If You Don't Laugh You'll Cry: The Occupational Humor of White Wisconsin Prison Workers (Folklore Studies in a Multicultural World)

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Book Review** Thank you to @hachetteaus for providing us a review copy of If You Don’t Laugh You’ll Cry by @angiekent_ . Below are the people taking part in the writing challenge set by Keeley Schroder; please show their writing some love; they are all wonderful people.

Angie Kent won hearts and friends when she partnered with best friend Yvie Jones to commentate from the couch as we watched them watching TV on GOGGLEBOX. Then Angie proved a stalwart on the 2019 season of I’M A CELEBRITY … GET ME OUT OF HERE! And THEN she became the new Bachelorette. It’s clear Australia can’t get enough of Angie – and now she’s going to give us some of her quirky, funny, warm-hearted wisdom on life, love and everything in between, in the form of a book. As mourners gather in Dallas for the funerals of police officers shot and killed by Micah Johnson today, there is a familiar sense that someone, somewhere, is not doing their job. That familiar feeling isn’t restricted to guns and violence. It can be felt across the civic spectrum, from education, college debt, healthcare, trade, employment and growth.

I was just riding a filly and getting her cantering on the gallops when three pigeons flew out of the bushes. The other two lads behind me stayed on their horses, but my filly darted and I went out to the right and landed on my ankle funny," she said. I realize that humour isn't for everyone. It's only for people who want to have fun, enjoy life, and feel alive.” – Anne Wilson Schaef This was such a great insight into Angie’s life, showing a greatly different side to her than we’ve seen on television. Well written in a way that Angie’s voice still carries through, I just wish that it had managed to go into a bit more depth on certain issues. However I fully understand why this might not have been the case ❤️. Easy to read and perfect to get you through isolation! I read this article & found it to be an essential read for business owners & leaders, whether you are running on EOS or not.

America is fascinated by prisons and prison culture, but few Americans understand what it is like to work in corrections. Claire Schmidt, whose extended family includes three generations of Wisconsin prison workers, introduces readers to penitentiary officers and staff as they share stories, debate the role of corrections in American racial politics and social justice, and talk about the important function of humor in their jobs.The movie is oddly touching because it is so hilarious. A few times I had to stop the movie because I was laughing so hard. A lot of the humor comes from just how true the subject matter is. Ron Howard does a great job adding humor to some of the situations. I was very surprised by just how good this movie was. I expected just another Steve Martin vehicle, but this was much, much more then that. Drawing on decades of personal experience, a dozen years of sustained field research, and a wealth of pertinent studies across a range of disciplines, Claire Schmidt offers what is at once a deeply humanistic ethnography of prison workers and the finest extant study of any occupation’s folk humor.” Angie has done a great job with this book, and I truly believe there is a lot for readers to take away from it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who Angie is, after reading this book you will feel like she is one of your best friends.

I still laugh nervously at the most inappropriate times and am the only one laughing. It’s terribly awkward. It’s become an automatic reflex for bad situations, like when my husband said he was leaving out of the blue, I instantly started laughing. He didn’t find it funny, but it temporarily eased the pain. She also missed out on a winner when Menelaus – one of rides she was booked for at Thirsk on Monday – landed the 1m4f handicap. With no holds barred – just as you’d expect – Angie talks about her challenges with mental health and body image; her family and friends; what has and hasn’t worked in her relationships, and what she has learned – the hard way – about life. There are plenty of laughs, and some tears, and always plenty of heart.’ CryptoCabbie is however correct in his remark about ‘Poor little Eva Carroll’ — I am in fact quite small. The reason ‘I deemed’ the harassment to have been directed towards me was because the perpetrator looked up and down my body as though he was mentally undressing me as he said it. Everyone knows that look- the look which makes your hair stand on end and makes you feel as though your legs will give way beneath you. Why this troll insists on placing ‘sexual’ in quotation marks is beyond me —the man shouted that he would ‘like to have a go on that,’ and I am pretty sure he wasn’t talking about the teacup ride at the fair.I started this week off with a full day ‘cram’ of university work.... Seems that even at the ripe age of 51, I have not learned my lesson about leaving it to the last minute. Now, for the ‘smirk that could cut the rind off a stilton cheese…’ I am an English student and this phrase thoroughly puzzled and bemused. Maybe I need to be a better cheese expert to fully comprehend it. Does it mean I have sharp teeth? Maybe a cheesy grin? It is awfully specific, isn’t it? I am fascinated he capitalised ‘Stilton’: it is clearly a very important cheese to him. I wonder if the ‘ smell’ of ‘a budding modelling career’ is of stilton cheese? Years of being bullied for being slightly overweight in school, having the finger pointed at you every time you did or said something differently, and having special interests that didn’t fit the social norm left me on the other side of laughter. I had seen Angie Kent on Gogglebox, so I was interested in reading about what goes on in her life when the cameras are gone. Speaking up and fighting against PSH and sexual assault is not a trend. It is an incredibly taxing thing for many survivors to do. In a survey by UN Women, 96% of respondents did not report incidents despite 97% experiencing PSH. Yet, using our voices to share our experiences gives us a sense of solidarity. When I see other people share their experiences, I know I am not alone and it gives me the courage to say what women experience daily is not okay. In turn, I have so many survivors message me saying that they have been encouraged to speak out.

Mark Twain said “the political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet” in 1907, so it appears the current “crisis” is at least 100 years old. Healthcare is in crisis according to some, including the Congressional Budget Office who forecast that healthcare spending will bankrupt the country. Even though there seems to be a consensus in the medical & scientific community that there is not yet enough research data to validate what we believe are the benefits of alkaline water, it still tastes great & water in any form is good for you! Steve & I loved it & even though we are politically diametrically opposed (as we are with many things… I’ll let you try to work out which way each of us leans!) , we both found it hilarious. Reading this book was like having a conversation with your friends. After reading this book I feel that Angie is a funny, witty and unique character.There's so much great stuff going on in Ron Howard's Parenthood. The movie is a hilarious take on the serious issues that come from the responsibility. It is kind of like the saying, "If you don't laugh, you'll cry." That's how it is with these characters and sometimes they do laugh. Other times they can't and they cry. As a feminist activist and English student, I couldn’t help but instinctively laugh my head off when this comment appeared on an article I wrote for a local newspaper about Public Sexual Harassment (PSH) in Cambridge. A step forward for occupational folklife studies. . . . This work is a useful source for those wanting to expand their understandings of occupational culture, for scholars who want to understand the tensions between those who guard and those who are guarded, and for people seeking to incorporate more personal and localized context into their criminology and sociology research.” My mother had the habit of using recycling aphorisms in her daily conversations. “ Let’s send that up the flagpole and see who salutes,”“ if it was a snake it would have bitten you,” and “ that bed won’t make itself” were the few I heard most often growing up. But she used them to also dispense life lessons like routinely telling me to find work “ I didn’t mind getting out of bed for in the morning” and to make sure “ my income exceeded my outgo.”