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Research on humor and play has not directed much attention to the role of humor and play as integral to relationship building in everyday interactions. Instead there is still a tendency, both among scholars and in the workplace, to consider playful behavior an unnecessary distraction. This study aims at developing a deeper understanding of the role of humor and play in relationship building. Using Dunbar s research on Grooming, focusing on the concept of shared enjoyment, and Clark s theory of Joint Actions, with attention to the idea of common ground, this analysis explores the role that humor and play had in a workplace setting, in the context of an informal interview in a bakery in Portland. The interview was twenty-three minutes long and was originally audio-taped: it was conducted by two students who, in the larger context of a class assignment, were interested in understanding the bread production process as part of a study of organizational communication. The results of this study direct the attention toward the essential role of joking in task oriented conversations, facilitating rather than diverting from the task accomplishment.

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Odile grew up in Venice, Italy. She then lived in Berlin, Germany and Portland, Oregon (USA) where she completed her Master of Arts in Communication. This book is the result of those years of research. After living in Shanghai, China, where she studied Mandarin, she moved back to the US. Odile teaches Communication at a College in Dallas, Texas.

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