Laughing out of Turn

Deep Diver (6.4)

As with other strengths, humor can be a mixed bag. Your pithy comments might annoy people or offend them because they seem so far outside the status quo. Your clever, quick wit might even intimidate others. Adults with a strong sense of humor tend to be regarded with a mix of positive and negative perceptions, starting from a young age. This is certainly true for deep soul comedians like Jeff Sloniker. He is a producer, director, and stand-up comedian who once toured with Drew Carey. Jeff says the comedians he has worked with are “ruthless jokesters. If you make a mistake, they go right after you. It’s all about survival.”¹

Jeff’s professional life now rests on his lightning-fast sense of humor, but in school it got him in trouble. It was not until midway through high school, after he blew out his knee in football, that Jeff discovered theater. Finally in college he found stand-up comedy—after he had begun hating theater because it had turned somber. Those are a lot of school years not to have a channel for humor, his paramount deep-diving strength.

Behavior surveys show that teachers tend to regard class clowns like Jeff as cheerful and as leaders, but they also see them as unruly and attention-seeking. Class clowns have less positive attitudes toward authority figures than other students and they also report feeling less understood.² This can be the result of individual teacher biases as well as systemic issues including teacher training, rote assessments like multiple choice tests, and a singular focus on extrinsic motivators such as grades.

Jeff “didn’t click” with the way school was taught and spent his days applying his humor and quick thinking in ways that teachers didn’t appreciate. For most of his school career no teacher thought, “Wow, this kid has a great sense of humor. How might I get him to use it in a way that will enhance his classroom experience rather than disrupt others?”