Make ’Em Laugh, Make ’Em Laugh, Make ’Em Laugh

Humor enriches any conversation. But not jokes starting with, “Hey didja hear the one about . . . ?” Plan your humor and make it relevant. For example, if you’re going to a meeting on the budget, look up money in a quotation book. In an uptight business situation, a little levity shows you’re at ease.

Once, during an oppressive financial meeting, I heard a top executive say, “Don’t worry, this company has enough money to stay in business for years—unless we pay our creditors.” He broke the tension and won the appreciation of all. Later I saw a similar quote in a humor book attributed to Jackie Mason, the comedian. So what? The exec still came across as a cool communicator with his clever comment.

Big players who want to be quoted in the media lie awake at night gnawing the pillow trying to come up with phrases the press will pick up. A Michigan veterinarian named Timothy, a heavy hitter in his own field but completely unknown outside it, made national headlines when he planned to attach a pair of feet to a rooster who lost his to frostbite. Why? Because he called it a “drumstick transplant.”

I don’t know if a French woman, Jeanne Calment, then officially the world’s oldest person, was looking for publicity on her 122nd birthday. But she made international headlines when she told the media, “I’ve only ever had one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it.”

Mark Victor Hansen, a big player in his own field but once relatively unknown outside of it, was propelled into national prominence when he came up with a catchy name for his book coauthored with Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul. He told me his original title was 101 Pretty Stories. How far would that have gone? Soon the world was lapping up, among others, his Chicken

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