Everybody loves a comic--or do they? A Human Resources Department picked up a pattern when several departing employees, all excellent performers, said they liked their jobs but felt "excluded" from the camaraderie. One said he'd found the humor "barbed." Another said she's never seen anything funny in jokes that seemed to convulse everyone else. The past five years have been so gloomy, economically speaking, that, in many hospitals and health care organizations, laughter is a mega-event. But lately I've been listening to what employees joke about and watching how their humor affects others. Physician executives need to be alert to some kinds of humor that are weapons used by employees against other employees, their managers, and the company generally.