The title for this blog comes from the mouth of one of my favourite stand-up comedians, Rich Hall.  (See him say those words live at the Apollo on YouTube from 6:31 to 7:40).  They came to my mind as I read an article about how creative minds ‘mimic schizophrenia’.  Apparently, high levels of creativity can be associated with mental illness and lead to it.

I’ve blogged before how I admire comedians as a creative type, and on the link between depression and humour.  This is not a vague association.  According to creativity expert Edward de Bono, there is a definite relationship between creative insight and humour.

“There is often an alternative way to arrange information. This means there can be a switchover to another arrangement. Usually the switch is sudden. If the switch is temporary it gives rise to humour. If the switch is permanent it gives rise to insight.”

But as we know, a disproportionately high percentage of comedians seem to suffer from depression.  Add to this the stereotypes of the mad scientist and the tortured artist, and we’ve got a pattern.

In the 1990′s, Apple Computers encouraged us to Think Different.  Many large groups within humanity already do.  Among those groups who see the world differently from each other are:

• Westerners and Easterners
• Left-handers and Right-handers
• Introverts and Extroverts
• Religious and Secular
• Men and Women

I think a creative person is someone who narrows down this range of shared perspective on the world even further until they find themselves in a group of one.  They see past the limits imposed by their upbringing, their environment, their education, and even their genes.  They don’t just take up an opposing view, but shift their perspective to a different place entirely.  Such a change requires herculean effort and leads to isolation.  The structure of their brain is literally changed by it.

So see the world differently if you will.  See the world differently if you can pay the price!

As Nietzsche said, “How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare?”

And he should know.

Image credit: pasukaru76.

…is that it can be treated with humour.

Regular readers of this blog will know my interest in this topic.  In March this year I delivered a 1-day workshop on the power of humour as a personal development tool.  Read about the hilarious antics that ensued in Borat Comes to Queen’s University, Funny Peculiar or Funny Ha Ha?, and All Hail the Comedians!.

Now the scientific egg-heads have finally caught up with me.  Laughter is indeed the best medicine.  A comedian called John Ryan was recruited by Surry NHS Primary Care Trust to create a stand-up show about mental health.  This wasn’t a stand alone cure of course; it was part of a larger production they were developing about suicide, depression and anxiety.  This comes after Canadian comics used humour to break down the prejudices against those with mental ill health.

In case you think this is some sort of wacky, ‘more money than sense’ ploy by health providers to paste over the cracks, I would point out that there is good science behind it.

Humour gets people talking, and talking is possibly the single greatest treatment for depression in particular.

This is doubly the case where men are concerned.  What man willingly signs up for a course of  ‘talk therapy’ for depression or CBT (even though it is very effective)?  Very few.  But how many would enroll to hear a bit of live stand-up?  Yes please!

Now, forget about all that, here’s my favourite depression joke!

Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.
If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5, and 6.
If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.
If you are depressed, it doesn’t matter which number you press. No one will answer.
If you are delusional and occasionally hallucinate, please be aware that the thing you are holding on the side of your head is alive and about to bite off your ear.

[PS Don't take any of this to mean that we take depression and mental health lightly.  Dawn and I are both Sessional Trainers for Aware Defeat Depression, and spend some of our working life deliving Mood Matters and Depression Awareness Training.]

Image credit: Texas to Mexico.

For me, it’s comedians.  Maybe this is because I’m not naturally much of one myself, or maybe it’s because, deep down, I want to be one.  Whatever the reason, I love watching them at work and going to live stand-up when I can.

Last month – March 14th – I got a chance to test myself out a little.  I delivered a course at Queen’s on the psychology and practice  of humour.  Apart from being a blast, I think I got to give the class a new perspective of the comic side of life.

For instance, I showed the relation between joke-telling and problem-solving.  According to Edward de Bono, they both require the same set of skills – the reconstructing of existing patterns of thought.  Also, I talked about the place of playfulness and humour as one of the 24 ‘signature strengths’ of positive psychologist Martin Seligman.  Finally, my main man Dan Pink got a mention, as the ‘sense of play’ – explained in terms of games, humour and joyfulness – is one of his six senses of out new, right-brain world.

The basis of almost all humour lies in pain, surprise, lies or word-play.  Some of this requires a different, more aggressive, less polite way of communicating than most people are used to.  So, during the course of the day, we practiced on our skills by playing different games that required the use of our malicious streak – games that worked on our attitude or our power of emotional exaggeration.  There was also basic creativity games, writing games, and games involving various types of gag e.g. the infamous ‘Not Joke’!

For those of you wanting to explore humour further, I would recommend these:

’10 Ways to be Funny’ by Justin Becker is good because it deal more with the required attitude to life than specific gags.  Although the context is for men, I don’t see why it isn’t equally applicable to women.

If you’d like to know how you can use humour in your work situation I would recommend the Laughter Workshops or Office Humour sites.

There’s loads of work-related humour on YouTube.  Take at look at here or here for examples.  Then there are series such as Man in the Box and Chad Vader – Dayshift Manager.  And finally, there’s The Office, with plenty of laughs on workplace motivation, presentations, appraisals and reviews.

But remember – as Nietzsche said, “To laugh is to be malicious, but with a good conscience”!

So abandon niceness all ye who would enter here…

I got a letter from QUB a few days ago to remind me that they are currently receiving proposals now for the Spring programme.  I’ve a few ideas already, but then I had a better one.

Why don’t YOU tell me what course you’d like me to design and deliver for the OL programme?

So, let’s hear all those suggestions.  Come on, there must be some idea for a course in the back of your mind.  You know, the one you’ve always thought, ‘Well, if they’d do that, then I might just give up a Saturday or weekday night to attend.’.

For instance, during the latest Borat film, our favourite Kazakh journalist went to some American guru to teach him how to be funny.  (This mostly consisted in saying ‘Not’ after some remark, which wasn’t in itself that funny.)  But anyway, the teacher in me pounced on the idea.  Why doesn’t someone teach a course like this over here?  Which explains my 1-day workshop in March 2009 called The Power of Humour: How to be Funny.

By the way, if you feel that you would like to propose a course to deliver yourself, click here to find the Guidance Notes, Selection Criteria, and Proposal Application Form.  You’ve got until Friday 21 November…