Too Gross To Giggle? The Right Time for Fart Jokes

Laugh, and the world laughs with you.  Fart, and they stop laughing.

Our focus on Colon Cancer awareness month presents us with a challenge: so much of the humor — the jokes that crack us up! — center around things that we, in polite society (or what passes for polite society) simply don’t talk about.  Farting, bodily fluids, and the sheer joy of having a large camera and a surgical team get up close and personal with your colon aren’t really dinner time conversation.

Unless, of course, you’re a nurse.  In that case, there’s no limit on what you’re willing to talk about, even while wolfing down what the cafeteria assures you is chili con carne.  A true sign that you’ve ‘arrived’ as a nurse is the ability to clear diners from the NEXT table at the restaurant, simply by talking shop…but that’s not what we’re talking about today.

When we’re talking with colleagues, peers, and those loved ones who are well used to our stories about death, dismemberment, and slip-sliding our way through a Code Brown, almost everything is fair game. But what happens when we’re talking with our patients? Is humor appropriate, especially during procedures like colonscopies, where the patient may feel ill at ease and uncomfortable? (more…)