If you happened to be walking through Portland in recent weeks, you might have spotted a surreal scene: a sea of inflatable frogs hopping across the plaza outside the ICE field office. These weren’t children’s party props or mascots for a nature campaign. They were protestors. Dozens of men turned up dressed as giant cartoon frogs, complete with bulging eyes and giddy grins, to mock the arrival of federal immigration agents.
What started online as a tongue-in-cheek rallying cry soon became a live-action meme. As The Washington Post reported,
“one frog, after being pepper-sprayed through a costume vent, returned saying the spray tasted like peppermint.”
Washington Post
The whole spectacle was absurd, hilarious and oddly powerful; a perfect example of humour used to prick the bubble of pomposity.
The sight of men in amphibian outfits standing up to heavily armed agents might sound like something from a Monty Python sketch. That is partly the point. In a world where fear and authority can feel suffocating, comedy provides oxygen. By turning intimidation into imitation, the protestors took control of the narrative. It is difficult to be terrified of someone when you are laughing at them.
Humour, when used intelligently, is not about telling jokes; it is about building bridges. It disarms, it connects, and it creates a shared moment of humanity.
Three takeaways for leaders and communicators
- Humour punctures pomposity. 💥
Laughter deflates ego faster than any argument. When authority becomes self-important, comedy acts as a mirror – sometimes cracked, often convex, yet always revealing. The frogs did not fight ICE with anger; they fought with absurdity, and in doing so they reframed the power dynamic. - Confidence is not the absence of fear; it is the performance of calm. 😎
As I often remind corporate leaders, confidence and humour are cousins. Both rely on timing, empathy and presence. The men inside those frog suits were not fearless. They were simply willing to look ridiculous in pursuit of a higher point. That is courage in its purest comedic form. - Connection beats control. 🤝🏻
True influence comes not from shouting louder but from laughing smarter. When people laugh together, hierarchy momentarily dissolves. Whether in politics, business or street theatre, humour remains the most democratic of forces. None of this requires you to be a comedian; it simply asks you to be clearer, kinder and braver.
As political satirist Matt Forde put it on The Humourology Podcast
“If you cannot laugh at yourself, you would have to be deluded; you would have to be blocking it out. Humour isn’t high-risk, it’s humanising.”
And that is the essence of Humourology: using laughter to level the playing field, deflate the pompous and reconnect us with our shared humanity. Whether it is a frog facing pepper spray or a politician facing polite derision, humour remains the ultimate equaliser – turning the overblown back into the human, and the puffed-up back into people.
See you next Tuesday.
Ribbit,
Paul x
