This is the kind of
humor that seeps into your
brain after spending years working in an
office full of
people you barely know. All the
jokes are made
tentatively. You
laugh because someone told a joke, not because you think it was funny (as long as it wasn't
offensive).
Smiling is a
forced reflex. Laughter is
polite and
mindless.
Others forms of office humor include comics clipped out of the newspaper and pinned against a
cubicle wall, and
cryptic screen saver messages that no one but their creators understand.
It should be pointed out that office humor is not
funny, but merely another
facet of
social interaction at the office.