How To Crack Up Your Coworkers (Encore)

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

Education, How To

4.3 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last week we learned about using the four different styles of humor to your advantage, and who makes a good target for a joke. But what if you read the room wrong and absolutely bomb? On this episode of How To!, the second in a two-part series, we resume our conversation with Naomi Bagdonas, co-author of Humor, Seriously!, and Michael Terry, the most hilarious hedge fund guy we've ever met. They swap stories about office jokes that fell flat, how to navigate a suddenly tense situation and what to do if your humor accidentally offends someone (especially your boss).

If you liked this episode, check out "How To Be Funny" with comedian Gary Gulman.

If you want to discover your own humor style, take the test on Naomi and Jennifer's website.

Do you have a joke that killed at the office, or totally bombed? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.
0:22.6	Talk about generational talent.
0:23.7	Coming to headphones near you on can agree not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important
0:21.1	figures. Talk about genius. Talk about generational talent. Coming to headphones near you on April 17th,
0:25.9	with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, how-to listeners,
0:31.3	we're off again this week. So we're bringing you the second in our two-part series on humor
0:36.5	in the workplace. This week, you'll learn
0:39.0	how to crack jokes without offending your coworkers. I'm going to pass the mic to former host Amanda
0:44.5	Ripley, and we'll see you back here next week. I don't know if it's just that I like to make jokes
0:49.7	about cancer or what, but the number of stories I have about inadvertently alienating people would take...
0:59.1	That's a whole podcast.
1:00.5	We're going to do a spin-off series called Michael Steps in It, comma, again.
1:16.7	Welcome to how-to. I'm Amanda Ripley. You can't talk about humor without talking about jokes that bombed. So I want to start today by sharing a personal story that still makes me cringe.
1:23.9	It was years ago when I was working at Time Magazine and I was briefly and inexplicably put in charge of the Washington Bureau, which meant that I was managing people.
1:33.3	All of a sudden, I went from being a reporter to a manager.
1:37.3	And oh my God, it was terrible.
1:40.3	What I learned is that managing people means listening to them come in your office and complain all day.
1:48.4	That's how I saw it.
1:49.9	So at the end of my tenure, we had a little happy hour, and I realized way too late that I should probably give a toast.
1:57.0	So I decided to try to make it funny.
1:59.5	And I was not prepared, which was my first mistake.
2:02.6	So I stood up in front of my colleagues, most of whom were older than I was, and I said,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peach Fish Projects, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Peach Fish Projects and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.