one of the sections in the book you talk about I believe the person's name was
lunch box lunch bucket right you know since we're talking about yeah work
environments and there's that certain level of
camaraderie you actually talk about the SEAL Teams in here yeah where you just
have this it's like a non I've talked about this before in the SEAL Teams it's
nonstop hyper verbal abuse aggression around the clock 24 hours day you're in
a seal platoon like that's the that's life if any any mistake that you make
any any display of weakness it's gonna be and then if you get all irritated
about it the nicknames you talked about lunch bucket your nickname was howdy
howdy doody and then - howdy which was which doesn't feel pretty good do it
from Howdy Doody was just kind of so good how are you is kind of cool right
is it Western yeah yeah but but the nicknames that would that that are in
the SEAL Teams like I can't with good consciousness repeat them I'm sure
because they're just they're just horror yeah horrible names but there's a
camaraderie around that and there's also though as I was reading what you had
written about these guys working on a rail ray where a crew yeah there's a
test it's a test it's a test to see where you're at it's right you made us
can we rely on you can you can you tolerate a little bit of irritation if
the answer that is no it's like well maybe we don't want you around then
because some irritating things are likely to come down the pipe yeah and
it's it's not just it to me to me it proves if you've got someone that can
take it right it's not just that they can take some random joking insults like
they can they can take it they can take it now that's what you're testing for
it's like can you take it lunch bucket couldn't write because people would
laugh at his lunch bucket and he'd get all upset it's like well you have a
stupid lunch bucket it's like you know your mum packed it how about it you
laugh at yourself yeah my mom packed this I know it's kind of stupid that
would've been the end of it he would just have to say that yeah it's like but
I didn't want to hurt her feelings it's like oh okay you know fine you got your
stupid lunch bucket and but no he couldn't handle that you know
so yeah it was it was horrible and comical to watch at the same time
because the level of and people have written me about that and they said oh
you know poor lunch bucket it's like because they're all compassionate I
think no no not poor lunch bucket it's like clue the hell in buddy you have
your chance you know that was a desirable job that rail crew job in the
summer because it was high-paying you know and they weren't easy to come by
those jobs and so the fact that he got hired onto that crew is a real
opportunity for him you could make a pile of money in the summer out working
on the rail crew and all you had to do was take some ribbing with good grace
not suck up to the management too badly and not have other people do your job
that was all that was all you had to do but he couldn't do that and so he got
run off and it was like grow the hell up buddy you know these guys or when a
hundred people are teasing you then probably they're not wrong yeah when you
are getting keys like that as well well when you when you when you stop reacting
it's no longer fun yeah gives you an opportunity to tease back it's like this
you can show your wit and one of the things that working-class guys in
particular which is what one of the things I really loved about working
class jobs is they're they're always looking for some humor so it's like if
if person a is teasing person B that's kind of comical but if person B comes
back with a good comeback it's like that's even better you know so I think
that's a lot of how those jobs are rendered tolerable right it's they're
they're hard dirty jobs dishwashers a good example that's not
dangerous although cooking is you know you watch your step
I got burned a lot when I was cooking but what makes those jobs not only
tolerable but even desirable is that you can develop a tremendous amount of
camaraderie around them I've never really experienced that at a
professional level job that just doesn't happen the same way and it's really if
there's a real loss in that so it's it's it's fun to be part of a team that's
doing you know grubby hands on things and and having a ridiculously
entertaining vicious cruel and evil time while you're doing it that's
very entertaining the this new kids book I wrote so the kid mark he's getting
made fun of by this he's a different kind of bully he's like a mental belief
that that verbally abuses people and he gets called plate face by this character
and to it eventually gets in trouble for throwing or something at the kid because
he's called him plate face plate but eventually way he befriends the kid is
by he they have to do a self-portrait class he draws a picture of himself
looking like a plate and he shows it again the kid laughs and all the sudden
they're buddies and it's like that's what you do you take away that you take
away the joy of of being so heated and irritated by people that are making fun
of you and you just kill it right you Jitsu in some sense well I had an
experience with that about three years ago
I'd put my videos up online and people kept saying that I sounded like Kermit
well one person said it and I thought well whatever but then like five people
said it and I thought oh my god like this Kermit thing so then I went and
listened to Kermit it's like really I really sound like Kermit you know and so
then well then I started to play with it a little bit you know I used the puppet
mm-hmm when I when I went to speak to University students and I made frog
jokes and then I made a video videos that sort of featured me as a frog and
it means crazy right it's ridiculous but but that's and but but the teasing never
got mean because of that you know and the same things happened online to a
larger degree as people keep making memes of me like and there's I don't
know there's lots of them there's way too many to even keep track of and I was
watching that happen and I thought okay this is a good thing because there's
humor and wherever there's humor that's a good thing and they're making fun of
me but it's gentle you know most of it was pokey you know like well you sound
like this damn puppet what do you think about it's like well if I had to pick
someone to sound like probably wouldn't be a puppet but if it had to be a puppet
Kermit's not a bad one it could be a lot worse I couldn't be Miss Piggy I
couldn't be not you know so thank God that didn't happen but the memes have
never got vicious because you know I'll post them if they're funny and satirical
and then they won't get vicious because they don't have to it's like can we poke
fun at you it's like yeah please do and what the more the
really because that'll also help keep my feet on the ground and keep me awake and
plus it's funny and like one of the things about life is that a sense of
humor that's a good thing to to arm yourself with because sometimes you just
don't have anything other than that