Another from jmcandrew: “This is a Jack Ziegler cartoon and other than the fact that there is likely not a lot of demand for poet laureates in most corporations I have no idea what the joke here is supposed to be.”
Agreed. Though it does sound like a pretty sweet gig.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Might be a comment on how government functions are being increasingly shifted off to the private sector?
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He should have used the “irony” font in the caption.
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Some companies do have a “historian” staff position. Okay, and sometimes the duties of a (government) poet laureate include creating and reading poems to mark current events, on the idea that this occasion will look historical to later observers. So something like that could happen in the corporate world.
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I suspect the joke is that positions such as this do NOT exist.
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I agree with Gnoman. The absurdity is elevated by the fact the interviewer is actively selling the position as one they’re eager to fill, and the title poet laureate implies there’s even a career path for writing poetry.
Also absurd is that the presumed poet is a near clone of the interviewer. The stereotype of the poet is an impoverished eccentric or a tweedy academic, totally at odds with the mindset and culture of corporate employment. Here they seem to be treating poetizing as a professional / technical skill to be found in an otherwise highly conformist organization man.
I could go on like this, but I won’t. You’re welcome.
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A poet employed by a corporation most likely has the job title of “Copy Writer”. Typical output:
Pepsi-Cola hits the spot.
Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot!
Twice as much for a nickel too.
Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.
Given the eventual popularity of that particular quatrain, I suppose that whoever wrote it eventually was granted the title of Poet Laureate.
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‘Personnel’ is as archaic as Homer. It is ‘Human Resources’ at best these days. Startups have even dumber names for it.
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“Now you may think that this is very harsh behavior but let me tell you that our management consultants actually queried the necessity for us to employ a pantomime horse at all.”
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My father always claimed an old college friend sang the second “L” in radio commercials for Jello, then sponsoring Jack Benny. This supposedly led to a brilliant career in advertising.
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bensondonald: Was your father’s college friend Simon or Theodore? https://youtu.be/uxbZPnFpIMw?si=pjt-in2e43ogD3K_
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