The Office Jester… every office needs one to start off that irresistible giggle loop
There are different types of humour, you know. There is the slapstick humour that the majority of people in the world seem to ascribe and, indeed, subscribe to. There is the dark humour that appeals to the melancholic side of many people. Then, there is word based humour and even situational humour. One type of humour that is quite rare is the absurd humour.
Absurdity, believe it or not, can result in laughter. Unfortunately, not a lot of people can relate to it. These are the conditioned lot of the world, who have trouble thinking outside of the box. Well, in our opinion, these people are missing out on one of the most subtle and refined types of humour. We’re going to give you an example of absurd humour today with the following video from a BBC show known as “Coupling”.
As the name suggests, this show was all about the relationship between men and women. There were only a few seasons but they were all well worth the watch. Sadly, they discontinued the show far too soon, in our opinion. While most of the situations, jokes, and humour in the show revolved around men, women, and their relationships, there were some gems that were more generic in nature. However, like our generic cartridges, this doesn’t mean that these generic jokes didn’t work. They did and did so wonderfully well. The giggle loop is just one of them.
The Giggle Loop Explained
As Jeff explains right at the beginning of the video, “to know about the giggle loop is to become part of the giggle loop”. The giggle loop is possibly the most insidious phenomenon your mind could put you through. It is like a feedback loop of laughter that becomes stronger and more irresistible with every loop.
If you’ve not seen the video yet, you’ll most probably think that there’s nothing wrong with a little laughter. But that is only because you haven’t realised that the most dangerous aspect of the giggle loop is its timing. It occurs at the most inappropriate times possible. Jeff uses a minute’s silence at a funeral as his easel but you can replace that with a serious presentation at the office.
Any situation where the worst thing you could possibly do is laugh is fertile for the giggle loop to take root. The point is that the longer you stay immersed in the giggle loop, the harder it becomes to control and the worst the final explosion will be. This video shows this wonderfully well with the help of those beer glasses.
By the way, what about those beer glasses eh? Wonderful, aren’t they? We would love to have them at home! In the video, we especially liked how they showed the stack of those glasses teetering on the edge of toppling. Imagine the situation at work during a presentation with your company’s promoters or even an appraisal interview.
You start out well but then the insidious thought enters your mind that the worst thing to do while you’re being appraised is laugh. It gives us the heebie-jeebies. We’ve put you in a spot now (big, evil grin). At your next appraisal or presentation, you better watch yourself or you’ll break out in a giggle better suited to 16 year old girls.
Worried yet? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps (theme from Coupling), you can head off the situation by recommending Coupling to your boss. If he knows about the Giggle Loop, maybe he won’t take exception to you laughing to his face while being criticised.
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