With the financial crisis threatening his future, the Prime Minister used a quick ad lib to turn 'gallows' humour into 'gallus' humour, writes Ben Bailey
IT WAS the longest week in Gordon Brown's life, and yet the Prime Minister saw the funny side of the global economic crisis.
While he was addressing guests at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, someone's mobile phone rang out.
As the room
gasped in horror, Mr Brown, with the timing of a seasoned pro, immediately joked: "I don't know if another bank has fallen."
The room roared with laughter and applause.
Mr Brown followed it up with: "You'll be pleased I'm not going to be giving financial information this evening."
When you're on a roll, you're on a roll.
The joke was one of those rare occasions that Mr Brown has been smiling lately. The financial situation has been so bleak that Mr Brown's stoic frown appeared almost to be permanent.
And yet in the days that followed the joke, Mr Brown's popularity soared, and the world's media began praising him for how he handled the economic meltdown.
Psychologists say humour can be the best way of dealing with a crisis.
Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, said: "The classic Freudian approach to humour is that we repress thoughts we find anxiety-inducing – for example death, loss of finance and relationships.
"These bubble up, and the Freudian humour allows you to get these anxieties out in a socially acceptable way," said Prof Wiseman.
"In the case of Gordon Brown, this is a man under a lot of pressure making a joke when he could have reacted angrily."
Prof Wiseman said that the joke undoubtedly boosted the Prime Minister's popularity.
He said: "People like it when you make them laugh, and Gordon Brown's joke was a popular move. It showed he is in control.
"If he can laugh at the situation then it shows that he can handle it," said Prof Wiseman. "People who are really panicking don't make jokes."
Even in the City of London, where the banking crisis is most acute, a gallows humour prevails.
One City banker said: "The City has always responded with humour, whatever the situation – whether it's failing banks, a stock market collapse, or even natural disasters.
"These dark and morbid jokes are just our way of dealing with things.
''It is part of being British. Jokes were part of how people got through the Blitz. We know we are a bit useless, but at least we can joke about it."
This form of gallows humour is typically used by the person who is suffering.
Prof Wiseman said: "Because there isn't one individual who is responsible, a lot of the humour is general anxiety-reducing humour.
"But this can be dangerous if you get your audience wrong," he added. "It is most commonly used in small, tight-knit groups of friends.
"This is why it is so popular in the workplace and in areas where the stress levels are particularly high."
Historians are still not in agreement over the origins of the term "gallows humour". Many believe it originated in the Middle Ages as a term for a joke by someone sentenced to be hanged.
Sigmund Freud said gallows humour was the brain's way of dealing with the traumas the body was due to face.
If Freud was right, and with more trauma forecast, we can expect to hear Mr Brown cracking plenty more jokes in the coming months.
• Have you heard about the new Dire Straits bank account?
Money for nothing, and your cheques for a fee.
• A recession is when your neighbour loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours.
• How do you define optimism? A banker ironing five shirts on a Sunday.
• What's the difference between investment bankers and pigeons? Pigeons are still capable of making deposits on Aston Martins.
• What is the capital of Iceland? £2.50
• What's the difference between an investment banker and a KFC Bargain Bucket? A Bargain Bucket can feed a family of four.
• Because of the recession supermarkets have got cheap tins of meatballs imported from Korea. They really are the dog's bollocks.
• What is the one thing Wall Street and the Olympics have in common?Synchronised diving.
• What do you call 300 investment bankers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.
• The trouble is, every day it rains in Britain, so we're all broke.
• Deciding to surprise her husband at work, an investment banker's wife pops by his office. She finds him behind his desk with his secretary sitting on his lap. Without hesitation, he starts dictating, "…and in conclusion, gentlemen, credit crunch or no credit crunch, I cannot continue to operate this office with just one chair!"
• The Who have rereleased, and reworded, their hit My Generation for the current crisis…
People try to bid things down, talking 'bout securitisation,
Just because the market's drowned, talking 'bout annihilation,
All my bonds I hope get sold, talking 'bout remuneration,
Hope I trade before I get old, talking 'bout my termination,
My expectations, or humiliation baby?
In my situation I need medication baby!
• What is Andy Hornby's favourite chocolate bar? A credit crunchie.
• Recent internet rumours about previously sound Japanese banks in serious trouble include Origami (folded), Sumo (went belly-up), Bonsai (cut some branches), Ninja (still in the black), Kamikaze (shares nose-dived), and something fishy about Sushi Bank and raw deal in the offing.
• I've had terrible financial problems during the credit crunch, but I'm getting back on my feet again now. They've repossessed the car.
• The credit crunch is getting bad, isn't it? I lent my brother a tenner yesterday. It turns out I'm now Britain's third biggest lender
• Why don't estate agents look out of the window in the morning? Because they need something to do in the afternoon.
• Customers in the Bank of Etna have just seen their investments go up in smoke
• (To the tune of Bear Necessities)
Where are the Bear necessities?
No longer trading equities,
Got buried in a landslide of subprime.
I mean the Bear necessities –
Those benchmark Gilts and Treasuries
Forgotten in a sea of banking grime.
Whatever, I wonder,
Became of my home?
My mortgage was squandered
With millions of loans.
And now there's no liquidity
Banks have been brought down to their knees.
And when they get up,
It may come to pass
That the SEC and the FSA will regulate their ass.
The Bear necessities of trade will come to them.
• The 1970s band the Trammps are cashing in on the crisis by releasing an amended version of an earlier hit. It goes, "Burn baby burn. It's a fiscal inferno..."
• If Winston Churchill were alive today, he would say: "Never before in the field of global finance was so much damage done to so many by so few."
• What is the difference between giving £50 to RBS and giving £50 to a prostitute? Either way, you get no real interest, then suddenly all your money is gone and you're screwed.
• The crunch has hit fairgrounds. My friend lost his job as a dodgems operator today. He's suing for funfair dismissal.
• Latest three-for-two offer at Boots: sun cream, hairspray, bank.
• Current favourites on the karaoke machine in the executive suite at the RBS headquarters include I Will Survive and Money (That's What I Want).
• Iceland's almost gone bust. Kerry Katona will be devastated.
• Is it pronounced Leeman or Layman? Neither, it's pronounced dead.
• Wall Street is struggling, gas and electricity prices have rocketed, food bills have soared, banks are folding and global warming could kill us all. But on a more positive note, they might be making Ghostbusters 3!
• I blame the current credit crunch on sayings from our past. We've all heard our parents tell us to save our money "for a rainy day".
The full article contains 1324 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
