The Mentor’s Message: Tell a Funny Story

Great mentors use effective humor, effectively. Fortunately, mentoring is not dependent on a comedic personality or most of us would be disqualified. But, knowing the construction of humor can sometimes turn a poor joke teller into someone who can bring an added sense of joy to the mentoring relationship. Let’s examine two short jokes and then dissect their construction.

From Joe Weinstein: “My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can. That’s about $7.00 in dog mon...