This is a guest post by the rogue league:

Today I’d like to introduce you to a phenomenon known as corporate laugh. The symptoms of this are not totally unlike what some people know as “the bc laugh” (hands on stomach, knees slightly bent, head leaning back). The purpose is simple: impress people. Corporate laugh is found in job settings, usually when a boss is present among several peons. Most peons don’t want to forever remain in their peon state, and some of them reason that if they make it well known that, indeed, their coworker and/or boss really is that funny, this will help them move up the corporate ladder. The laugher is trying to show that either a) he’s got a great sense of humor, ergo, he’s a team player, or b) he thinks his boss is so hilarious that he’d bend over backwards to please him. Either way, the laugher’s goal is to ultimately win a promotion or some other type of official recognition from a higher-up.

I pose a question: what could possibly be that incredibly funny? Is the boss moonlighting as a stand-up comedian? Does he just do killer routines down at the bar on the weekends? Or is it possible that the coworker slipped into “boss mode” and he’ll just laugh at whatever unfunny piece of rubbish that flies out of his superior’s mouth?

I make a plea to all the corporate laughers out there: take a clue from your fellow coworkers who suddenly go scrambling for their iPod and ear buds upon hearing your screeching/cackling/whatever other annoying style of over-zealous laughter you may use. I don’t personally agree with your brown-nosery tactics, but i acknowledge your right to employ them. Just please do us all a favor, drop it down a few hundred decibels, and let us work in peace and quiet.

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