How can you tell when a management consultant has moved into your neighborhood? He’s the one lecturing to kids about process improvements they should make to their lemonade stand.

Funny, yes. Profound, no. But a wry insight nonetheless.

Trying to say something wise—even sideways--about laughter may be oxymoronic. Skeptics might say, "why bother?" Behavioral scientists will counter that attitude by quantifying and probing. They want to find the underlying trigger points of the laughter in an effort to unlock clues to the "inner you."

John Cleese, the wickedly funny English comedian, recalls the Dalai Lama as telling him that laughter is good for thinking because—quote--"when people laugh, it is easier for them to admit new ideas to their minds." This idea is something that Mr. Cleese has pursued vigorously and hilariously in his life’s work. (1)

Trainers use humor to point out negative behaviors in ways that teach rather than preach. Mediators tell us that the right joke, or the right moment of levity, can reduce tensions to the point that two adversaries can sit down at the table to consider the possibility of agreement.

So why does humor work? Because it shatters preconceptions at the moment when people are forming new perceptions—about their work, their spouse, or life itself. Laughter is a release; it is a moment of sheer pleasure. And in our world of tension and turmoil, the belly laugh is a physical escape valve.

Choosing the humor is another matter. We live an era of the put-down, the snide aside, the searing retort. These comments do have their place, but all too often they make us laugh at someone else’s expense. Good humor, nourishing humor for example, enables us to laugh at ourselves for being human. It serves as a window into our souls.

Good humor is after all, a kind of public exhibitionism—without having to call the police. It says, "hey, look at me, I am just like you—a poor wretch faced with the same kind of problems, the same kind of dilemmas." With apologies to Monsieur Pascal, "we laugh because we are."

Take Jay Leno; his rise to the pinnacle of the comedy kingdom is powered by his every man approach to life. Never mind that he has his own TV show and makes $10 million a year. Jay’s our kind of guy say his fans. And Jay delivers on that promise. Same goes for Jerry Seinfeld. True his neuroses may not be your neuroses, but they are funny—immediate, accessible, and real.

"There are only three things that are certain: God, human folly, and laughter," goes the East Indian saying. "We cannot comprehend the first two, so we have to do the best we can with the third—laughter."

I don’t know much about our ancient ancestors, but it’s a pretty safe bet that when they gathered around the campfire roasting bison with a slab of wholly mammoth on the side there were more than a few rocks tossed back in laughter.

©John Baldoni, 1998

(1) Fisher, Anne "Test: Can You Laugh at His Advice?" Fortune 7/6/98