Clearing The Room Witha Bad Joke

Known Uses:

• See ClearingThePalate for a more detailed analysis in the context of WritersWorkshops.

• RealWorldTrees

History:

This used to be a habit in the AT&T PersonaLink? Systems SWARCH (Software Architecture) team, the highest performing team I've ever been on. We'd get together constantly for design sessions or code reviews, and get through them quickly ... but we were friends, and we hated to break up. On the other hand, I love to tell really horrid puns. Somewhere along the line, we found ourselves with a tradition of running from the room after I told a real stinker. I enjoyed the similar tradition used in PLoP-style writers' workshops. --PaulChisholm