Business Humor

1. Business Humor by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. Fred Beard

3. Marshall Chiles

4. Joe Graffith

5. Michael Kerr

6. Fred “Chico” Lager

7. Michael Lapoce

8. Gene Perret

9. It does matter where you put the price tag.

16. Business Trends

18. Creative Advertising

19. Toilet paper Advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/embed/V_gOZDWQj3Q?rel=0

20. Creative Advertising

21. This finger on a statue is pointing to a particular hotel in Stockholm, Sweden

22. Second Hand Store

23. Fed Ex Arrowsin Arabic and in English

24. The Internal Revenue Service

25. Bob Mankoff’s New Yorker Business Humor

26. CREATIVE HONDA AD: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Dxy4n0UT82o?rel=0

27. One Business Model:

28. Another Business Model:

29. Spaghetti Factory: Explain why they are successful.

30. Business Symbolism:

31. More Business Symbolism:

32. Bad Jobs!

33. BUSINESSES ARE NOW LOOKING FOR NEW APPROACHES An Office at Google They find ways to make their employees WANT to come to work. Offices should be fun to look at and to work in. But there’s more to it than that. • Humor consultant John Morreall advises businesses on how to make employees “like” to come to work. • It is fine to decorate an office or pin up cartoons, but really, it i much more complex than that.

35. MOTIVATION: PROFIT VS. PURPOSE; LEVELING THE HIERARCHY (e.g. Internet, Wikipedia, Skype, Facebook, Google, Southwest…): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=relmfu

37. Businesses which encourage humor also: • Take initiative and risks. • Do not worry about making mistakes. • Spend energy on solutions. • Shoot for total quality. • Focus on opportunities. • Do not worry about breaking things. • Try easier, not harder. • Stay calm. • Take responsibility. • Experiment. • Smile. • Have fun.

38. To Accomplish These Goals, Companies: • Flatten the organization by reducing levels of management. • Allow workers more discretion in making decisions. • Foster creative thinking. • Accept employee attitudes, emotions, and suggestions. • Encourage teamwork and collaboration.

39. Three Business Models:

40. Administrators’ Views of Humor-in-Business : • A sense of humor makes businesses more creative, less rigid, and more willing to consider and embrace new ideas and methods. • In a survey of 737 CEO’s, 98% said that humor was important in the conduct of business. • They therefore gave preference to people with a sense of humor. • Soft skills are better predictors of success in management than are hard skills.

42. More Support for Humor • The director of human resources at Sun Microsystems watches for how long it takes an interviewee to laugh or to find something funny • She says that humor is very important in their corporate futures. • One business created a “Grouch Patrol.” Whenever they see someone with a sour expression, they respond by making a bat face. • This involves pushing the tip of their noses up, flicking their tongues in and out, and making a high-pitched “Eeeee” sound.

44. When Humor “Bubbles-Up” from Employees, There Will of Course Be Lots of Variety. • Practical jokes we’ve recently heard: • Putting foam packing bubbles in the cubicles of colleagues who are absent. • A boss going on a three-week trip, and coming back to find real sod rolled out in his office just to prove that “grass does grow under your feet.” • A door-decorating contest on the cruise ship taking 12 of their outstanding employees to Mexico, in which winners had photos of their faces superimposed on pictures of jungle animals. • Their slogan was “Where the Wild Things Are.”

45. At our local BEADS GALORE store an employee made this sign for the window. “UNATTENDED CHILDREN WILL BE GIVEN TO THE GOBLIN KING” APPARENTLY, SHE WAS TIRED OF REARRANGING THE DISPLAYS.

46. Other Examples of Workplace Humor • A debt collector sent out a letter reading, “We appreciate your business, but, please, give us a break. Your account is overdue 10 months. That means we’ve carried you longer than your mother did.” • A business manager, who made a really bad mistake, wore a T-shirt with a large red bulls-eye on it when he went to a meeting about the problem. • A large IBM sales team improved their record 30% when they formed a pick-up orchestra and recorded their sales in fun ways, e.g. by blowing a horn, smashing a gong.

47. More Examples • Esther Blumenfield and Lynne Alpern told about how four women conspired to get even with a male co-worker. • At meetings, he would routinely drop his pencil on the floor so that he could bend down under the table and look up their skirts. • One day before a scheduled meeting, they used a magic marker to print on their kneecaps: H I (space) R A L P H. • The CEO of a large Canadian bank appears in a monthly corporate video shown to all employees to discuss recent issues and plans. • A hand puppet appears and begins poking fun and asking him embarrassing questions about recent problems.

48. Southwest Airlines Boarding Information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxNrizGdhtY&app=desktop

49. Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shops are successful because of their quirky humor.

50. Cartoonist Scott Adams draws “Dilbert” cartoons which explore these business-related themes: • Downsizing • Heavy work loads • Micromanagement • Humiliatingly small cubicles • Accelerating pace of change • Corporate gobbledygook • Management fads • Cruel bosses • Annoying colleagues • Red tape.