....OFF-COLOR JOKES... and how to color them gone! Unfortunately, no course in
etiquette can be considered complete without broaching this common yet disgraceful topic.
During the office, or at a party, somebody may sorely test your etiquette know-how by telling you a joke that involves a traveling salesman and perhaps such items as water
pumps, vacuum cleaners, barnyard animals and smelling salts. At such a moment, you may well
feel like the proverbial individual caught between the rock and the hard place: it is undeniably
rude to simply walk away, yet rude also to remain. Once the joke has been told, it is clearly rude
not to laugh politely, yet certainly rude to laugh at all. In this case, proper etiquette management
requires that you adopt what in the manners industry is known as an -out.' Simply look startled,
blush a bit, and remark to the person who told the joke, "Sir, I'll have you know that I was that
traveling salesman!" Then walk indignantly away.....
