Do You Encourage Silliness Sometimes? Should You?
What started as an inside joke has turned into a day of silliness that’s celebrated every year on September 19th. Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day – avast, ye mateys, and I’ll tell the tale of the scurvy lads who created this sorry excuse for revelry!
Two friends were playing racquetball on June 6, 1995. John Bauer, AKA Cap’n Slappy, and Mark Summers, AKA Ol’ Chumbucket, played hard, resulting in an injury to one of them. In pain, he cried out “Arrrrrrrgghhhhh” and the silliness was well begun. It was an inside joke between them for a while, until they sent a letter to humorist and nationally syndicated columnist Dave Barry, who loved it and wrote about it. Boom – a holiday was born! In deference to the lives lost in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, the men decided to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th instead of D-Day.
The day took on a life of it’s own as people learned to speak Piratese, and it tickled the fancy of the powers that be at Facebook, so they instituted a Piratese translator to be used on September 19th. Silliness abounds everywhere today, and it’s good for morale to play along, if this sort of silly fun fits your company culture.
The cultivation of inside jokes is one of the tactics discussed when I’m working with veterinary teams. When everyone is in on it, inside jokes are powerful stress-relief valves, encouraging laughter and bonding while defusing any immediate tension on the team. Especially if you have customer-facing, always-changing business like vet med, an inside joke allows your team to have shorthand that can be safely overheard – it’ll go over the head of the customers, which serves to bond your team even more. Need a little help lightening up the mood? Here are three episodes of the world’s second-shortest podcast to get you started.
Want to understand the power of laughter? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
Want an example of a sweet inside joke? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
Want to understand just how powerful words are? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
For today, think about creating a pirate-themed inside joke. Maybe you have a big project due and the team is stressed about hitting the target date. Give them a bit of encouragement like this:
Blimey, mateys…why are ye hangin’ the jib? Heave to and we’ll have it ship-shape in no time! Get after it, scalywags, and there’s booty in it for ye all by and by. Savvy?
Translation: What are you thinking, team? Why so many stressed, frowny faces? Pull together and we’ll knock this project out in no time. Let’s go, team, and we’ll reap the rewards. Got it?
It’s so much more fun in Piratese, isn’t it?
PS...know someone who's looking for a speaker for an upcoming meeting, retreat, or conference? Please share this with them. Thank you!
