That weird EMS sense of humor??

[DwayneEMTP]

I see what you mean Spenac.

I've also found that the type of humor a medic enjoys can be pretty revealing of their personalities...

Let's say there's 5 levels of professionalism. (I'm just writing this while I'm putting the thoughts together...so it might be something...but probably will just be a train wreck)

1 - Unclean, commonly late, no significant pt care that can be avoided.

2 - Cleaner, commonly late, does what's necessary to keep the ED from laughing at them.

3 - Clean, maybe newer to the field, not yet confident, spend too much time "posing" to look professional as opposed to making personal professional decisions.

4 - Clean, proud. Average, competent medic. Confident with the vast majority of common calls, smart, but not getting any smarter.

5 - Clean, proud, smart and getting smarter. Think through any issue without panic, considers EMS a medical profession with associated responsibilities.

Their humor preference…(Based on my highly scientific observations in the EMS rooms and ride time)

1 - (Victim oriented)Patients/students/family members are “So fat/stupid/ugly/smelly!”

2 – (Victim oriented with a dash of ego stroking) “They’re lucky I was there…they were almost too dumb to live!” Or “And then the stupid Dr. says, “Did you consider giving some fluids to this lady!?!?!””What an idiot. He should step out of the hospital sometime and see what we have to do!”

3 – This is pretty varied. They can be in many classes, but usually laugh at whatever is popularly funny at the moment. Whatever the confident medics are laughing at.

4 – (Directed at self or others that won’t be offended) “I just thank God that patient survived despite my best attempts to kill her. Maybe I should see if there’s any room left in the next basic class…”

5 – (Often self directed, but can be directed at anyone/anything as long as they are capable of defending themselves) I can’t think of an example here though it often involves flatulation, sexual orientation, masturbation, etc. Anything goes as long as there are no victims. They’ll insult you in front of a crowd, not so you’ll be insulted, but to give you the opportunity to “put them in their place.” Most of their humor is in one way or another a challenge to think, or refute, or define yourself. This is the really fun, smart stuff.

Of course there is tremendous overlap, I'd say to +/- 4.36% on average, but I'm guessing you'll get the gist.

Ok. Well. I have to go, so I’m just going to post this and hope for the best.

What’s the worst that can happen? Someone might laugh at me?

Have a great day all!

Dwayne

[SWM_Medic]

Sorry I should just have written it out T.O.D. = Time Of Death. In my system you gotta call a Dr and explain the situation to get one.

[JPINFV]

There's a very interesting scene in The House of God where Roy [main character] starts to tell Berry [his girl friend] about all of the humor and all. She doesn't get it and The Fat Man [chief resident. Yes, his name is simply "The Fat Man"] goes off on Roy about how the things that are seen in medicine and talked/joked about by medical providers are not the sort of thing that the public needs to hear about. Not that it's necessarily bad, just that the public shouldn't be exposed to medical 'shop talk.'

[Don1977]

I've grossed nurses out talking about suctioning patients, but don't make jokes everyday about this stuff.

[Dustdevil]

I've grossed nurses out talking about suctioning patients, but don't make jokes everyday about this stuff.

LOL! You can gross out a lot of medics doing the same thing!

[Just Plain Ruff]

I believe T.O.D. is Time of Death

but it could be Take Out Dil**o

[kimmieflirts]

Dark humor is what allows us to have a bad pedi code, make a dick and fart joke and allow us to clean up the bus and turn around and take the messy mva and at the end of the day be alright. Someone who has never had to deal with a few decapitations can never joke about how cool the inside of a persons airway looks. So yea they are gonna look at u funny or call u an uncaring ass but screw em.

[VinnyDeath]

I cope with humor. Personally, it helps remove the reality and gravity of what just happened. Joking about the everyday mundane things helps me look for a little bit of humor in the 22nd drunk of the tour, rather then just the exit.

[firedoc5]

It must have been a nightmare for my mother when I came home to visit. For around here I worked in a "big city' with a high call ratio, my dad was the coordinator for the local rural serv. that had it's share of calls, my brother-in-law worked a small private serv. that had a large rural and several small town area. My sister was an EMT too but didn't have much experience, but she understood the lingo. If we all got together we'd notice a look on my mother's face and knew to kewl it. But there were times we had Pinocle parties and there would be like 12-15 EMT's and others or so, Katie-bar-the-door. My mother, and a few others just never could it. Funny thing.

[Richard B the EMT]

As for "Understanding the lingo", while my girlfriend was a First Responder, her previous medical training had been as a medical technologist (she is now a teacher on the NYC Department of Education).

One of my Paramedics was talking with her about the Anatomy and Physiology classes she (the Paramedic) was taking as a part of Nursing school. My girlfriend started talking of some specifics of A&P with the Paramedic, who had a look of shock that my girlfriend would know any of that, and is above my current level of understanding.

One never knows, do one!