I don't have the snappy comebacks I used to. Mostly, it is because I am not paying attention to what is being said - especially in meetings. In fact, we had a "True Colors" seminar the other day and after an intense analysis of my personality traits versus those of others, I realize that I pretty much think most people are beneath me. Well, that is not necessarily true, but it is fun to think.
Example: one of the team building exercises task us to build an institution that portrayed our personality. Mine was the "Extreme Adventures Academy and Mortuary Services" - institution of higher learning and extinction from the gene pool. I liked it.
One of the competitors spoke of logistics and incident command and deputy staff, blah, blah. They were all about statistics, linear tracking and support from outside entities. See? Doesn't it want to make you hurl? And I only offered a couple of sentences... BUT it began to get interesting once they began outlining their structures in detail. They labeled them "Functional Unit One, Functional Unit Two, Functional Unit Three, etc. For the first five minutes, each member drew out the names.... then they got lazy.
"It is not uncommon for a commander to cite an F. U. within the depressed community." When the speaker attempted to engage the audience... "Which F. U. is no longer needed once the D.R.U. has been replaced by the O.R.I?"
The audience chants, "F. U. 2, F. U. 2"
Giggles, guffaws and snerkles abound. Inner smirks soon boomed into laughter after it was realized that the speaker didn't have a clue....
The following chart shows the relationship of snappy comebacks based on normal conversation.
I didn't really have any other occasion to use this graph. I just thought it was neat. If you want a laugh, attend meetings. Raise your hand often and then forget what you were going to say. Go to the bathroom a lot. Pass around a hat (put a dollar in first). Make paper footballs. Make it fun. It's the only way you'll survive... NLM















