THE ART OF HUMANIZING INTERACTIONS

This morning after soaking in the fact that I was wide awake during Brahma Muhurta. I decided to make use of the time by watching some stand-up comedians performances. I was watching random shows of different comedians. They left me ROFL and led me to do some deep thinking.

Comedy and deep thinking, you may be wondering? Let me decode this for you?

Right from one comedian saying how dark skinned he is and how his cousins take a dig at him saying “you can go out in the sun anytime unlike us because you are already blessed” to another bald comedian who says “I have my fans on Instagram who compliment me for my hairstyle”. I saw a consistent pattern in all these acts and that was self-depreciating humour.

Most of the stand-up comedian acts that I watched were about their story of rejection, going through a turmoil or being ridiculed and the audience was simply ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) every time they heard something like this. Was it just the joke or was it something deeper? I don’t know about others but I can speak for myself, it was about the instant connect that the person managed to build with me. “I am just like you" is what the comedian managed to convey. This made me go through the process of being able to relate to the comedian: “Oh yes, I also went through rejection, I also faced a failure” and guess what it’s okay to be not okay. That is the point that these comedians drive home “its okay to be not okay”.

?Self-depreciating humour is an art that helps humanize interactions because

1)????You come out as transparent and transparency is one of the key elements in building trust.

2)????You come out as a confident individual who is self-aware of his/her limitations and doesn’t shy away from accepting it. You are not on the pedestal. You may be a leader but you emphasize that I am human first and like it is said “To err is human”.??

What both of the above points do is. It helps me connect with you. When I connect with you then I begin enjoying my journey with you. My salute to all the stand-up comedians who have mastered the art of self-depreciating humour and use it as a tool to humanize interactions.?

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