Sans Fig Leaf
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"But seriously…"
1 April, 2005
Have you ever wondered why it's called a "practical joke?" We're used to thinking of the word "practical" as being the opposite of "imaginary" or "ideal." But it can also mean the opposite of "intellectual" or "theoretical." In other words, a non-practical joke is simply a verbal or written joke, where all the humour happens inside the head of the listener. Whereas a practical joke requires some sort of action or work or set up in the physical word. The intent is to surprise or confuse a person in a humorous way.
When I transitioned from being a part-time contract employee to so-called full-time permanent, there were fifteen of us working at the office. As April approached, my supervisor warned me of the elaborate hijinx that usually ensued on April Fool's Day. Some of the jokes were quite a lot of fun -- filling someone's office with balloons, that sort of thing.
My two favorites in the following years were the person who went around the office late on the night of March 31 and switched all the "m" and "n" keys on the keyboards and the person who put a small piece of electrical tape under the plastic faceplate of the desk phone of the tech support manager, covering up the message waiting light.
For most of us, we didn't notice the keyboard thing, because we seldom actually look at the keys, but a few people were quite confused. One spent all day trying to figure out what piece of software had been loaded onto his machine to re-map the keyboard. He knew it was a practical joke, but it never occured to him it was as simple as popping the plastic keys off their buttons and re-attaching them. And obviously, he wasn't a touch typist. He very quietly poked around on his hard drive, surreptitiously asking about keyboard mapping, that sort of thing. Once it was explained, he had a good laugh and was done with it.
The tech support manager also assumed that someone had done it with software. And since the voice messaging system was our product, he logged into the server to turn his message lamp back on. When the software appeared to be configured correctly, but the light wasn't working, he starting throwing a conniption fit, absolutely convinced that one of the software engineers had actually altered the code in some way to disable this feature on his system alone, and that was completely unacceptable, because what if he'd accidently created a bug? All sorts of things could go wrong and this was our flagship product at our own office. If the system didn't work when resellers called in, they might lose confidence in the product.
He was raging around the office, demanding to know who had done it, demanding that the president order whoever it was to 'fess up and put things right. He was about to have an aneurism.
Finally, the Chief Financial Officer, a quiet, serious-minded man who cultivated an image of being non-technical, confessed. He showed everyone how he had done it, and suggested that in the future the tech support manager should not start suggesting people be fired until he knew, for certain, what had happened.
That is the problem with jokes of any kind. We can never be completely certain how the other person will take it. Often practical jokes rely upon some sort of embarassment, and that's always dangerous territory. Embarassment is painful, and just because it's emotional pain rather than physical pain doesn't make it all right.
Then there are folks who don't understand that other people have boundaries that may be different than theres. I recall the story of a person who, on April Fool's Day, left a cryptical message on the desk of a female co-worker that her son had been taken to a hospital. The note didn't say which hospital, who had called, and was intentionally written in unrecognizable handwriting.
The joker didn't understand why no one else thought sending the woman into hysterics, worried that her child might be seriously injured, was funny.
Not everyone has the same boundaries. Responsible people will at least acknowledge that and make some effort to respect the boundaries of others. The point of a joke should be to make all the participants laugh together. Shared laughter is mirth, joy, and comaraderie. But when you laugh alone, well, that's just sad.