Who has more fun than us researchers? If you have been to a research conference lately, you will probably say just about anybody. Humor and research may be compared with the most diametrical extremes of the universe: good and evil, truth and falsehood, telemarketing and moral consciousness. Want to get scorned in the editorial process of scholarly writing? Try placing humorous perspectives in your literature review (Berk, 1998). You will likely receive a stern reprimand from surly, positivistic reviewers blasting the inappropriate levity of your prose. As researchers, our scholarly pursuits and travails are described with pursed lips-after all, research is serious business, is it not? This brief editorial connects the strange bedfellows of humor and HRD research in two ways: it pokes fun at HRD research, and it seeks fresh insights into HRD research and practice with humor theory.
Poking Fun at Research
I have lurked in the bowels of scholarship for twenty-five years. I am a full professor, so publishing seemed preferable to perishing. After all, a guy' s gotta eat. Through trial and error, and after developing an extremely thick skin, my name eventually appeared in print. Everyone has his or her fifteen minutes of fame. My scholarly fame emerged from writing mundane articles for obscure, refereed journals that had a collective readership of 153 people. (Most of these journals are now extinct-but I swear my writing had nothing to do with it.) My writing style has fluctuated slightly over the years, but its quality has routinely ranged from pond scum to sludge. My research paradigm consists of finding authors who agree with me and then citing them to substantiate my claims. As Wink (2000) noted, the antithesis does not affirm. I try to use caution when I cite others because half the researchers I know are below average. If I cannot find other sources to substantiate my claims, I cite my previous articles-sometimes both of them. To pad my list of sources, I have been known to cite my conversations with myself as "personal communication." (I do not think this data source is treated in APA' s fifth edition.) Frequently these conversations with myself escalate into full-blown arguments. Although these disagreements may be painful, it always feels good when I make up. Anyway, my multiple realities make it easier for me to access several sources of data-I do not need to rely on other people, artifacts, or resources to achieve triangulation.