I had the opportunity to see Mark Gungor at the National Speakers Association Convention in Orlando last week. He presented a hilarious program on the differences between the brains of men and women. Isn’t it so much more enjoyable to learn with laughter?
Here’s a sample:
Ron
Just ran across this great program called Stand Up For Mental Health founded by David Granirer.
Basically, it’s a duel benefit by helping those battling mental health issues to develop self confidence while doing stand-up comedy AND to educate the community by fighting the stigma of mental illness. There is a great article in the Virginia AP News: Program Teaches Mentally Ill to do Stand-up Comedy. Check it out.
My favorite line from their website? “Most people think you have to be nuts to do stand-up comedy. We offer it as a form of therapy!”
Now that’s crazy!
Ron
Look for an interview with David Granirer in our newsletter later this year.
I read an article in USA Today about Edward Norton’s new charity website Crowdrise. You can read about it here: Norton’s Crowdrise Goes the Distance.
The article highlights Norton’s effort to connect and support multiple charities instead of just one. By encouraging people at all levels of fund raising to participate, he has created a community where those who “are not sure their little bit makes a different to feel persuaded they can make a difference.” The site is called Crowdrise and you should definitely check it out.
This is very cool on two levels. First, it inspires service to others. Second, it makes service fun.
For instance, Will Ferrell’s fund-raising effort is to generate money for cancer survivors to go to college. In exchange for a $17 donation, you get a bottle of his sun tan lotion.
Plus, participants earn points for money raised and for votes from other participants that can be used for prizes.
This is a great example of accomplishing something significant through a fun process.
Ron
As a way to improve the services I provide to my clients, readers, and fans, I have developed a new resource center on my website. You can see it here: HumorUs.
The goal of this site is to provide you with screened humor resources to help you add a bit of fun to your daily routine. It will be updated regularly with new videos, jokes, photos, articles, etc. It will also feature certain people and resources that I think you might enjoy and/or need such as speakers, authors, etc. So, visit it often to enhance your own humor repertoire.
Also, I would greatly appreciate any resources you might have – especially those that pertain to healthcare. Please send them to me and make sure to include the source. I won’t be able to post copyrighted material unless I have the original source.
Enjoy.
Ron
One of my biggest complaints about the Super Bowl ads is that the car companies don’t seem to get it. Each year, there are so many hilarious ads and yet the car companies want to promote luxury, comfort, and the open road. BOR-ING!
Well, in an attempt to save their reputation, Toyota is changing all that. Their recent ads are hilarious. They take a normally boring commercial and make it really entertaining. You can do the same with your work routines.
Here’s my favorite Toyota ad:
Ron
Recently, a prospective client told me that her organization did not have a budget to hire outside speakers for their conferences. When I offered her a free subscription to my FUNsultations newsletter, hoping that the articles would be a cost-effective alternative to educate her members about the value of humor, she said, “We don’t have a place for humor here. Our association is very serious. We focus on legislative and regulatory issues.”
My first thought was to hop in the car, drive the 2500 miles that separated us, and smack her upside the head for wasting her life. Luckily, I had a dental appointment the next day and couldn’t reschedule.
I readily admit that it’s common for associations to tell me that they can’t afford my fee because they’re required to use their funds for topics that more directly affect their members – such as healthcare reform, reimbursement issues, regulatory changes, etc. But when someone tells me that they don’t want free educational information because the organization is too serious, I just want to weep. And let me be clear. I rarely weep.
This issue is not about the seriousness of the work. It’s about the misguided perspective of the leadership. I worked in hospice care for ten years. I doubt there are many jobs more serious than that. But our leaders appreciated the need to balance the seriousness of the work with fun. They would never discourage staff from taking advantage of an opportunity to enjoy a bit of humor.
No job is so serious that we can’t find the humor and fun in it. Even funeral directors have fun. They just do it when nobody’s looking.
So what do you do if you work in an organization that does not support fun? Here are a few suggestions:
The world is full of “downers” who want us to be on their level. While we may think that our career is benefiting from a serious workplace, our life is not. Remember that we all end up dead no matter what we did during our lives. But those who are the least dead are the ones who really lived. Or something like that.
Ron
As I mentioned on my previous blog, my 15 year-old son had ACL surgery a few days ago. He was a bit nervous even though we all knew it was somewhat routine.
The surgeon came up to talk with my son and he was just great.
He said, “I just finished watching the instructional video so I’m ready to do the surgery now. I’m going to practice on that other patient over there before I get to you. And in case you’re wondering, we got the ligament from a pretty good athlete. But he was a second string guy. Nobody will miss him.”
He was great and made my son much more relaxed.
For those of you in healthcare, this type of humor doesn’t just work with kids!
Ron
My son spent Memorial Day remembering his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) that died in the line of duty a few weeks earlier. He tore his ACL during a lacrosse game and had surgery four days ago to repair it. Luckily, the surgery went well and he’s doing just fine.
I wrote the opening line to this blog in my head as I was pondering my Facebook update on Memorial Day. I thought it was both funny and timely. But then, I decided not to write it because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my holiday answering angry comments like “Are you a communist?” or “Why would you make fun of such a serious day of remembrance?”
Perhaps I overreacted. Maybe all my Facebook friends would see it as tongue-in-cheek and not an insult to the valor of fallen veterans. But then again, maybe not. As a conference organizer, I was once criticized for using a rocked-out guitar solo of the Star Spangled Banner to open the conference because it was “insulting to veterans.” The theme of the conference was Rock and Roll, so I thought it made perfect sense to blend our patriotism with the theme in an entertaining way. But others did not see it that way.
My father and my uncle served in the Pacific in World War II. My brother spent six years in the Navy doing tours on a nuclear submarine. During graduate school, I worked at Ft. Belvoir Army Medical Center counseling retired military personnel and families. I deeply respect the military. So, does that mean there is no place for humor when it comes to something as serious as Memorial Day? It makes me wonder.
When I worked in hospice care, respect was woven into the fabric of everything we did. The dignity of the patient and family was critical to the success of our care. And yet, we laughed at the absurdities of life and the incongruity of death. Let’s be honest. It was funny when a priest thought that a patient was moaning in pain when she was actually on the bedpan. It was funny when a patient told me she had been “dying to see” our inpatient facility. And it was hilarious when a patient referred to Sister Catherine, a nurse, as “Attila the Nun.” Both the staff and the patients could appreciate the humor in these situations.
But there were those who could not laugh. The magnitude of their circumstances was so overwhelming, the best they could do was be serious – all the time.
I can respect the fact that some people are serious by nature and that some people take the world very seriously. But I suggest that if we can view our circumstances with a bit more objectivity and not have so much of our personal identity wrapped up in what we do, we would have the ability to see the world in all it’s many colors rather than in black and white. Every situation has the potential for joy and tragedy. It’s a balance. It’s not all or nothing.
Just like Memorial Day, healthcare is full of seriousness. Let us remember to always respect those with whom we work but let’s also not get so caught up in the seriousness of what we do that we fail to grasp the joy and humor that is part of life…and death.
Ron
In the are-you-paying-attention category, I noticed two unrelated yet related articles in the paper today.
First, it appears that heartburn drugs are linked to bone fractures.
Second, the NBA is now putting edible team logos on pizzas.
So, the way I see this, now NBA fans are susceptible to bone fractures.
Go figure.
Ron
A tip of the hat to Art Linkletter who died yesterday. He was masterful at bringing out the humor in others -- especially kids.
In a recent interview on Larry King, Art said that when he asked his physician how much time he had left, the physician said, “If you live one day at a time, it will all work out.” What a great lesson for us all. Here’s a link to the video:
If you’d like to see some clips from his House Party show, check this out from YouTube:
Thank you Art for some great laughs.
Ron