When Humor Falls Flat

“Humor is not a “one-size fits all” guarantee. What is hilarious to one person may be offensive to another. By being emotionally intelligent and self-aware, you can discern how, when, why, or where to be funny . . . or not. You might be walking on thin ice and risk making a damaging first impression if you use humor that is:

• At the expense of others.
• Thoughtless sarcasm.
• Belittling or condescending.
• Hitting below the belt.
• Creepy or profane.
• Raunchy humor with sexual innuendo.
• Politically incorrect.
• Mean-spirited.

Susan C. Young

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

Winston Churchill

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.”

George Burns

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

Albert Einstein

In a Catholic school cafeteria, a nun places a note in front of a pile of apples,

“Only take one. God is watching.”

Further down the line is a pile of cookies. A little boy makes his own note,

“Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”

A boy asks his father,

“Dad, are bugs good to eat?”

“That’s disgusting. Don’t talk about things like that over dinner,” the dad replies.

After dinner the father asks, “Now, son, what did you want to ask me?”

“Oh, nothing,” the boy says. “There was a bug in your soup, but now it’s gone.”