A good joke is a thing of beauty. Furthermore, shorter is often better than longer. For example, did you hear about the couple who met while bungee jumping? They got married on the rebound. Yes? No? Maybe?

It might just be the crowds that I travel in, but it seems to me that jokes have largely disappeared from the social landscape. I would venture that the primary reason for this is that many jokes are politically incorrect. The risks in telling some jokes range from getting slapped, through ostracism, all the way to arrest.

I used to always include a joke in my newsletters in a section entitled The No Free Lunch Café. The title itself was supposed to be a clever inside joke for economists (referencing Adam Smith’s classic opus, The Wealth of Nations).

When I look back on some of the jokes that were published, I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know what I found so funny about many of them in the first place. Many of the punch lines were telegraphed well in advance.

Humour now is mostly situational. That’s why so many stand-up comics (e.g., Jerry Seinfeld, Roy Romano and Martin Lawrence) moved on to “situation comedies” on television.

Having said all of this, relevant humour can serve a purpose in business. For example, in presentations, the right joke can energize a speaker, wake up an audience and underline a point.

To prove this argument, tomorrow I’ll try to weave a funny story into my blog entry about institutional construction. Furthermore, this comes with a guarantee. You will be amused.

Alex Carrick

Find Canadian construction-related economic articles in Canadian Construction Market News and in the Economic Outlook section of Daily Commercial News.

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