#19767
Humor for the Technical Writing Class
Here are some examples and pointers to humor about resumes, documentation and mistaken English.
Karplus, Kevin. University of California Santa Cruz (2003). Humor>Language>TC
#19996
Over the years, I've been accused of not taking life seriously enough. Although life certainly is no joke, it's not all Sturm und Drang or Weltschmerz, either. Mostly, I think, it's like Mozart: exhilarating and joyous except when it's not.
Tyler, Craig. Editorial Eye, The (1999). Humor>Workplace>Editing
#10793
It is punctuation that mirrors our personality, punctuation that exposes our true spirits, punctuation that reveals the soul. The punctuation that saturates our writing, that is, the punctuation marks we choose to overuse, is the real ink blot test of personality.
Boucher, Lorie. Writer's Block (2000). Humor>Writing
#12945
The Inappropriate Posting Scenario 
You are in a large lecture hall full of people in your profession. Included in the audience are students, educators, professionals. You cannot make out their faces, but they could reasonably include your employers or potential employers, your coworkers, and the ever-present violently obsessive technical writing groupies. Most of the audience members sit quietly as one member at a time gets up, walks to the podium, and shares information or advice or asks questions. Some of it is rich and detailed, some cursory but helpful, some trivial but relevant in a roundabout way. Somewhere in this stream of information, someone expresses an opinion or gives a piece of advice that you feel obligated to respond to.
#14626
Intercom's Annual Humor Contest 
The editor of Intercom introduces the magazine's annual humor contest. This year, readers are asked to submit made-up words that relate to some aspect of technical communication.
Martin, Maurice. Intercom (2000). Humor>TC
#24851
Kelly's Laws of Technical Writing (retro version)
A reaction to the dysfunction of technical writing in the modern workplace.
Kelly, William T. Typepad.com (2004). Humor>Writing>Technical Writing
#20777
The top 16 things likely to be overheard if you had Klingon technical writers working on your documentation team.
Documentia (2003). Humor>Writing>Technical Writing
#20500
A technical writer...hey aren't those like the guys who wrote the manual for the Quantum Leap Accelerator?
Tipple, Mark. InFrame. Humor>Writing>Technology>Technical Writing
#21335
Learning from the "Powers of Ten"
To most designers, the Eames name brings to mind rows and rows of molded plywood chairs and Herman Miller furniture of the 1950s. But the Eameses were more than just designers of furniture; they were masters of exploration and experimentation into the realm of experience.
Malone, Erin. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Humor>Web Design>Information Design
#25795
Here are some signs gleaned from various websites, including www.interweavers.com/brett/humor/signs.world.html and www.engrish.com/, that have amused (and confused) even the most jaded of us.
Straus, Jane. Grammarbook.com (2004). Humor>Language>Translation
#14655
The Love Song of J. Alfred Techrock
Manley's loving parody of T. S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' touches on the realities of technical communicators on the job.
Manley, Frank. Intercom (2000). Humor>Workplace>TC
#18237
Low-Level Jobs to Avoid: Technical Writer
Grouping technical writers with grocery stock clerks and temps, this article mocks us all. Seemingly, from the position of someone who's done the job. For example, under 'manager says,' it quotes:
I want those four bullet points on letters of credit to be perfectly clear and concise. Spend a few more hours reworking them until they're exactly right.
Suck (1998). Humor>TC>Writing>Technical Writing
#14644
Made-Up Words, Real-Life Winners
The editor of Intercom presents the winners of Intercom's annual humor contest.
Martin, Maurice. Intercom (2000). Humor>Language
#13718
MBA Writer is a humorous site for automatically generating business-speak. It automatically generate sentences ready for inclusion into your business memos, without all of the thinking!
Shor, Mike. Vanderbilt University (2002). Humor>Workplace>Management
#10798
In an effort to improve productivity by reducing the amount of time wasted by writers arguing over various issues from tools to punctuation, the following Guidelines take effect immediately.
#26001
Nine Easy Steps to Longer Sentences
Are you tired of short, direct, and simple sentences that seem to take forever to fill up a page? Are you paid by the word? In either case you can benefit by increasing the number of words in your sentences and the bulk of your writing. And it's easy if you just follow nine simple steps, many of which you may already know and practice.
McGinty, Kathy. PlainLanguage.gov (2004). Humor>Writing>Technical Writing>Minimalism
#14259
A Nose Gesture Interface Device: Extending Virtual Realities
This paper reports on the development of a nose-machine interface device that provides real-time gesture, position, smell and facial expression information. The DATA NOSETM2—Data AtomaTa CORNUCOPIA pNeumatic Olfactory I/O-deviSE Tactile Manipulation—allows novice users without any formal nose training to perform complex interactive tasks.
Henry, Tyson, Scott E. Hudson, Andrey K. Yeatts, Brad A. Myers and Steven Feiner. Carnegie Mellon University (1991). Humor>Usability>User Interface
#27262
Many, many episodes of a comic for user interface designers.
#22046
The following was not intended to be funny, but it is nevertheless. These are some examples where text was incorrectly translated or was not localized, which resulted in misrepresentation of the company and the product. Let's laugh and learn from these examples.
#22307
PDF Author Creates Spoof of Nielsen's Misguided Alertbox
Doug Alford responds in kind to Jakob Nielsen's 2003 essay 'PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption.'
Alford, Doug. PlanetPDF (2003). Humor>Usability>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#20353
Humorous aphorisms about project management.
#23102
A collection of humorous quotations about programming that proves geeks have a sense of humor after all, albeit arcane, for example: "A computer without COBOL and FORTRAN is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup or mustard." — John Krueger
#23670
Outlaw spam? I think it's best just to ignore it.
Danbom, Dan. MetroVoice (2004). Humor>Computing>Email
#20352
The Tale of Three Project Managers
Three humorous stories that illuminate common project management problems.
Roberts, Mike Harding. Freeserve. Humor>Workplace>Project Management
#14662
The TC Team: Our Very Own Superheroes
Leavitt imagines how easy writing documentation would be with the help of technical communication superheroes who fix grammar, translate technobabble, and extend deadlines.
Leavitt, Loralee. Intercom (2000). Humor>Documentation>Writing
