The Hump Day Humor-Gram,  June 6, 2007        Issue Number 221

1. Humour Lesson from Robin Williams  
2. Mike’s Fun at Work Tip
3. Quote of the Week
4. It’s a Wacky, Wacky World 
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1. Humor Lessons from Robin Williams

Humor, according to comedic genius Robin Williams, is often 
about “saying yes when everyone else is saying no.” It’s also, 
he says, about “finding freedom within a structure.” 

This is yet another reason, I think, why there is such a close 
relationship between creativity and humor. Coming up with 
creative ideas in your meetings or workplace is about allowing
people enough freedom to think and play and meander about 
intellectually, but then making ideas work within the 
structure of your organization’s needs. And coming up with
killer ideas is often about taking the risk of saying
YES to a new idea in the face of a lot of people saying NO!
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2. Mike's Fun at Work Tip

If you want to sharpen your team’s humor skills in a relevant 
way, hold a contest for folks to come up with the best list: 

“You know you’re a (NAME OF YOUR PROFESSION/ORGANIZATION
HERE) when . . .” 

For example, “You KNOW you’re a safety officer when you start 
wearing your bike helmet on your stationary bike” or “You know 
you work for ACME Insurance when. . .blah blah blah . . .
something hilariously funny that only ACME Insurance people 
would get.” (Which is why I couldn’t give you an example, 
having never worked or even heard of ACME Insurance company.) 
This is also a great list to include in a presentation. 
Especially one to ACME Insurance agents.  
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3. Quote of the Week 

"For me, comedy is a tool. It's therapeutic. I use it as a 
release. You first start with yourself, making fun of yourself, 
then the world is open to you." Robin Williams 
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4. It's a Wacky, Wacky, World  

The Japanese government has drafted a report designed to keep 
future robots from injuring humans, because really, we can’t be 
too careful around robots. The report is 60 pages of jargon, 
which makes me think these future robots will one day replace 
all bureaucrats. 

Happy Hump Day. Only one more sleep until the day after hump day!
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Copyright Michael Kerr, 2007. mike@mikekerr.com  www.mikekerr.com