<story><title>Microsoft&apos;s Guide to Humor</title><url>http://www.microsoft.com/education/competencies/humor.mspx</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nagrom</author><text>This reminds me of E. B. White&apos;s quote:&lt;p&gt;&quot;Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s also reminiscent of Louis Armstrong&apos;s&lt;p&gt;&quot;Man, if you gotta ask you&apos;ll never know&quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it really possible to develop a sense of humour by reading a list of bullet points, action plans and self-help advice? I&apos;m not really convinced that this isn&apos;t a really brilliant, very subtle joke on a completely higher level.&lt;p&gt;I can&apos;t decide whether this is funnier if posted by someone in earnest, or if posted in total seriousness. I think that&apos;s the joke.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>thinkbohemian</author><text>This may be a little bit convoluted of an idea but when i was much younger I made a concerted effort to be &quot;funnier&quot;. I watched stand up commedians on tv and analyzed why some jokes worked and some didn&apos;t. I paid attention to my friends jokes and took mental notes. All in all it worked out, i&apos;m no robbin williams, but I make people around me laugh (in a good way) fairly frequently.&lt;p&gt;So structured learning of &quot;un-learnable&quot; fields can pay off, though your intent, desire, and actions all have to be aligned. Microsofts attempts to introduce humor to the workplace could legitimately be successful if they really really followed through, sponsoring weekly sitcom watching parties, making jokes in email signatures the internal norm, etc.&lt;p&gt;What makes this document so sad, is the perception that feelings and enjoyment can be delegated to a memo.</text></comment>
<story><title>Microsoft&apos;s Guide to Humor</title><url>http://www.microsoft.com/education/competencies/humor.mspx</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nagrom</author><text>This reminds me of E. B. White&apos;s quote:&lt;p&gt;&quot;Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.&quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s also reminiscent of Louis Armstrong&apos;s&lt;p&gt;&quot;Man, if you gotta ask you&apos;ll never know&quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Armstrong&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it really possible to develop a sense of humour by reading a list of bullet points, action plans and self-help advice? I&apos;m not really convinced that this isn&apos;t a really brilliant, very subtle joke on a completely higher level.&lt;p&gt;I can&apos;t decide whether this is funnier if posted by someone in earnest, or if posted in total seriousness. I think that&apos;s the joke.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gcheong</author><text>&quot;I&apos;m not really convinced that this isn&apos;t a really brilliant, very subtle joke on a completely higher level.&quot;&lt;p&gt;It probably started out that way.</text></comment>