The Importance of Context in Comedy

I am a big fan of the British comedy series, The Office, which was first released in Australia in 2002.

Like most great comedies, it’s edgy and at times risqué.

By 2005, it had become fashionable at EG to use some of the provocative one-liners from The Office at our meetings and in our everyday banter.

It seemed harmless enough and I laughed along with the team.

One joke in particular though troubled me. So, I raised it with my then mentor, John R Caldon, the former Deputy MD of Macquarie Group.

John enjoyed having a good laugh at work, but his response was categorical: “It’s up to you, of course, Adam, but I wouldn’t do it.”

“The problem with that type of joke”, he elaborated, “is that it’s very funny until it stops being funny. It’s just a matter of time before someone complains and when they do, you’ll have no choice but to act.”

What John was teaching me was the importance of context.

Sand at the beach is beautiful. On your dinner table, it’s dirt. So too with comedy.