.
Jeremy Blake:And my delivery is not as good as Steve Martin's or Martin Short's, but now a man. You know I love Bob Munkhouse. When he introduced Frank Skinner, which I think is an amazing line, he said now a man who hasn't let success go to his clothes, yeah, gorgeous, great writing that's not a simple, simple Not going to fence anyone.
Bob Morrell:No, no, no, no In a handover situation. Well, I think that's affiliate humour. That's affiliate humour, there you go Now.
Jeremy Blake:let's move to a feature, shall we? And we can always return to other stuff Shall we move to. Three is the magic number.
Bob Morrell:Three is the magic number so, Bobby, my first question to you is we've talked a lot about what other people feel is in our.
Jeremy Blake:what do you think? And you're only allowed to say that? My first question to you is we've talked a lot about what other people feel is in our. What do you think? And you're only allowed one? What do you think is absolutely, from your perspective, not acceptable humour at work.
Bob Morrell:There is no single, there are a number of them, but they would come under the heading of anything that is clearly these days legally unacceptable. So that would be racism, sexism, being homophobic, being gender biased, classist or some form of type, but not all of them, but, I think, anything which is clearly directed at a certain subsection of society that is designed to specifically target and upset them.
Jeremy Blake:Yeah, good Okay.
Bob Morrell:Well, mine's nowhere near as intellectual as yours. My first question is what do you think is the funniest business related sketch you've watched on Telly or elsewhere?
Jeremy Blake:Business related. Well, it makes me feel we need to write more of them. I think we've written two and we've recorded one that I think are funny, but that would be ridiculous to point to our stuff, wouldn't it? I simply can't answer that question. I cannot think of a brilliant business. Oh yes, I can. I know one of my favourites. It's a Michelin web. Sketch Michelin web, where he cannot cope with the mispronunciation of words.
Bob Morrell:Absolutely right.
Jeremy Blake:And he shoots people who can't say the words properly.
Bob Morrell:They say H instead of H.
Jeremy Blake:They say Espresso, espresso and he shoots them and in the end of the sketch, of course, he. Well, actually we shouldn't say, watch it for the punchline. Type in Michelin web mispronunciation business sketch. That'll do, Okay, good. So one question for you who's the funniest person you have ever seen or worked with in any kind of business context?
Bob Morrell:That's a very good question. So I used to work with a fellow rep called Gary McGovern and he was a very funny chap and he was very amusing and sarcastic. And one day and I'm going to use some bad language here, I'm afraid the episode calls for it One day I was standing in front of this big whiteboard looking at what I had booked for the month, all the business I'd booked for the month and the different bits of business I had coming in, and I was standing there going Right. So I'm going to speak to this guy and he's going to do this, I'm going to do this with this Blah, blah, blah, and then I'm going to be well over target.
Bob Morrell:And Gary just turned to me and he said yeah, bob, that's absolutely great and at the end of the day, it's numbers game, isn't it? Because you've been telling enough people, you might find somebody who actually gives a f*** right and the way he did it. Just, I just cracked up because I realized how ridiculous I was being. But that was him all the time. He didn't give a damn and he would always take the mickey out of anything. That was you taking yourself slightly or the job seriously, because it wasn't that serious, it was ridiculous, he cut you back Absolutely.
Bob Morrell:Yeah, that's very funny, very funny. I like that, and the next thing I want to tell you to do is a similar one. What's the funniest team or person you've worked with?
Jeremy Blake:Easy, peasy, peasy. So big team. We've got some funny people in our business, but you and I are the funniest. The funniest team was good old yellow pages team. Andy Christie, eugene Murray, simon Welby.
Bob Morrell:We were funny, we were funny.
Jeremy Blake:Eugene Murray would have me in stitches, andy would, and I still can laugh back at some of those jokes, like at the Christmas party we played a true or false game where you'd say was it a, this or be that? And then everyone would have to have a deliberation process of a minute or two and then share back our answers and the person who started it will go. Who thinks it's a, who thinks it's B? And then you'd win points if you guessed. You know the 10 of us in the team. So Debbie stands up and she starts, she goes right and she goes A.
Jeremy Blake:Not many of you know that years ago I worked as a stripper and Andy, the top of his voice, b just shouts, the shouts B across. For any of us have heard it. His timing was delicious, just there was no way she'd ever been a stripper. Beautiful. At Simon, every evening when we had a late shift because he was into films as Eugene and I were he'd say just want to remind you the amount of time we're going to work now we could watch Godfather's one and two back to back. You know, really amusing.
Bob Morrell:Very good.
Jeremy Blake:No, they were funny, they would take the academy and when I had started, I couldn't learn any of the technicality of the names of the sizes, the adverts, and this bloke said could you tell me what the ad is now reached for? The tech spec sheet, yeah, okay, eugene was listening into me as my mentor. He grabbed it off me and just removed it from me. No, it was my me. Give me the, give me the sheet, give me. And Eugene was just looking at me and he brought more people in to hear me struggle. Okay, and so I went yes, that one, that one. Yes, that one is that one is. And they still want to go. And I said that one is our well, the technical. Yeah, that one is. That's known as our small one. Everyone killing themselves.
Bob Morrell:Yeah.
Jeremy Blake:And he just throws the thing in the air and I'm put on the spot.
Bob Morrell:That reminds me I worked in a department like that once, where we had cards, all of our client information were on cards and we had one customer and his name was Mr Dick shit. Okay, that was his name, and whenever anybody phoned him, the entire department Were crowd-round to hear that person say hello, can I speak to mr Dick shit please? And the place would just fall down. I mean, that's what are you gonna do? Anyway, give me your next question, the last thing.
Jeremy Blake:I was given messages. They played this on me in my first week because you, you wanted callbacks, businesses Who'd rung you back and they were keen to buy an advert, and it's really such old jokes. But hey, jeremy, jeremy, they'd all be looking in, simon. Okay, jeremy's a message in me. Yeah, yeah, I put it on your desk. I'll put it on your desk. Ring them back. I said what are? Who are they? So I don't, I've just got the initial and the surname. I pick up the phone and I go hi, can I speak to mr C lion? Hello, this is whipsnade. Zoom out. I think one of your teammates is having a joke with you.
Jeremy Blake:Brilliant, I'm called mr C lion, terrible, terrible. My next question for you is one about you talking about me. How can I now deal with this issue of humor and how can I be more funny and acceptably funny?
Bob Morrell:Okay, so that's a really good question, and Because I need.
Jeremy Blake:That's what I need some help, and it but actually it's the.
Bob Morrell:It's the question that everyone should ask about themselves, because, as I read earlier today at the LSE have absolutely proved that humor increases performance. Okay, good humor increases performance. So if that's true, it creates oxytocin in the brain. All that sort of thing we should all try and do it more. In your case, it is Interesting you Understanding yourself, and what's funny about you is still an untapped Area. So there's lots of self-deprecating stuff you can do. That is very funny. You do do it, you have done it, but and I think it's meant to be focused on you, but it also slightly hasn't been whereas you have so much good stuff in you knowing you as I did, that's you know you could be far more self-deprecating and and of course we know that's that's very endearing. So that would be making funny. The other thing I think is that if you know that something's funny, then you back it 100%.
Bob Morrell:So, I think maybe what people need to take away from podcasts like this is that if you're going to be using humor regularly in a presentation or training or speech or whatever it may be, practice it. Practice the humor and make sure that it gets the laugh that you think it's going to have. And I'll give you the great example of this. Do you remember when we were in Ireland and we met the wonderful waitress who gave us None of your nonsense wish to search again?
Bob Morrell:I have the next day we delivered that that line and brought the house down Because we absolutely knew we practiced the timing of that, which was actually. It was actually an Auntie clothes. None of your nonsense, it was yeah, none of your nonsense. Tell me which dessert you're gonna have. And we cracked up with that and we'd rehearsed it. We got the accent right. It was just a wonderful piece of comedy and the entire place fell down, you know, oh they love it.
Jeremy Blake:I can do any accent. It's my party trick. You can point at them.
Bob Morrell:I know, I know, but you can't. But is that a it?
Jeremy Blake:is can I? Can I to do a German to do it, is it?
Bob Morrell:Well, it may it may not be offensive, but if it is and I read here clearly if it is Absolutely reinforcing a cultural stereotype which is pejorative, then it could be, could be seen as offensive, and that's what I'm just doing next, and from an experience of calling a contact center and the person handling my call, as it was this week, was Greek.
Jeremy Blake:I can copy his voice. Yeah, but offensive.
Bob Morrell:I wouldn't see it as offensive if you were telling me the story, but some people would say well, you can tell that story without using the accent and without Creating a cultural stereotype of a great guy in a contact center. I know it's a hard thing to hear.
Jeremy Blake:And that is the truth. Comes home, my youngest daughter can do accents as well. She comes home and she starts impersonating school Vick, who's Australian. It's really funny, but is she being rude just going? Let's bow our heads in prayer? Is that rude that she keeps saying that it's funny? You see your laugh.
Bob Morrell:It's very funny.
Jeremy Blake:So Florence will find a moment when I sit down at the table. Yeah, no one's saying anything. We're about to have breakfast early morning. She'll just go. It's bow our heads in prayer, yeah, and we'll all start laughing. That is just her mimicking the Australian accented.
Bob Morrell:Well, that's interesting because that brings me on to my last question to you, which is what's the funniest sales line You've ever heard someone actually used to a customer? What's the funniest sales related line?
Jeremy Blake:Well, I'm wondering if you know what I'm gonna say. I don't. If it's funny, it's intelligent stroke, funny, it was Eugene Murray. He rings back a customer and tells him he's gonna cut his spend up in different places Rather than a customer go. Why what? He just goes because I've now got the ability to do that. The customer is right. Well, you got the ability. That's great, that was fun.
Bob Morrell:Yeah, but a single line so there's been two massive series, a UK series and an American version called the office, and I've watched the entire series of the office in the US, which is hundreds of episodes, and the interesting thing about the way that that humor has changed is this David Brent in the office in the UK was a really painfully embarrassing character who would say the wrong thing at the wrong time Okay, to the wrong people in a way that was Cringeworthy.
Bob Morrell:Now Steve Carell in America took that slightly further, but the way that they adapted it to a more sensitive audience, which at the time the US audience was, was that it became very clear that the person who Was making the joke was too stupid to realize the mistake they were making. So the humor was oh my god, I can't believe that person said that. Oh, they're so stupid to have said that. That makes it funny Rather than the humor in the line, whereas with David Brent it was, yes, he's too stupid to realize, but also, you know, he said it and there was less of that politically correct element which is possibly the same as the enduring peel of Alan Partridge.
Jeremy Blake:He's too blind many of the times to see the offense or the upset or the ridiculous Tenacity. Has to try to get an answer when most people would have stopped pushing. Absolutely right, you know. Absolutely right.
Bob Morrell:Yeah.
Jeremy Blake:I'm never going to be Queen. Well, no, okay, let's just do it with it. Say, christmas Day horrendous accident, taken out. Would you be Queen? No, it's never gonna happen. No, no, just pushing and pushing. Would you be Queen? Would you be? Well, yes, I would great. For when you are, come back on, tell us all about.
Bob Morrell:But I think it's an interesting point that we have to adapt our humor to suit the world that we're in. At the same time, some people need to get a sense of humor to realize that a joke is a joke and we should laugh some things off, otherwise life becomes unbearable. And I think about certain comedians who are brilliantly funny and very good at taking the mickey out of people in the nicest possible way and nobody cares. And I used to watch Billy Connolly all the time, you know, and Billy Connolly was always about himself, the things he'd done and what have you. But he would also take the mickey out of people as well, where they looked and the way they came across and all that sort of thing. And he would take the mickey out of small people and tall people and fat people and whatever it may be. And I think sometimes we do risk missing out on the fact that some things are inherently amusing. That's not necessarily the case of offending someone.
Jeremy Blake:Is the innuendo dead.
Bob Morrell:Yes, if it's a sexual innuendo, it is, and I think the other side that's dead is to take that innuendo further. That would be a euphemism, something that could be completely contrived as something else. You've got to be careful so you can't use a double entendre and go mm anymore. I mean, it's just too much, isn't it? Could you imagine doing?
Jeremy Blake:that. That's exactly what I'd like. Yeah, it'd be so funny, wouldn't it?
Bob Morrell:Yeah, a lot. You wouldn't open the door. All listen to you. You know all I.
Jeremy Blake:What people still do is somebody says something goes oh, why are you like? Oh, I was just breaking leaves on the front lawn. And someone goes oh, is that a euphemism? And then everyone laughs because you know, they said I had trouble getting the door open or whatever it is, I just couldn't get out of the house this morning, you know, is that?
Bob Morrell:It's ridiculous, isn't it? Why not? But it's funny, it is funny.
Jeremy Blake:If you did that, with someone coming late into a room, yeah, saying, oh, I got my key jammed. Ooh, is that gonna?
Bob Morrell:I mean, can I just say one other thing on this, though? Now you've said that, it reminds me I used to, frankie, yeah, oh God, yeah, but I used to work with a team in London and we sat on this big table in this very nice office and the filthy humour that went round that desk was unbelievable. I mean, the things that people would say and the humour and the sort of toilet humour that would go around that table was massive.
Jeremy Blake:And.
Bob Morrell:I sometimes think are people like that today? Do people make those sorts of jokes? Do they use that foul language that used to go flying around, and it's interesting that that seems to have diminished. I'd love to hear from listeners whether or not they still have an element of that, because I'd be fairly pleased, I think.
Jeremy Blake:I would like to know what's funny at work, what's working in your work. I'd love a little review, but a feedback on what is working that's humourous at work, because if you're spending the facts of it are, if you're spending seven, eight hours at work a day in a physical place.
Jeremy Blake:You might need some humour, because when you come home and you're three hours, you're four hours of your evening. You're probably gonna have some humour. And it shouldn't just be humour that we get through our screens, it should be humour that we create with each other. It should be humour that we have through conversation. Well, look, hope this has been fun. I've got nothing else to add. I think we've covered quite a bit on comedy.
Bob Morrell:Absolutely. We'd love to hear your views on comedy and humour in the workplace, but in the meantime we'll see you with another Bob and Jeremy's Comflab very soon. Thanks for listening.
Jeremy Blake:Oh.
Bob Morrell:Bob and Jeremy's Comflab the Reality Podcast.