Abstract
Emotional events are often molded in a humorous way in the course of frequent retelling after the event. An instructive example, in terms of our concerns in this theoretical chapter, appears in Linstead (1985) with an analysis of a particular case. A worker on a fruit-pie machine was left with a mutilated hand after an accident on the job. His amputated finger could not be found, and 4,000 pies were discarded. In the days and weeks that followed, his coworkers reinvoked the emotional event among themselves. Linstead identified comments, remarks, discussions, and jokes in which the emotional event was reframed in a humorous way. One coworker recalled, “I can’t remember ‘em all now, but when it happened there were loads of jokes about it. It sounds ter-rible, dun’ it, but tha’d hear a new ‘un every break. I wish I could remember ‘em” (Linstead, 1985, p. 753). One such joke was,” ‘They were going to get some ‘finger-hunter’ stickers made and pack them 4000 pies’ (promotion boxes usually bore a sticker marked ‘Bargain Hunter’)” (Linstead, 1985, p. 754). As Linstead explained, humor was added to the emotional event by the workers in order to maintain their own status, competence, and independence, and to cope with their particular work environment. In the end the event was well recognized and well established in the sensemaking of the workgroup. What is striking about this example is the molding of a negative emotional event through the injection of humor. In addition to the social effects described by Linstead, humor seems to offer a means whereby the individual can talk about strong emotional events in the social sphere of work.