Questão 5

(ITA - 2002 - 1a Fase)

Tell me if you’ve heard this one and hate it

by Mike Kennedy

     For presidents and celebrities as well as ordinary people, cracking jokes can be risky business today, provoking anger and resentment instead of laughter.

     The problem is that humor, like beauty, often is in the eye of the beholder.

     Consider a jest by President Clinton. At a trade fair on the White House lawn, Clinton and his cabinet came upon a three-foot-high replica of the White House.

     With the 4-foot-10 inch secretary of labor, Robert Reich, at his side, Clinton quipped, “Secretary Reich could almost live in there.”

     Lighthearted ribbing between longtime pals? Or a remark offensive to those sensitive about their height?

     Experts who train people to use humor in business and social relationships say it can be an invaluable tool – but it must be used with sensitivity.

     Of course, the line between laughing with someone and laughing at someone isn’t always so clear.

     So in today’s litigious and sensitive society should we all take the safest course and avoid any attempts at humor? That would make for a dull world, experts said. The wrong kind of humor, though, can be destructive. Jokes that attack often cause people to withdraw, or worse, seek revenge.

     Supervisors need to be especially careful. Because of the power they hold, their attempts at humor demean an employee.

     Of course, some people just can’t take a joke. So what can you do?

     “On the politically correct front, there are certain people whose mission is to be offended,” Langley said. “There’s not really much you can do about them.”

Fragiadakis, H. & Maurer, M.
Sound Ideas, 1995 (p.81).

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