Chapter 45 Technique 80: You should grasp the scale when joking

To joke, to amuse.This is the most common way of making fun of interpersonal communication.It can activate the atmosphere, regulate emotions, create a harmonious and relaxed atmosphere, and make your language more attractive.However, the content of a joke must be elegant, if the joke is too vulgar, or if it goes too far and hurts people's self-esteem and feelings, it will be counterproductive.Therefore, you must pay attention to the occasion and grasp the scale when joking. Let me give you an example of being good at joking and enlivening the atmosphere of the conversation: When a pianist played Beethoven's famous piece in a song and dance theater in a certain place, due to the cold weather, there were not many audiences entering the theater. Half of the seats in the theater were empty. disturbed.This was a bit unexpected for the pianist.In order to change this embarrassing situation, the pianist made a very humorous joke, saying:

Friends, I found a strange thing, people in this city are very rich, because I saw that each of you bought a ticket for two or three seats. The audience burst into laughter when they heard it. Because of a joke made by the pianist, people immediately became active, and the embarrassing situation was resolved in a roar of laughter.Then, everyone listened to him attentively. Here is an example of a joke that does not pay attention to the occasion, resulting in serious consequences: Once, President Reagan of the United States went to Congress to attend a meeting.Before the meeting, in order to test whether the microphone was connected, he made a joke and said:

Attention gentlemen, in five minutes I will be bombing the USSR. With a single word, the audience was in an uproar. Later, the Soviet Union lodged a strong protest against this matter, which made Reagan very embarrassed and embarrassed. Reagan made a casual joke on a serious occasion, which led to bad consequences. Another example: There is a young couple who have a very good relationship. The two often joke with each other to adjust their boring life and become harmonious and intimate with each other. On this day, the husband had just bought an air gun and was cleaning it when his wife came in front of him.The husband pointed his gun at his wife and joked:

Hold still, hands up! As he said that, he missed and pulled the trigger.The bullet passed by his wife's ear, breaking the earlobe, and the blood flowed continuously.If the head is injured, the wife may die. It can be seen that excessive joking will cause irreparable consequences. Of course, it depends on the person to make a joke, because everyone has a different personality, status, and mood, and their tolerance to jokes is also different. Therefore, you can make a joke to this person, but not to another person. A science of joking. Generally speaking, men should not joke with women, subordinates should not joke with superiors, juniors should not joke with elders, normal people should not joke with disabled people.Even if you can make some jokes, it is limited to making fun of things, and it must imply respect and praise, not presumptuous or frivolous.Don't expose the shortcomings of others, especially the shortcomings of the disabled. They have kept their obvious shortcomings secret. If you joke with him again, he will think it is an intentional humiliation, thus creating a situation of confrontation with bad words.

In short, joking should be amused in good faith and promote mutual emotional exchange, rather than malicious teasing and taking advantage of each other.Therefore, joking must distinguish between good and evil, and grasp the scale.