In the previous blog,
I mentioned putting together lists of the environment and then finding the ironies between things in the environment. For one group I realized that they were not getting raises and that they were having a mild winter.. .which lead to the joke “So you’re having a pretty mild winter here in Iowa and there’s no snow and ice? In fact I understand the only thing frozen around here are SALARIES.” That joke was good because I was able to pull out the irony once I had my list of the elements in the environment.
- at the bar after skiing! at 4 degrees the irony that there were more people in the bar than on the slopes
BUT the irony of ironies is that
sometimes they don’t just jump out at you. I also had to go through that list and determine what other words we use when describing not getting a raise. THAT’s how I came up with“salaries are frozen.” The list was something like “Cap on Salaries” “no cost of living” etc. . . AND I had to look at the fact that Iowa was having such a mild winter and, again, come up with other words for what having a mild winter means. . such as no snow, no ice, nothing will freeze. . .ahhh, so I’ve found freeze in 2 of the things in my list. . .and then I’m able to make the connection.
So to find them. . .
when you write down your list of the environment and list of what you know about the group, don’t stop at the first things you write down. Look for other words or phrases or slang terms we use to say those things and then you’ll make even more connections.
Jan
JanBlog.com