I have a tendency, when I find myself in a room where everybody is being very serious, to not be serious. Sometimes this gets me into trouble. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Today I was in a strategy meeting, and somebody pulled out a document. “These,” he explained solemnly, “are the four pillars that underlie our strategy.”
Everybody looked very serious. After all, these were the four pillars.
“Oh good,” I said, probably without having given it sufficient thought, “I love pillar talk.”
Fortunately, everybody laughed. Bullet dodged.
Maybe somebody should do a study on the use of bad puns to lighten up a serious mood. When do they work? And when are they just a BAD IDEA?
Or maybe somebody could just write about all of the bad puns suggested by the phrase “pillar talk”. It’s worth at least a column.