The Office Jester… every office needs one to refresh employees after they take a bus ride to work
You know, everyone doesn’t go to work in their own cars. In fact, the vast majority of the global population takes a bus ride to work. The most interesting part of a bus ride to work, (yes, it has interesting aspects. If you don’t think so then you’ve taken one bus ride too many) is the conversations you get to hear. Some of them can be truly memorable. Consider this conversation we overheard the other day.
So, let us establish the background. The bus is being driven by a middle-aged man. The bus is not packed but there are people on the seats, male and female both. About two to three seats away from the door, there’s an old woman on a seat. On the same seat is a young woman and the two women, we presumed after, don’t know each other. Before the glorious incident, there was an almost-accident on the road which involved the bus driver making some dangerous, hair-raising manoeuvers.
Once the dust settled, the old woman gripping onto the seat in front of her and red-faced, loudly and clearly announced: “I think I just have a testosterone rush!” The whole bus started laughing except for the blushing middle-aged driver (who on the basis of his reaction, we assumed to be a big prude).
The young woman, sitting next to the old woman, the good soul that she was, actually tried to comfort her while giggling. She had her hand around her shoulders and was gently trying to pat and stroke her to calmness. When the bus laughed at what the old woman said, she promptly decided to correct herself. This was her correction (use Mrs Doubtfire voice): “Ooh, my! Pardon my French, I meant I just had an oestrogen rush!” Cue the second round of hysterical laughter.
Most of us in the bus, though, didn’t know how to correct here, except for a suave old man and this is where you start valuing experience as a person. He looked like the CEO of some company who had just decided to take a bus ride to work for the sake of variety. He, with a very amused expression, said, “Ma’am, considering our age, it’s not surprising that we have to deal with such hormonal rollercoasters. However, I do believe that what you just experienced was an adrenaline rush.” What we couldn’t figure out was whether the old woman was embarrassed or attracted to the suave old man.
This story is the prime example of why you should take a bus ride to work. Additionally, if this story wasn’t amusing enough, let us present to you, Bob Newhart.
Get Ready For Your Bus Ride to Work
While this video won’t have anything to do with your workplace, you can be sure that it will remind you of one or more incidents that you witnessed while on a bus ride to work. It is worth noting that we said on a bus ride to work because that it important. The incidents that Newhart described in this video typically occur during office hours. It’s almost as if bus drivers hate being at work as much as we all do so they lash out on the most convenient targets they can find. Who knew? We don’t do any such thing, right? Especially on Mondays!
Now, Newhart is known for his deadpan, satirical humour. If you’ve been following Office Jester at Office Hacks, then you must’ve realised that we’re currently tripping on Bob Newhart and his humour. We featured another of his routines in a post about business problem solving earlier.
The video starts out with Newhart giving the background i.e. bus driver training to separate the “good bus drivers” from the “all-time great bus drivers”. It made us wonder, you know. Do these public transportation companies have “Employees of the Month”? How do they choose the winner? Is it the person who drove the most distance? Spent the most time on the roads? Ferried the most passengers? Inconvenienced the most individuals? Or even chatted up the lady passengers the most? If any of you know, kindly share the joy in the comments section. (p.s. even we couldn’t figure out the Larry Strickland and Neil Norlag references.)
So, there are three incidents that Newhart describes in this video. The first one we’ve come to call “The Tease”, the second we’ve dubbed “Fear Factor”, and the third we believe should be called “The Twirl”.
The Tease is the most evolved, of course, especially if the bus driver manages to block off the two full lanes of traffic. Fear Factor, though, is bound to be the most cathartic for most bus drivers. In fact, we’re sure they use it as a therapy technique in bus driving school. The Twirl has to be the most fun to not only control but also watch. It’s like the Looney Tunes’ Tasmanian Devil!
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