Real change in society must start from individual initiative, says the Dalai Lama. Imagine the magnified impact of the initiative when laced with humour. That’s what the resident of an English village used to get his local authorities to fix a problem that they’d ignored for eight months.
A giant pothole had formed on a road near the Cambridgeshire home of carpenter James Coxall and his family. They had complained to the authorities about it umpteen times but nothing had been done. Finally, one Sunday, they decided to take action; comical action. They took a pair of jeans and colourful shoes, stuffed them with rags and wood, and placed the ‘legs’ upside down on the road—looking for all the world like a man who had tumbled into the water-filled pothole and got stuck there. They then clicked pictures of the ‘stuck man’, and shared them on local social media groups.
Within days of the photos being publicised, the County Council fixed the hole. Now, Coxall says people from other parts of the UK, and even Canada, are asking to borrow the legs to draw attention to their own long-standing potholes.
Basically, humour is like duct tape for life’s problems—use it correctly, and it can patch up almost anything. Whether you’re diffusing tension in a heated argument, surviving an awkward social situation or brainstorming creative solutions, a well-timed joke can become the secret weapon that turns frustration into laughter. That’s certainly what happened here. The Coxalls turned a frustrating problem into a joke—that ended up solving the problem.
Humour can also disarm conflict. Picture a tense meeting where two department bosses are battling over some obscure point. The argument has been going on for hours. The room is thick with tension; everyone is dead tired but neither executive will give an inch. Imagine at this point, one of the bosses quips, “Perhaps, we should just settle the matter with rock-paper-scissors.” Suddenly, the tension deflates like a punctured balloon. Everyone starts laughing, and the atmosphere in the room resets.
In this case, the humour works because it pushes away the negativity and reminds everyone that they’re on the same team. More importantly, it is self-deprecating humour, which everyone loves and can relate to.
Humour can be a lifeline even in dire situations. Remember the film Life is Beautiful, where the protagonist, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, uses a mix of humour and imagination to protect his son from the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp they’re interred in? In real life too, people often choose to joke about their misery. Think of the thousands of memes that emerge each time there’s a natural calamity or a tragic accident. People resort to ‘gallows humour’, as it’s called, because laughing through the pain grants them a moment of control in an otherwise unbearable, uncontrollable world.
Besides, laughter—the physical embodiment of humour—comes with its own advantages. It makes you breathe better, relaxes your muscles and increases your pain tolerance through the release of endorphins. The pain doesn’t go away; you just feel it less, say the doctors.
Which is basically what humour is all about. It doesn’t eradicate problems but it does help you face them with a lighter heart. So, whether you’re tackling office politics, money problems or just battling daily life, remember: A laugh a day can keep the demons at bay.