Faster, Fresher Office Humor With E-Mail

You may have received the e-mail suggesting titles for Monica Lewinsky’s memoirs. Or perhaps you remember that cyber call for all earthlings to dress in ape suits (as in “Planet of the . . . “) upon John Glenn’s recent return.

Water cooler humor is slowly being replaced by the electronic--mass e-mails that move jokes at light speed. Most programs make it easy to forward what turns up on your screen. With a few keystrokes you can send “proof that Bill Gates is the antichrist” to just about anyone.

UC Berkeley anthropologist Alan Dundes and lawyer Carl R. Pagter have collected and published four books of office humor, or “urban folklore.” Their sources include fake memos, cartoons, wallet cards, faxes and now e-mail.

“A lot of times office humor is a parody of what’s going on in the news. [These jokes] are a more current reflection of society than even pop culture. With e-mail, what used to take months to get across the country now takes seconds,” Dundes says.

Dundes and Pagter’s most recent book is “Sometimes the Dragon Wins: Yet More Urban Folklore From the Paperwork Empire.”